If it isn't one thing, it's another.

The loud, klunking, hollow, grinding/cracking noise is back. It's
proportional to speed and especially frightening and loud under both
acceleration and deceleration. It sounds very painful. 

A similar noise haunted us last June, thousands of miles ago and I already
bothered the list once. Back then, the oddities were that the loud noise
appeared pretty suddenly and disappeared just as abruptly for another 1000
miles. Hitting the brakes hard made it come back; lifting the back of the
van made it go away. I assume it's the same problem now and then, but I
don't know for sure.

The guesses back then were "probably a CV joint," and if not that,
"perhaps a wheel bearing." Even the drum brakes were suspected, but I
couldn't find anything wrong with those. Hence, I now suspect a CV joint
and plan to replace both pairs with rebuilt units. However, enjoying the
luxury of access to the list, I would like to ask for second guesses and
opinions. For example, is there an easy way to determine the problem
*before* I take things apart? If not, would it be easier to first
check/exchange the wheel bearings? 

Merci d'avance!

-- 
Sami ('75 Westf.)
dakhlia@wuecona.wustl.edu
http://wuecon.wustl.edu/~samid/