>My Westy has a death rattle when ever I go over washboard or rough roads. 
It
>seems to be located on the passenger side for the most part. The van has
>120,000 miles on it . I suspect  the bushings are shot, though I'm a bit
>intimidated to start ripping things apart .

I've had this happen twice-- once on a Ford van, once on a VW bug.
Everyone told me it was king pins on the Ford, ball joints on the VW.

Turns out it was bad shocks on both! On the Ford, the rubber bushings
were so old they were disintegrating, and the shock was rattling around
loose on its mount. On the VW, one shock had broken off its bottom mounting
ring. New shocks fixed them up, good as new!

Hope yours is this easy.

You might consider going to Midas for their Free Inspection. I've always
had good luck with them-- they've been thorough and open in their
diagnoses, and they didn't pressure me to get the work done.

BTW, their mufflers (lifetime warranty) are really excellent... quiet,
last a LONG time, never rust... but the pipes they install with them
(one year warranty) rust out faster than any I've ever seen.

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 Steve Maher     smaher@gi.com    '80 V6anagon    '66 Mustang Coupevertible
 http://www.wp.com/IrishMafia         "Gun control means using both hands!"