I started having these vibrations - body of car, not steering wheel or brake
pedal - when applying power at certain speeds. They spread to other speeds
over the course of a few months, and in the last week (with driveshaft)
increased exponentially and became so bad that I thought it best not to
drive the van. Removed the driveshaft, presto - problem gone. The u-joints
were in sorry shape - binding and sticking - so I had them rebuilt by a
local driveline shop. Reinstalled the driveshaft - the vibrations weren't
quite as severe, but were still completely unacceptable - driving the van
still didn't seem like a good idea. Took the driveshaft back - he rebalanced
it - no difference. He said "there's no way just a bad driveshaft could be
causing vibration like that". My door lock buttons were unscrewing all by
themselves! The front bearings and outer CV joints check out fine, the inner
CV's were both replaced about 10-20,000 miles ago.

Aarrgh! Where's the problem? Still the driveshaft? Front end of drivetrain?
Transmission? I don't have the wherewithal to begin tearing apart the
drivetrain to figure out which bearing is shot, or otherwise what the
problem is. I am hesitant to go to my local VW dealer because of a) price
and b) previous less-than-satisfactory experiences. There are a few VW
specialists around - they seem to be air-cooled specialists - "Syncro - Oh -
I've seen a few of those around...".

I've heard a lot of good things about some transmission people on the list,
but none in Northern New England that I can recall. I've got family in NJ
and could conceivably go to Ken W if he's comfortable with this sort of
stuff, but I wish there was someone up here I could feel confident about!

Any ideas, fellow listees/syncronauts?

Doug Fitz-Randolph
Yarmouth, ME (Southern Maine)
dfrandolph@talkam.net
'90 Syncro (145K on odometer, 50K on engine, 70K on trans)