Greetings Doug

I'm willing to bet that it is still the driveshaft. I have gone thru the
same routine. Even returned the rebuilt shaft 3 times to get proper
balancing. No luck. Fortuntely, I found a used shaft, while not
perfectly smooth, but close, and has not changed in 30,000 km. As for
the shafts, I am led to believe that the u-joints must be perfectly
centered, then the shaft balanced. I don't think anyone has found the
correct U-joints without using numerous shims to make them fit. If
someone has and put substantial mileage on it, I would love to hear
about it. Good luck and keep us posted.

Fitz-Randolph, Douglas wrote:
>
> 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)

--
R.Feuerriegel
88 syncro