<VV> Corvair Mysterious Happenings

[Ron]

This last weekend our club participated in a Lighted Christmas Parade in a nearby town (Walla Walla) about seventy miles away.  It's a big event with many entrants and some huge floats with thousands of lights, or so it appears.  Anyway, I took a recently acquired Monza Wagon as my Rampside suffered an engine failure.  We quickly devised a lighting scheme with twenty two amps of lights and two extra batteries and set off , my wife, a friend of hers and myself.  On the way there I became aware of a subtle thumping sound not unlike that from a problem with a tire but since the tires are new, it was unlikely that.  It sounded like it was coming from the left front.  Slowing down to enter the parade town, the noise became loud and distinct, a regular clunk, clunk at about one turn per wheel.  We put the lights on the wagon and the parade, starting at six PM, went fine with no noticeable noise at the parade speed of one to four mph.  We had five Corvairs in the parade and it went well.  

After the parade, we went for dinner and at city speeds it still clunked well.  Other members thought it sounded like a U joint.  After dinner, we started off to a local members house to leave the wagon there and the headlights wouldn't go on!  The park and tail lights were OK but no headlights and tapping the dimmer switch had no effect.  We decided that I would follow immediately behind one of the other Vairs and hope that a local cop wouldn't spot us.  After about a mile, the lights turned themselves on and we continued on to the members house where he lent us his Chrysler van and we drove home.  The next morning (Sunday) I headed back with a U joint kit where we decided that I should drive the wagon to a place where the club was changing engines on a '66 sedan as a charity effort for a semi-indigent owner.  The wagon cluncked to that house and we jacked up the left rear.  No noise.  Same for the right rear.  When we tried the left front, there was a distinct plunk, plunk, but lighter in pitch as there was no load on the wheel.  We removed the wheel but not the drum and there was no sound.  Tightened the bearing one hole and still no sound.  Replaced the wheel and still no sound!

So, I tried the headlights and there weren't any so in mid-afternoon and well before dark, I headed for home.  On the way there, I ran into some fog and pulled the light switch to have tail and parking lights.  After a while, I pulled over and found that I had headlights.  The rest of the trip was uneventful, thank goodness, so now I'm left with a what-to-do as the wheel is still quiet.  I'll check the connector to the headlights and for power at the dimmer switch so that should be easy but as for that noise, it still has me puzzled.

RonH