Jeff,

It sounds like the guy may have driven it for long enough with the sound
that it WAS normal for him. Having spent the past two weeks trying to
buy one Westy and sell another, I have really thought this whole process
through.

My '85 sold to the first looker on Saturday, and I had a backup buyer
for her, also. I disclosed absolutely everything that I even had a
nagging thought about to the buyers. The main thing to me was that she
go to a good home. She did (the buyers drove up in an '86 Vanagon GL the
same color), and I still cried about the decision to sell her.

On the other side of the equation, I've been trying to buy a '91 Westy
from a dealer. I took it in to my mechanic and used the info (mainly
heads) to make my deal. The dealer tried to negate my mechanic's report
and told me that they were selling it in "As Is" condition in good
conscience. I'll probably just let it go.

Caveat emptor. The point is, we're talking about OLD vehicles. Old noisy
vehicles. If the guy was as clueless as I am about the mechanical
workings of these things, he probably had no idea that there was a
problem; Don't assume the worst. And he may have been kinda deaf if he
was REALLY old. :-)

And if it makes you feel any better, my ex and I figured out that we
probably had about $22,000 invested in the '85.
--
Joan (Still in mourning)

'82 Vanagon (ex)
'85 Westy GL (ex)
'95 EV Camper