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Annual Migration - The Ongoing Adventures of a 740


rml2345

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And home.

 

post-4786-0-47547700-1549210765_thumb.jpg

 

Trip home was uneventful and the speedo even worked! Unfortunately both the cheese cog in this and my spare instrument pod have bitten the dust do I've ordered one up to do a repair.

Obviously I wasted no time getting stuck in.

 

post-4786-0-32920700-1549211071_thumb.jpg

 

And now all the interior bulbs have been replaced with the correct blue ones and the broken centre air vent has been mended. Tomorrow's job is the thermostat which will take all of five minutes to do.

I bloody love 740s.

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  • 1 month later...

So did tomorrow's job get done tomorrow?
No.

Mainly because I had to go to work in it. When it did come around though the thermostat was just as easy as suggested and did take all of five minutes to do. Which is handy as it looked like this:

 

46291715785_6772df5089_k.jpgYagged by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

Which isn't the ideal condition for a functioning thermostat. I reckon the housing was probably keeping it together and it appeared to be full of clay which can't have been helping things. Unfortunately a much needed coolant flush had to be put off because I had to go to work in it and didn't have the requisite 7 litres of antifreeze. At least the heater is now hot enough to melt your face a bit.

So having successfully put off something easy and useful it was time to do one of my favourite* repairs with added complications. The speedometer had always been intermittent at best and on the way up eh road the odometer died completely thanks to the infamous Volvo odometer cog of cheese, a well known affliction of cars with VDO instrument packs. 

46291714645_70052d093d_k.jpgCog of Cheese by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

From reading a bit about these, the grease they were packed with 25+ years ago seeps into the plastic of the small drive cog, turning it both yellow and a bit mushy until one of the gear teeth breaks off, killing the odometer. Often it's resetting them on the move that produces the fatal blow but in this case it was just too far gone and died of it's own accord. Nothing else to do but strip the unit down and replace it. 

 

46291715665_9bf9ddcfe3_k.jpgDash Pod Repairs by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

But how to fix the intermittent speedometer itself? Another favourite of the aged Volvo is cracked soldering, often on the extremely fragile PCB at the back of the instrument cluster but generally anywhere they stuck bits to circuits which makes fault finding when you have the electrical skills of a turnip quite frustrating. After trying bits of equally (but differently) broken speedometer from my spare instrument pod I found a loose doodad and carefully (badly) soldered it back on and put it all together again.

33330668568_414a39455c_k.jpgReassembled by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

Quite pleased as it only took two evenings of continuous swearing to achieve a mostly working instrument pod. The fuel gauge is still senile but with a working odometer and trip it doesn't matter too much. Certainly an improvement over filling it up every few days because I had absolutely no idea how much was in it or how far I'd gone. Incidentally it's doing about 20mpg on town journeys which is bloody awful but about as expected.
Then I had to go to work in it.

 

Next time was an attempt to fit some more of the ignition bits from earlier. It does start every time now but drops momentarily on to three cylinders before deciding that four really is best. Chances are it probably wants the distributor oil seal replacing to stop it filling the cap with oil but since I haven't got one of those it's another job filed under "Later". First up was another look at the coil but the NGK one that ECP sold me doesn't seem a great fit on either the king lead or the car so back in the box it went. Disappointed with that, I decided to change the spark plugs and see if that made any difference to the car.

 47466358611_90d78f69b3_k.jpgPlugs by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

If it has I've not noticed. On the plus side they were all the same colour and looked in generally good order but the plug wells seemed a bit oily so that will need to be closely monitored. I think the rocker cover is leaking and it probably wants the crankcase PCV doing as well so it could be pissing out of there. No blue smoke on start up and it doesn't seem to burn oil but like many redblocks it wazzes a fair bit out about the place. Whilst checking other bits I noticed the Bosch air intake thing at the bottom on the inlet side needs a mount so one of those was ordered up and I'll do the PCV when it's all off as access is a pain in the arse. 
So that's it for now. Recently it's started weeping from the water pump so one of those is next on the agenda along with the much delayed coolant flush and all four auxiliary belts, so lots of fun still to be had on the mechanical side of things. In the meantime I'm still using it as my only car since the 850 is now in the hands of Woman_RML. 

46743351644_8f264df0bb_k.jpgTwo Car Family by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Nothing since March?! Yes, sorry about that. Things have been a bit crap here of late.
 Where had we got to?
Ah yes, this. 

33867990188_8eda27d5bd_k.jpgLeaky by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

I'd noticed it weeping for a while so ordered up a replacement and waited for a day where it wasn't raining sideways to fit it. 

46744430045_bde39148d3_k.jpgFan Off by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

As on most things 740, access was excellent and the old pump was soon off.

33782475398_109afeb563_k.jpgOld Pump by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

The pump itself didn't look that bad to my untrained eye but the gasket was definitely toast. Probably because someone had fitted or refitted it in the past using loads of silicone sealant wazz which is where it had been leaking from.

33867990158_5023a072ac_k.jpgNew Pump by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

The nice shiny new pump went on and there have been no further coolant leaks. Success! Less successful was the replacement of the auxiliary belts. The alternator belts were easy but the AC/Power steering side was a different matter. So far I've tried two power steering belts, including measuring the old one and still haven't got a suitable replacement for the old PAS belt. Since the AC one has to come off to fit it and is a right mare I've put that job on the "To do" list as the old belt still gives a modicum of assistance. So sod it, we'll worry about that later.

The interior has had a bit of attention too. Since these things and the later 900 series cars are starting to get rarer, I've been keeping an eye on the websites for local breakers in the hope that one comes in. Handily, a 940 showed up at SCB in Newbridge with grey interior, albeit already pretty well cannibalised.

47692240162_809c6c42cf_k.jpgP53 RBD by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

Rather irritatingly some of the bits I needed were already missing but the trip out wasn't a total bust. Not like the centre console box, which looked like it had suffered a pretty severe impact in the past. 

47692241572_cb0b45fe10_k.jpgOld and New by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

Unfortunately the old one didn't come out without a fight but we got there in the end. As you can imagine, 29 years of detritus under the centre console wasn't pleasant. Fortunatley I took a picture so that you can share in the unpleasantness. 

33867945458_02eeff17cd_k.jpgBoggin by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

Still, it was worth it in the end.

47692240742_6323f11559_k.jpgInstalled by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

Sadly the original ashtray/infill panel with the illuminated red seat belt sign was also damaged so I'm having to make do with the 940 one for the moment. Will hunt down a replacement at some point though as it's one of those weird features that I miss. Not missed was the rather sad and very rotten set of horns, which have been replaced with ones off a Jaguar X-Type. Weirdly I could only get one or the other to sound when wiring them up but wiring both produced no sound at all. Will have to investigate that at some point too but in the meantime I've got the one wired in which is better than it was.

33782758608_7c2288c0c6_k.jpgHorn Replacement by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

Also salvaged from the donor was a replacement driver's side door pocket. As anyone familiar with these cars knows, if you look at the door pockets in a certain way, they'll explode into a million shards of jaggy, brittle plastic. 

46744432775_a6b03d660d_k.jpgDoor Repairs by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

Fortunatley no one had done that to the replacement so I managed to fit it up and it's holding so far. 

46828346205_740b1d53b4_k.jpgNew Door Bin by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

Irritatingly I also discovered the cause of the droop in the OSF window and resultant wind noise/getting soaked was due to a worn window regulator and, weirdly, a fair bit of distortion to the actual inner door skin, where the runner for the window mechanism is. 

48067242931_f449f164c3_k.jpgDoor Inside by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

Seen above on the right hand side of the door, covered in grease. A bit of gently prying it with some big pliers and a replacement window regulator have since stopped me getting wet but there's still a fair bit of wind noise so more work to be done yet.

Apart from one or two tiny odds and sods, the last thing liberated from the 940 was the missing nearside wing trim. Unfortunate it's entirely the wrong colour but better than nothing.

33867937218_219cf54900_k.jpgReplacement by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

I also got round to cleaning out the flame trap which was actually not as utterly manky as I'd expected it to be. Still haven't got to the oil separator though as it lives in a silly place underneath the inlet manifold, next to the fuel distributor. Since I have to take that out to replace the mounts anyway I'll do the two things at once. Or get half way through one and then get utterly fucked on gin or something. Speaking of, whilst visiting CMS_206 at SVM Headquarters, it picked up another dent when someone reversed into it. Apparently they didn't see 15 feet of Volvo estate behind them...

48067394536_81f9e33200_k.jpgDent Repair by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

Fortunatley the ever talented CMS was on hand to learn panel beating whilst tapping out the worst of it, so it's not too bad now. Still quite annoying as it was fairly straight in the rear quarters.
Harrumph.
So that's everything up to now. In between mechanical jobs, I've been using it as my daily and (apart from the speedo becoming increasingly crap again) it hasn't missed a beat so far. Right now, I honestly can't think of a more ideal car. 

47692239212_137897a447_k.jpgOn Tour by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

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Always love to see an update on this, looks like you've been busy!

RE the oil separator, they look like a pain to get to and people make them seem that way but having done mine a few times I find the manifold doesn't get in the way too much. I can have them off for a blast through with brake cleaner in under 60 seconds now I recon! When you do it be sure to grab a new o-ring for the bottom where it joins the bottom of the block, otherwise they tend to leak down the side of the sump, or at least mine did.

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  • 1 year later...

Two years since an update?! Jings.

This is still here, I've seen it through three MOTs so far.

It still looks like someone drove it through a house.

Clean

Since the last update I've done absolutely loads with it as various consumable components (brakes, tyres, headgasket etc.) all wore out but so far it still provides reliable daily transport on an arduous 8 minute commute.
I'll probably go into more detail in a couple of years. 

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