So off I go down the motorway towards Volksfest and about 90miles down 
     the road this grinding noise comes from the rear. It sounded like the 
     tranny and it was just like the bearings had collapsed - urgh. So I 
     pulled over and got out to have a look, no oil leaks from the tranny, 
     no oil leaks from the r/boxes, no holes where the differential was 
     poking through. I checked the rear wheels for wobble - nothing, so I 
     got back in the bus and set off again - no noise at all, in fact nice 
     and quite and didn't come back again. Incidentally the gears are 
     perfect and don't stick or jump out, in fact the tranny shift is 
     better than most cars I've driven.
     
     So set off back home the next day, after about 40 miles same horrible 
     noise again, pulled off, didn't bother getting out, and started off 
     again - noise had again disappeared - weird.
     
     Here's what I think:
     
     1.  low on tranny oil - I'm gonna drain what's in and put some new in  
         tonight, I'll measure the amount that comes out to see if it was   
         low - the reduction boxes where recently overhauled so the guy who
         did it might not have put enough oil in.
     
     2.  some metal fragments that were lying in the tranny sump got sucked 
         up and churned around in the gears/differential - when I stopped   
         the bits drained back down to the sump and didn't come up again.
     
     I figure that 1 is most likely since the VW manual (official dealer 
     manual) suggests that low oil = noise, and my other car (FIAT) does 
     the same think every couple of years coz it has a very small leak on 
     the tranny, which over a couple of years drains enough tranny oil to 
     make it rumble.
     
     Any suggestions, and help might calm me down...
     
     cheers,
     
     Lee.
     
     '64 Samba
     l.s.griffiths@physics.salford.ac.uk
     http://146.87.136.48