Ken,

Our best friends 90's Westy had a catastrophic flex plate failure with less
than 100k on the van/transmission.  We were following them in my 4 speed 84
Westy, to the "Buses by the Beach" campout a couple years back, and at
65mph, bam!  It failed so bad that blew a hole in the trans housing,
resulting in a complete transmission replacement.  The problem since then
has been a leaky transmission seal, which no one has been able to fix.  The
van was making a odd clicking sound.

It was pouring rain, and it failed so quickly that all the belts came off
the motor.  These does seem early for this type of failure and something any
Vanagon automatic owner should be aware of.

I too had never had a flex plate go, and not sure why this is happening.
Could it be age related?  Not enough HP or torque with a 2.1L!!!

Jack

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
kenneth wilford (Van-Again)
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 6:14 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Weird problem, broken flex plate in 85 Vanagon

I am near the end of mechanically going over a customer's 85 Westy.  It made
a lot of noise and ran poorly when we brought it in.  Needed a new exhaust
system which helped quiet things down, however after that was fixed I became
aware of a loud tapping sound that was coming from the bellhousing area.
After doing some research, I guessed that it was the flex plate (automatic
transmission van) that was broken.  It would make this noise only at idle.
Once you revved it up, the noise would go away.  I got a good used flex
plate from a list member (thanks Zoran) and we pulled the transmission
today.  Sure enough the flex plate was cracked in an almost complete circle
where the flat plate is indented before it gets to the area where the rivets
are.  If we had let it leave the shop it would not have lasted very long.
After we got the old plate out, I was surprised to find that it has a VW
parts sticker on the back (from the 80s or 90s).  In other words it wasn't
the original flex plate but a replacement one!

I have never had a flex plate go bad on me before.  Does anyone know why
this replacement plate would go bad?  I mean it lasted for a long time, but
the original one must of gotten damaged or went bad back in the day too so I
am wondering what would cause this type of failure?  If anyone has any ideas
or experience please chime in.

--
Thanks,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com