My maternal grandfather, an accomplished tinkerer from way back, told me stories about how unscrupulous used car dealers back in the 1920's would "fix" a whining transmission or rear end. This solution consisted of packing the offending unit with meat, yes, meat! Really quieted it down, for a while. I can't even begin to imagine how much fun it would have been to open up one of those afterwards :o

Or, a slightly different approach, fill the unit with "steam grease". Pep Boys used to sell this in the 1960's. I remember looking at a can, the label listed it as 600 weight! Not sure where the "steam" part came in. I speculate it may have been used in steam ships.

Speaking from personal experience, I had a 1968 VW bug that I bought with a whining transaxle. Those VW transaxles were tough little guys, but when they started making untoward noises, the end was usually quite near. I drove that car for 3 years before I sold it and it NEVER got worse.

Tatra Mike

Seattle, Washington

1985 244 "Alfsen" (wife's car - the good one)
1984 245 "Buster" (the kid's car, now sold)
1985 245 "Cosmo" (parts car, sold off for move to WA)
1985 245 "Daisy" (back seat down, full of tools, the work truck)
1985 245 "Earl (CA vehicle 'retirement' program)

Can you tell I prefer the 1985 model 240? Better headlights than
the plastic 1986+ and nicer belt adjustments than the 1984s and earlier!