Brookjm's Volvo 960 waftomatic

[HMC]

After cruising in rml2345's volvo 940 at shitefest I realised I needed a proper old fashioned volvo in my life. As I chugged back down to devon in the 504 whilst bits of trim fell off the car the idea of a long legged cruiser wouldnt go away. A few days later Tetleysmooth posted up an advert for a cheap volvo 960 estate in Devon. The story was 10 months test, and almost 6 months tax, the lady owner had been given a newer car by a family member and the volvo was for the chop due to parking problems. In fact it was going to get weighed in if nobody took it, and it was dangled temptingly at 150 quid. Tetleysmooth also very kindly sent a pm on my behalf to the poster of the ad, but it seemed a volvo breaker had got there first.

 

The following day I had word It was still available. I spoke to the poster of the ad, a friend of the owner, who told me the brakes were terrible, lacquer was falling off the bonnet in chunks, and it had been driven into things. Undeterred, made contact with the seller and for the money, as long as it would drive said Id have it over the phone. The problem wasnt the driving, it was the stopping that was a challenge in this particular volvo I would soon discover. 

 

The collection trip had me dumping the bx in the south Devon village where the volvo was. Ive got to cycle off and collect it tomorrow. After meeting the seller, who was downing the gin, We sorted the paperwork and I drove off. Applying the brakes made a lot of noise but not much else. I weighed up taking the bx back and getting a friend to trailer the volvo but decided to take it steady the relatively short trip home. Someone was still using it as a daily driver too. Once back Ive had a bit of a look round. One owner till 2009, originally bought as a company car by British American Tobacco (ironically the ashtray is stuffed full of cigarette ends) from Triangle volvo, Ealing. A thick wad of paperwork down to the original new vehicle order form. After 2009 its been quite neglected and bumped about but Im looking forward to improving it. Its a bit like a rescue dog.

 

Soon Id popped the wheels off and found neglected brakes, the worst bit being a siezed caliper slide bolt on the passenger side front which has ground one pad to the metal and ruined the disc.

I managed to get discs and pads form a local factor off the shelf for 20 quid for the pads and 55 for the discs. The caliper carrier has that slide pin well and truely seized in it, and suggestions or tips much appreciated!

[KruJoe]

'Like'

I didn't dare have a go in DavidF's lovely maroon example in Wales last week, for fear of the very expensive urges. I dread to think how much pez he burnt getting down there. Who said the Scotch don't like spending money?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yeah theyve got shitloads of free pez up there though havent they, so Alex Salmon reckons anyway.

[Richard]

My 940 had both sliders seized in the carrier. My cure was to take the carrier off, remove the rubber boots, wait for my wife to go out and put the carrier on the gas cooker.

[dome]

In that colour and that condition I'd happily smoke around in that.

[Richard]

Maybe you have done already but make sure these new discs are right, particularly the offset, before you get past the point of no return.

[Heidel_Kakao]

How many miles does it have on it? Probably a good thing I got pipped to the post on this as driving it back to Birmingham with no brakes may have been interesting*

[rml2345]

I managed to get discs and pads form a local factor off the shelf for 20 quid for the pads and 55 for the discs. The caliper carrier has that slide pin well and truely seized in it, and suggestions or tips much appreciated!

 

Sticking slider pins is something these seem to do. Unfortunately short of heat, penetrating fluid and brute force there isn't a great way of retrieving the little bastards either. I've resorted to a bolster chisel and a BFO hammer before.

Buy new pins if you can. Other than that, this looks an excellent purchase for so little money. 

[dollywobbler]

New pins definitely. Then you can batter the f8ck out of the old ones. Had to resort to a smaller socket (yes really) and my electric impact driver to get them to budge on the Sirion. Don't use copper grease on the new ones. I'm experimenting with red brake grease at the moment. Not specifically designed for metal-to-metal, but doesn't knacker the rubber boots up.

 

Can't complain for the money though. The paint finish even matches the BX! I look forward to a fleet shot once you've reassembled it.

[phil_lihp]

What a great find, I really like the look of these.  I should really have asked for a spin in one of the Volvosauruses at Shitefest, I've never had one before.  You can't go wrong at the price and at least now you'll know that the brakes are spot on.

[HillmanImp]

For some reason i just don't like how these look. This means i will inevitably own one soon.......

[trigger]

Having drove David's 960 at the weekend I can fully recommend this purchase.

[mrbenn]

Like this very much! Well saved.

 

A Volvo 960 has been on my radar for a while but I a) don't need the space and probably couldn't afford the fuel!

[Tetleysmooth]

If it's of any use, I make my own penetrating fluid, half diesel and half paraffin. Nothing has beaten it so far. I use one of those household spray thingys what people use to spray their plants. Actually, I'd love a 960, I've got a thing about 3.0 litre engines.

[cort16]

When I worked in the mill the md had a brand new one of these in metallic green. Old heavy industry luxury shite.

[scooters]

960 = double plus volvo points. Wonderful cars

 

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[eddyramrod]

I thought my 940 was a bit on the young-and-sophisticated side, but I can seriously imagine having a 3.0 six in front of me would compensate for that quite admirably.  Well bought sir.  Glad the Scottish Volvo Demonstration Squad went down so well at Shitefest too!

[davidfowler2000]

'Like'

I didn't dare have a go in DavidF's lovely maroon example in Wales last week, for fear of the very expensive urges. I dread to think how much pez he burnt getting down there. Who said the Scotch don't like spending money?

 

Approx 120 litres for the weekend

[davidfowler2000]

New pins definitely. Then you can batter the f8ck out of the old ones. Had to resort to a smaller socket (yes really) and my electric impact driver to get them to budge on the Sirion. Don't use copper grease on the new ones. I'm experimenting with red brake grease at the moment. Not specifically designed for metal-to-metal, but doesn't knacker the rubber boots up.

 

Lithium grease is best from what I hear. That said, the Haynes book of lies recommends copper grease

[KruJoe]

120 litres for the weekend

 

Ouch!

[twosmoke300]

Noooooooo.

 

 

rubber grease or synthetic grease

[Skizzer]

Its a bit like a rescue dog.

I beg to differ - it's exactly like a rescue dog

 

Well done, this is proper Autoshite. I was massively impressed with Mr Fowler's one at SF14 too, and can well imagine one of these in my life at some point.

[Tetleysmooth]

I for one would like to see regular updates on this.

 

I would bet it won't take much to make to nice again.

[Lankytim]

I love these, I will never own one due to the petrol consumption though!

[purplebargeken]

Big Volvo's are fuggin ace. Had 3 of 'em. A 244, a 940 saloon and a 940 Wentworth estate (the best of the lot). Utter super marvellous purchase. £150.......... total bargain.

[cms206]

You simply cannot get this much car for so little money, with the added bonus that the only way it'll lose value is if mixed scrap drops below £150/tonne when it finally stops working. Even if it makes it to the MOT expiry and fails massively there is no way of losing on it.

[anonymous user]

All Volvo estates are worth their own weight in scrap gold; I have hardly seen mine since I brought it home as it has been commandiered by a mate to pick up loads of bedding plants (he runs a small garden centre and couldn't get things delivered in time for this weekend so used it to collect them). I've been asked if I want to do a swap for his Rav4, but don't want to. The whole point of a Volvo estate is that you can sling half the world in the back and/or on top. It looks like I might be doing a complicated, you break it you mend it loan deal, where I can have it back occasionally to shift rubbish about. Either that or I sell him this one and buy myself another one.

[oman5]

Fantastic buy. there's bugger all risk at that price.

[HMC]

Been busy stripping and overhauling the front brakes when I find the time. After much cursing and hammering away at the caliper carriers and the seized lower slide bolts I gave in and got hold of some new replacements- £50 for the pair.

 

Old and seized meets new and shiny

 

With the caliper repair kit arriving I was making good progress....

 

Right until buying the cheaper pattern discs caught up with me. There seems to be a machining fault with one of them so one sits waiting to be returned to the local motor factors tomorrow. With a chod exchange road trip planned for Saturday it's another week on axle stands for moby ( big, grey and beached on the drive)

[RoadworkUK]

I'll bet this thing sounds wonderful. What a lovely motor you've landed there. And it's sort of gold. Volvo done proper like.