Project Annual Migration - The Ongoing Adventures of a 740

[320touring]

It's a dependable old fucker!

[rml2345]

It's never actually left me stranded anywhere, which is handy. Best £150 I ever spent!

[Tickman]

Certainly the right owner

[rml2345]

This thing is still here and doing daily stuff. Except this weekend where its off to @GingerNuttz for a bit of magic sparkly stick action prior to MOT.

Yesterday it was in Cumbria on an errand.

Might paint the bonnet one day. 

[Mrs6C]

Great to see Biff is still about and being a Very Useful Volvo...

[rml2345]

Very useful Volvo indeed. Came in handy when I moved house recently and in subsequent numerous trips to the tip and B&Q. We're now playing that game of how long can you daily a 740 before you go bankrupt or it expires. 

3/1 Bankruptcy.

19/2 Expiry.

[Jim Bell]

Don't paint the bonnet for even more savings. It's almost paying for itself. 

[rml2345]

So this went for MOT at the start of March and... Failed. Only on a ball joint, TRE and some redundant wiring needing tidied but it's the first time it's no passed for me. Since it was there I had the garage do it as the last time I did a ball joint on this thing it was an absolute pig. 

[rml2345]

So as many of you may have noticed, I dragged this auld tub to Festival of the Unexceptional last weekend where it wasn't even the shonkiest car in attendance. 

Thanks to a tipoff from @juular, four brand new Bosch injectors had been bought and I spent a jolly Scottish summer afternoon fitting then and generally tidying the old bus up.

In other words I got fucking soaked. 

That used to be an alternator mount.

Old and New injectors.

Unfortunately despite the extensive* preparations the trip was not without incident. Somewhere on the A1 north of Grantham it decided to jettison the entire nearside indicator/sidelight unit. Bulb holders, the lot. Of course I had no idea of this until stopping at Grantham North services for a pee and to find out which indicator bulb had blown.

Arse.

So it was a desperate double back and search along 10 miles or so of A1 that I'd just traversed but quickly gave up hope of ever seeing it again.

Then spotted it in a lay-by, miraculously mostly intact. Even the bulbs had survived it's 60mph sojourn into the scenery. Duly reunited it was a quick blat to Peterborough and rendezvous with the other Scottish contingent.

And thus to the show.

More bad news though. @Skizzer, who was following in convoy noticed a worrying lack of brake lights. Sure enough it turned out the brake light switch had died and there was no prospect of getting a replacement in a field full of 80s cars. Not without being noticed anyway...

However thanks to the combined knowledge and assistance of Autoshite, and some wires kindly supplied by @blackboilersuit I was able to wire the brake lights up to the foglight switch instead of just living in Lincolnshire for the rest of eternity.

New switch and we're back in business.

On the plus side, it averaged about 35mpg over 680 odd miles. Handy as I'm going on holiday in it next week.

Wish me luck. 

[Mrs6C]

Great to see it out and about still.

If the recent warm* weather is going to become a thing, did you know this car had dealer-fit A/C? Probably ran out of gas ages ago, but could be worth recommissioning... 

[rml2345]

I do indeed Mrs6C, its been on the "To do" list for a while. Until recently I was under the impression that the system would need stripped and all the seals replaced to take the new type gas but that's no longer the case. Would need to get it pressure tested next to see if it's actually still gas tight right enough.