For Sale Collection and now for sale ... Volvo 340GL vario

[skattrd]

Apologies for lack of pics, my SD card decided to eat itself and most pics from the first half of the day 

 

Part 1.

My day started at 5am when I made and consumed a bacon sandwich and coffee. Ruffgeezer of this parish turned up at skattrd_towers shortly before 6am ... Ok, it was really 7am, but the clocks had gone forward and I'd only had 5hrs sleep so it was early.

The night before I had loaded the Tipo with spares (thx again Vin of this parish) and just needed to grab my bag and set off. We hit the road with me driving the first stint and made nice progress down the A1. A brief pit-stop was had at McDs by Black Cat roundabout where we had a driver change ... Ruff took the wheel for the next stint.

Occasional showers and everything was ok to my first stop where I would part company with Ruff (and his toolkit). He would be taking a different route from me home ... see his thread for more details: http://autoshite.com/topic/24019-thread-of-the-collectionings/

 

His purchase,  a Jumbuck, was as described so the deed was done and we set off in separate vehicles, me Tipo TD, Ruff Proton Jumbuck.

 

 

10 minutes in to the torrential shower the drivers side wiper on the Tipo decided to make a break for freedom ... arses, with around 0 visibility. I hastily found a place to stop, pulled over and flagged down a yellow Jumbuck. The yellow Jumbuck driver was quite a friendly chap and luckily had a 13mm spanner in a toolkit he brought with him. Wiper was adjusted and tightened .. job done. I handed the spanner back, but was told to keep it, just in case.

 

I made it up to the M3 to head West, 10 minutes further down the road the wiper again made a bid for freedom. Not scary or dangerous at all having 0 visibility on the M3. I pulled over and adjusted the wiper again, this time VERY tightly. All good, I set off again. Intermittent showers meant I sparingly used the wipers and the road changed to the A303. In the midst of a sight* shower guess what .... Yes the drivers side wiper (why is it never passengers side?) stopped working. No hard shoulder, but luckily a turn off was just ahead, so I pulled off the busy dual carriageway. I adjusted and tightened the drivers side wiper again, but was not happy it would stay tight ... My toollkit included a 13mm spanner and nothing else, so I found another 13mm nut and fastened it on top of the one on the drivers side wiper, so there were now 2 nuts that would have to work loose before the wiper stopped working. Where did I find a spare 13mm nut? passengers side wiper of course, so this was placed on the passengers seat and I carried on to Devon with 1 wiper.

 

Apart from traffic at Stonehenge and me feeling very stressful every time I saw a black cloud the rest of the trip in the Tipo was uneventful. About 5 miles from the destination the fuel light came on, but it easily finished the journey.

 

On arrival I was greeted by Italianjob who is living up to his forum name and I think going for the full set of Tipo platform cars, currently with an Alfa 155, GTV and now Tipo he's almost halfway there. Tempra, Coupe or Nuova Delta next?

We had a brief chat before heading off to Exeter airport where he was dropping me for the next part of my day, now do you see why I wasn't carrying a toolkit. This was (surprisingly) my first trip in a GTV and I must say Matthews is very nice. Thanks for the lift.

 

TLDR:

350 miles in a Tipo with dodgy wipers and added Jumbuck content.

 

Part2.

 

Exeter International airport - We arrived with enough time for me to consume a toastie and drink in the airport lounge. It was there that I discovered my sd card was corrupt and most pics from the day so far gone. I switched cards and headed for my flight northwards.

 

 

To make up for lack of pics in part one, have a picture of some airport tat:

 

 

A pleasant 1.5hr flight later I landed at Glasgow, exited the plane and got in touch with cms206 of this parish who would collect me from the airport.

 

SVM welcome party:

 

 

After a brief instruction and demonstration on driving a vario we headed back to SVM offices (Paisley branch) where paperwork was done and money from the Tipo sale was handed over.

I left intending to see how far I got before I felt too tired to drive, Carlisle would be good, which would leave 3+Hrs to finish off the journey home the following day.

 

The money shot:

 

 

Sorry, did you want one in focus?

 

 

I headed for the M8 and M74 and the little vario is a peach. It's a bit noisy getting up to speed but once at 65-70mph it's quite comfortable and trundles along. It was getting dark, but the lights on the "little brick" are gr9 and progress seemed effortless. Before I knew it it was 2130 and I was at Southwaite services, where I consumed burger and coffee and decided to press on. The A66 to Scotch corner came and went, as did the next 100 miles of the A1 and at around 0045 I arrived back at skattrd_towers.

 

The 340GL variomatic was purchased for my sister as her first car and I expect it to serve her well. I'll be taking it to the garage next week where it needs a couple of minor bits sorting, mainly heaters and stereo, it currently has neither.

 

Thanks to all involved in the day, for sharing the driving, lifts to from airports etc.  and I shall most likely see you at SF, if not before.

[HMC]

What an epic trip!!! It was a pleasure to meet you again Chris, Glad to hear the next leg of the journey went well, looking forward to more pics of the Volvo vario!

[320touring]

Good effort Chris-shame I never got to drive the volvo befoer it went south, but i was driven in it-seemed a delightful solid old thing:)

[The Moog]

Now that is ticking off the miles...

[Felly Magic]

A Volvo heading south from Scotchlandshire? Well I never

[ruffgeezer]

Many thanks again for the assistance in getting the Jumbuck back here with relative ease, I somehow knew that you'd need the spanner again though, but I'll use this post to remind me to go spanner hunting as my kit will be down one now!

 

There are a handful of pics of the morning's events in the other thread, including the wiper issues.

[dollywobbler]

Brilliant. That's a heck of a lot of country covered in one three-car caper!

[Bucketeer]

Excellent work all round.

And not quite the last bit of three-way colectioning, eh?

[dollywobbler]

I'm just going to point out that the first post has a lot of likes, even if there aren't a lot of replies. The epicness is being quietly appreciated.

[ruffgeezer]

And not quite the last bit of three-way colectioning, eh?

 

What do you mean sir?

[skattrd]

What do you mean sir?

 

That should be clear in a couple of days

 

Mr_Ruff, I forgot to say, I left your spanner with the Tipo as I didn't expect it to pass airport security, so I owe you a 13mm spanner.

[skattrd]

Cheers DW.

I was going to update with some more pics of "little brick" but it's lack of heating saw me using red Aerodeck today, so pics will be later this week.

[BorniteIdentity]

Great round trip.

 

I'd have loved that 340. Vario's are hilarious.

 

Well bloody done every one.

[HMC]

That should be clear in a couple of days

 

Mr_Ruff, I forgot to say, I left your spanner with the Tipo as I didn't expect it to pass airport security, so I owe you a 13mm spanner.

Got in in the tipo glovebox, will bring it to shitefest. A very well travelled 13mm!

 

Looking fwd to more pics of the new Volvo Chris.

[ruffgeezer]

No worries, perhaps it should live in the tipo now, it gives me an excuse to hit the bootsale this weekend.

[Skizzer]

Wow, that's a day's work there. Italian cars, escape from peril on a dark and stormy night, A-Team style bodging, foreign travel, executive* jets*, secret data on a memory card... You are Autoshite's answer to James Bond.

 

More pics of the little Volvo please, I have a soft spot for these. Variomatic is an excellent engineering cul de sac that I'd like to have a go of one day.

[bub2006]

Please tell me the 340 goes beep beep when the selector button is pressed on the selector. I was most disappointed when the 440 didnt

[skattrd]

Please tell me the 340 goes beep beep when the selector button is pressed on the selector. I was most disappointed when the 440 didnt

 

Yes it does, with red flashing light as well.

[djimbob]

I doff my cap to you all shiters, excellent capers including small scary aerochod

[bub2006]

Yes it does, with red flashing light as well.

I remember my grandads had a red light at the front and goes beep. I was amazed as a young boy. His was a 340 1,4 dl.

[Cleon-Fonte]

This is how you do a collection thread.

 

Those 300 series Volvos are GR9 cars, I'd love to have another (mine was a concretematic manual so a CVT would be interesting to try). A classic example of a car that was maligned by the mainstream motoring press despite its obvious brilliance.

 

Did you reverse down the motorway at 70mph just to sample the main* advantage of the Variomatic?

[For Fiats Sake]

Dear Sirs

 

I read on the internet today SIMBT that the Fiat Selecta CVT gearbox is based on the Daf Variomatic.

 

Is my Fiat related to a Daft Ovlov then?

 

Yours Clutchlessly

 

FFS age 48&1/3

 

PS  I dreamt I told someone in a dream I had a convertible Micetro - do I win AutoShite?

[derskine]

Superb!

[skattrd]

For various reasons the little vario has been ignored for the last couple of weeks, but today I shuffled the cars around and took it out for a spin, about 60 miles or so was covered. I've got to say it is so much fun, the Renault pushrod 1.4 engine is a cracker and I'm really enjoying the vario "gearbox". The car has no PAS (which I like) and the handling feels nice and direct. The steering isn't really heavy and the turning circle seems good so parking is pretty easy. I'm not used to the choke yet, so it took a bit of cranking with the choke in various positions before it started from cold, but after that no choke and it started first turn of the key. It trundles along nicely and is fun on the country lanes, the seats are comfy feel like they consist of a similar cushioning to the Espace, so very possibly made from Flumps*

 

*Copyright Bucketeer

 

A couple more bits added to the to do list:

Wipers - new blades needed

Rear tailgate struts - they don't hold the tailgate up

Heater - matrix bypassed

Radio - not present.

 

Have some pics:

 

 

 

Dent:

 

Rust, I'm currently unsure what to do about this. I'll probably sand back the worst bits and stick some primer on for now so it doesn't get any worse.

 

 

 

No interior pics today as it was full of shopping and other crap, so those will follow in a day or two. It's a sea of blue with many blanking plates, I'm not sure what GL actually included, not a lot judging by the lack of rear wiper and radio.

[r.welfare]

Metallic paint and heated seats on the GL I think. My first car was an '84 1.4DL, manual, in a lovely shade of beige. Many blanking plates in that one too, including the radio.

[skattrd]

Possibly one for the stupid question thread, but, can you bump start a vario?

I know you can't bump start normal automatics, but what about a rubber band one?

 

 

ps. No it is not currently stranded with a flat battery.

[Sigmund Fraud]

No, you can't.

 

They also aren't too happy on MoT brake rollers, so make sure you tell the tester that he has to use his old Tapley meter !!!

[Jim Bell]

What a great thread. Id love another vario one day.

[mouseflakes]

the Renault pushrod 1.4 engine is a cracker

 

They are great little engines. The basic design goes right back to the R8 (I put a 1.4 from an R11 in the back of my '67 R10).

 

I'm not used to the choke yet

 

Not sure about the carb/choke on the Volvo, but the Renners I've had with a manual choke on these engines just needed full choke, no accelerator to start, quickly knocking the choke back to the halfway mark to run until warm. If you've not tried this combo yet on the Volvo, maybe give it a go?

 

As an aside - the R10 mentioned above had an auto-choke on its original 1108 engine. It was the best auto-choke I've ever used.

[skattrd]

Cheers Mouseflakes, I'll give that starting technique a try next time, full choke, no throttle, then half in.