Volvo 760 TD musings

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Alright gang, this whold idea will probably go nowhere as it all seems like a bit of a massive ballache but might as well share it with you anyway....

 

You might remember this Volvo 760 from the eBay thread.

 

http://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/645955199.htm?ca=7_s

 

Its in France, its a turbodiesel with manual box (a combo never sold here as far as I can tell) looks in nice nick and its 500€ ono. Its up and running and seemingly in pretty nice condition. I would love it. HOWEVER, It has not been used on the road for 10 years!!!

 

I asked the guy for some more photos, he said 'No problem, I'll tae a load so you can see exactly what you're looking at' - Brilliant. What he's sent is 3 more pictures of the dashboard and an exterior pis almost identical to the one in the ad. Cheers for that.

 

 

 

Anyway. The lad has had it fired up and taken it for an MOT, he's sent me a scan of the fail sheet. Its all fairly trivial stuff except for the following:

 

• visible cracking to tyres
• coolant leak (meaning he was unable to check the emissions)
• Shite handbrake

 

Now if i was going to fly to Strasbourg and drive this home (which I'd have to do, clearly its too big and heavy to trailer or A frame home) I'd need to do something about the tyres and coolant leak. I bet £1 the leak is from the waterpump, which I bet has dried out out while the car was laid up and is now leaking from the bearing. if its not that its probably a gasket or a hose thats an easy fix or is 'nursable' to get home. But my moneys on the waterpump, which means I think it will need changing before I set off (along with the timing belt of course which would get done at the same time)

 

So the problem is a logistical one. I am mulling over:

 

1) How could I get this thing re-shod at minimal cost? No doubt a local tyre shop would come out to him from Strasbourg and fit a set of new hoops, but I'm fairly certain that would cost almost as much as the car, making the job unviable at a stroke I reckon as stuff like that does not come cheap in France. Lanky tim suggested couriering some tyres out to him and asking him to get them fitted, which might be a goer? I also found a French online tyre supplier that could supply 4 x Nexens to his doorstep for 190€ which doesnt seem too crippling. If I could almost fit those myself if he had a compressor as well or could borrow one for a day or two.

 

2) What to do about the water pump? I have scanned eBay and theres several on there for about £30 ish plus another tenner for a belt. Reading up on the VW D24 belt change, at first glance it seems hellish if you go by the US forums but I think thats because cambelts and timing marks are considered 'NASA shiz' by the yanks. Its all just too complex for them. Looking at the Volvo manuals that have been uploaded it looks pretty straightforward to me apart from undoing the MEGA TIGHT crank pulley which admittedly can be a right twat sometimes.

 

It seems to me that the best option would be:

 

• Barter the seller down a bit on the price
• Get him to borrow a compressor off a friend for a set weekend
• Buy tyres online and get them  delivered to him OR find a decent set of used ones on ebay UK and have them couriered out to him
• get a few tools, tyre levers, sockets etc + a new pump and belt couriered out to him in advance
• fly out on the Friday or whatever
• Spend saturday changing the tyres, pump and belt
• Drive home on Sunday
• Feel like a winner on the Monday

 

Its all a bit pie in the sky, but just not quite into the realms of 'ludicrous waste of time' yet and it does seem like a good challenge with a very cool daily driver being the end result. Anyone got any other ideas for doing this SHITER STYLZ?

 

[Shep Shepherd]

Your best option sounds like a goer

[richardmorris]

Norauto's your best bet for good prices in France

 

http://centres.norauto.fr/search?query=strasbourg

 

and water pumps for a 760 TD  - not sure which you'd need, sorry.

 

http://www.norauto.fr/catalog/46_Pieces-auto-et-outillage/64_Refroidissement/75_Pompe-a-eau.html

[cort16]

I recon it'd be good lark but you'd need to accept the real possibility you'd maybe have to do a Rover 213 and abandon it somewhere in a train station carpark because none of your plans worked out and you run out of time.

 

Does the seller seem up for you turning up from a foreign country and farting around with it in his drive? I wonder if euro recovery would get it home if you "conked out" 5 mins from the sellers house?

[HillmanImp]

I can imagine them going on MoteurMerde or whatever our French equivalent is, shouting 'sacre bleu!' about the 'stu-peed eeengleesh ebayer' who turned up after making them store a load of tyres at their house for a week and use up their last favour of 'le godfather' to borrow a compressor, proceeded to dismantle the car, found out a part they needed that was not listed in the Volvo manual they had looked at as this was a model that crossed over between 2 different phases of the car or something equally obscure and then left the partially dismantled car sat outside their house for them to drag to the scrapper.

 

But I have no sense of adventure.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Once i'd set off with this I'd have about 800-900€ in it so I could not accept abandoning it!!!! Just couldnt do it!

[cort16]

You should probably take a week off work then.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Hmm, €300 for him to take it to Norauto and have some new hoops fitted.

[richardmorris]

Would it be "safer" ie more boring, if you drove out with a friend, sorted the Volvo out to be roadworthy and came back in convoy? I took my x1/9 to Strasbourg a year or so ago and it's a long drive, but doeable on non autoroute routes. The Volvo does look brilliant by the way, I understand the motives

[dollywobbler]

Would make a great Euro-Roadkill, but seriously, I doubt this comes in anywhere near remotely sensible. You're asking the buyer to cope with a lot of faff, and it could all go spectacularly wrong in many different ways. I'd be asking Scruff or similar if he's got any plans to head Euro-side anytime soon.

 

EDIT -  ^^^ Richard Morris sounds like the voice of reason. Take a car out with all of your tools etc, convoy back so if something bad happens, you've got help right there.

[gordonbennet]

Righto first of all our 940 estate was a td manual, 4+ overdrive gearbox, maybe true that the 7 series didn't have the manual option here but the 9 definately did.

 

The repairs you want to undertake on the driveway seem feasable, tyres aint too bad a lark, i assume they're standard 195/65 x 15s in which case you could probably do the job with 2 tyre levers some soapy water and driving another car over the bloody things to break the beads, unless the seller can lay his hands on a bead slammer...i've got a lorry size bead slammer here you could borrow but it weighs around 40lb and they might object at hand luggage.

 

What worries me is that its got 2 bloody cam belts that have been stood standing (like a big girls blouse) for bloody years, be a basterd if one of those gave way on the journey after you've already done all this work, similarly the fuel pump has stood dry, i know the cam belt replacement is right swine on these, i'm almost certain there's no woodruff key on the cam so you need the full timing kit, or do it the old way of marking everything up...but if it snaps en route you're bolloxed cos all the timing is lost.

 

Sorry if that sound spessimistic, but it might be worth somehow contacting the continental lads who run over here to collect cars to take back, i see loads of Latvian and other regd vans towing single car trailers over here, obviously collecting their version of chod (accidents stuff no doubt), if you can somehow find an intermediary to do the lingo and negotiation it mght work out for both parties.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Would it be "safer" ie more boring, if you drove out with a friend, sorted the Volvo out to be roadworthy and came back in convoy? I took my x1/9 to Strasbourg a year or so ago and it's a long drive, but doeable on non autoroute routes. The Volvo does look brilliant by the way, I understand the motives

 

Yeah theres a lot of sense in this idea. It would make it a lot less painful to not do it on my own. Only downside is i'd have to stump up for a couple of nights in a hotel + food etc for whichever unfortunate I persuaded to come with me!!! Having said that I wouldnt need a plane ticket would I. Plus, I could find some cheap tyres at this end and take a compressor with me for fitting them. And i could chuck the A in the boot just in case the worst happened, at least i could drag my sorry ass off the motorway.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Theres only one cam belt, but theres also a separate fuel pump belt. Dont think i would bother changing that TBH, not for the homeward journey anyway.

[scruff]

This sounds like a champion idea.

Probably of no help at all but if yer man didn't fancy you stripping the engine apart on his drive, I have a shite loving pal at Chalons-en-Champagne who'd welcome you with open overalled arms. Three hours West of the Volvo though, but it's a thought. He might even be able to get it from there, to his.

[rml2345]

Bringing a chum with another car sounds like the best way to do this as you can transport the gear needed rather than risk a courier losing stuff or the French seller not being in.

Best of luck if you go for it Boll as it'll be some adventure.

[catsinthewelder]

Does it have a tow bar?

 

Nip over in something light with tools, tyres and a-frame stuffed in the back then a-frame the tiddler back for the full autoshite hero marks.  Can't see anybody apart from you would be mad enough to even suggest this to

 

Probably a lot easier to take a friend as well though and save the a-frame for the inevitable unexpected broken thing at 3am scenario.

[willswitchengage]

Manual TD 740s definitely reached these shores. Dunno what the difference between that and a 760 is, however.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Visibly not a lot, but in actual fact, loads! The rear suspension and floorpan is completely different, all the electrical system is different, front end panelwork is all different, I think even the windscreen aperture is different.

[garethj]

Sounds only moderately bonkers, I'm sure it's do-able.

 

Water pump on someone else's driveway sounds tricky, and you're bound to need extension leads, cups of tea, use of the toilet etc.  It might be too much of an ask on the seller?

 

I'd probably get the tyres done by a local place and drive back with European breakdown cover.  Are those VW LT engines non-interference?

[Lankytim]

If I ask about I may be able to borrow a set of Volvo wheels with good tyres, you can then UPS them out or take them as luggage on the plane (possibly)

 

How bad are the existing tyres? cracking to the tyre wall could mean light cracks or full on disintegration.

[nacho man]

I might be able to sort some cheap couriers for bits and bobs if you can't get it cheap or its a pain. PM me if you're struggling,

[mat_the_cat]

i know the cam belt replacement is right swine on these, i'm almost certain there's no woodruff key on the cam so you need the full timing kit, or do it the old way of marking everything up...but if it snaps en route you're bolloxed cos all the timing is lost.

 

You're right - there is no key on the front or back of the cam so don't take either pulley off unless you have the timing kit! I did, the first time I did the job so had to time it by ear. Dunno about access in the Volvo (I can imagine the IP belt is a 'mare) but the cambelt itself isn't too bad a job IMO. Crank pulley (27 mm) is the only real sticking point as that should be torqued up to something like 450 Nm. Very easy to make up a bar to bolt to the pulley and jam into the ground though - I can give you the hole measurements if needed.

 

They are interference engines, so probably best not to chance it. They do have a nice sound and it'd make a great collection thread so I'd say go for it!

 

EDIT - the bodge way to do the belt if you aren't able/willing to do the stubborn bolt is to hacksaw away the casting on the oil pump which shields the belt as it goes around the crank pulley. Then you could just slip the new belt in but personally I wouldn't do that on a keeper.

[dollywobbler]

If scruff's pal can shift it, then game on. Having somewhere to work on the car other than the seller's driveway makes it a much better plan.

[phil_lihp]

Probably being boring here - in fact, I am - but why not rent a transporter and cart it back on that?

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Self-Drive-Car-Transporter-Hire-/271454028512

[pshome]

You can order tyres online from http://www.euromaster.fr/ and then take an appointment to have them fitted in one of their shops. Worked fine for me when picking up a Tagora in Bordeaux last year.

[oman5]

Much respect for taking this on. I would DEFINITELY do the belts, they will be time expired.on the D24, If the main belt snaps, rather than bend valves it WILL snap the camshaft. Opinion on these is to use the proper timing kit if you can get one, official volvo workshop time is about 6 hours so not a totally simple job. would it be easier all round to trailer it and get it sorted back here? Good engines but they do need looking after or they'll bite you on the arse.

[M'coli]

This sounds like an utterly hatstand collection caper, one that would do justice to a "Classic car rescue" type program:

"Bollox plans to jet to the continent to buy an old Volvo without the French equivalent of an MOT. Will he manage to get the work done that it needs for its ticket on the seller's driveway and make it home in time for work on Monday, avoiding the Gendarmes in the process, or will he end up with his sorry ass in the clink?"

 

Go for it... :)

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Why do you have to get involved in the pump timing when doing the belts on these? Can't you just leave the pulleys on the camshaft and just replace the belts?

[oman5]

pump timing is absolutely critical on these for power/economy/emissions. I have the volvo green book workshop manual for this engine I will try and get the timing belt bit scanned if you like.

[Lankytim]

Found a pair of big legal snow tyres i'm the shed from my XM I could donate, infact the spares XM has a couple of legal wheels. Same stud pattern too.