Further SVM non-Volvo shennanigans. SPONSORED BY LUCAS CAV

[Ghosty]

This is a class thread. Watching with interest. 

[Jim Bell]

It's getting pretty good mpgs so far. 

 

[Skizzer]

Fabulous.

I missed this first time round.  You towed it out of the garage on a a dog lead you found in the boot? Outstanding.

[320touring]

We don't fuck around.

 

And it was a dog collar. About the thickness of a shoe lace:)

[davidfowler2000]

I have a pair of boots which I think has thicker laces than that collar.

[davidfowler2000]

Thon was quick

 

[loserone]

Post arriving at midnight is mighty impressive too

[hairnet]

how hungry was the petrol monster?

 

[davidfowler2000]

Wednesday 04/03/2020

Other than a new battery, somewhere to live and the moving thereof, nothing has been spent on the 205. This was, of course, the intention until a Viability Study™ could be carried out. Namely finding a MoT tester mental enough to put a car through a test that has sat in a lockup for 15 years. Mr 320touring of this parish suggested his tester in Cumbernauld is a safe bet so a test was booked for this afternoon and the trailer was once again booked for hire.

First order of business was to collect the trailer, collect Mr 320touring and have lunch somewhere. Once this was accomplished, the car was liberated from it's hidey-hole and loaded on to the trailer. But not without having a quick blast to blow the cobwebs out...

The noise off the CV joints was horrendous. Even managed to get a wee bit of turbo spool and blast all the smoke out. A gallon of fresh diesel the last time I saw the car probably helped a lot there.

Then off to the test station up in Wardpark. Only 10 mins drive or so away, we get there, drop it off then head for tea...

Tea was had and we came back. Test were running a bit behind but it eventually went in and shuftys were had

Having two of the doors tied together inside the car to keep them shut didn't bode well. Presenting a car for test by driving it there on a trailer didn't garner much enthusiasm either. The tester was not impressed.

Once under the car, comments were made alongs the lines of "solid" and "those brake lines are brand new". After the test was concluded it got a general "It's not that bad. It really just needs what you said it would need".

So how not bad was it. Well then...

To summarise, in order to pass a test it needs -
Door catches all round
Brakes all round
Wheel bearings all round
An ARB drop link
Battery clamp installed in correct position not simply sitting on top so I know where it is
A couple of electrical bits
Show the tester how to work the screenwash. Maybe fix the leak in the pipe on the rear wash.

In addition -
Timing belt and water pump
Thermostat
General service
Check rear suspension to see why it's a bit low on one side
4 x tyres
Wipers

[320touring]

It did bloody well:)

Love how it fires up nae issue now - the wee thing wants to live!

[jaypee]

Yaaas, bagsy a shot! 

[trigger]

What a great thread! Being a D Turbo means you've got a cracking car there too, a few weekends and some beer money will see that sailing back through the test!. 

[Six-cylinder]

Poor thing needs a clean and polish!

[Zelandeth]

We had a scruffy one of these as a runaround at the garage for a while back around 2003/4.  Went forever on a gallon of diesel and left many, many bigger motors standing in a stunned cloud of diesel smoke as it catapulted itself towards the horizon at an appreciable portion of the speed of sound.  Squidgy seats and soft suspension meant it was comfy *and* quick.  I liked it.

Sadly it was about £500 out of my budget at the time (I was firmly in the £100 or less car market back then) so no way I could buy it.  Granted...think it was only a couple of runabouts later that the little Renault 11 came in that I *could* afford, so it wasn't long before my encounters with French cars really started!

That should be a lovely little thing that most people probably won't even really know exists these days.  That colour polishes up lovely too.

This probably would have been the first proper diesel hot hatch wouldn't it? 

[Jim Bell]

That's a decent result considering. It's always reassuring when there's no surprises. Lovely to see the little sod moving about again. 

[HillmanImp]

Is nobody going to mention the dead teddy bear? 

Strung up. Poor sod. 

His test results must've been even worse. 

[davidfowler2000]

8 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

Poor thing needs a clean and polish!

The vast majority of the muck was from it's trailering from EK to Cumbernauld in the snow. Wet roads and lots of salt. Yay*.

[juular]

Fine work. 

[Zelandeth]

I assume the stale fuel issues are down to the biodiesel components these days?  Never recall that having being an issue with any of the old buses I've helped revive...so long as there's diesel in the tank and it's actually diesel rather than water, they've always run quite happily on 20+ year old fuel.  Was always one big plus of diesel over petrol historically and one more reason it made more sense for standby generators which might sit for months or years before being needed at a moment's notice.

[davidfowler2000]

Diesel does go nasty eventually but not to the same degree as petrol. The car did run on the stale stuff quite happily but it smelled like paint. The cold idle wasn't great but the new fuel helped solve that,

[320touring]

An XUD will run on Lard

[davidfowler2000]

Dates: Various

Some time off work and some decent-ish weather after the MoT allowed for some investigation of parts to see what the setup of the various bits on the 205 were...

  

  

  

As with most cars, it's basically just trying to find out what the brake setup is. Seeing as my main personal experience doing brakes on older cars is Volvos usually with Girling fronts, TRW rears and ATE hydraulics, it's nice to have a car that's all the one system - Bendix.

autodoc.co.uk would be the main target for finding parts. Euro Car Parts could get... some bits. GSF could get other some bits however the Glasgow branch of GSF closed recently so if I'm going to have to do it mail order, might as well get it all from one place. Also between ECP and GSF, I couldn't get everything I wanted.
One week after ordering, two large boxes turned up...

Contained in the autodoc order:
Front Calipers x 2
Front Discs x 2
Front Pads
Front Accessory Kit
Front Bearings x 2
Rear Drums x 2
Rear Shoes
Rear Fitting Kit
Rear Shoes Adjuster Set
Rear Wheel Cylinders x 2
Rear Bearings x 2
Master Cylinder
Timing Belt / Water Pump Kit
Brake Cleaner Tin x 3
1L Brake Fluid
Air Filter
Oil Filter
Circlip Pliers

Also from another source, -
Driveshafts x 2

 

In Other News...
Drum brakes can get fucked! I mean having to assemble bits of them OFF THE CAR FFS!

[hairnet]

sctsch fiddling with non volvo shock

like it

the brakes tho GTF

the nipples scare me

[reb]

I didn't see this thread until today! I will have to get along to assist! Always loved the 5 door Dturbos, even though they're not fast fast, they're faster than they look. They also feel faster than they are, gr9 4 legal hoonage.

I'm sure in time I will be going through much the same process with my wee pug project!

[davidfowler2000]

5th May 2020

Not much has happened.... Start again.
Bugger all has happened to the 205 in a while. This lockdown we're in is causing it due to the travel restrictions to essential journeys only and with the 205 being up in Cumbernauld I cannot justify going near it. I'm at reasonable risk to this bloody virus being asthmatic and still working with the public so driving anything anywhere really is a no no. Anyone who says otherwise needs to have a word with themselves. The last time I drove a car was the 22nd of March. The Volvo 740 has done 9 miles since I last refuelled it on 17th March.
Anyways the last thing I done with the 205 was to put the new rear wheel bearings into the new rear brake drums from the pile of parts occupying the spare bedroom. Simple enough, put the bearings in the freezer and the drums in the oven as high as it will go. They just dropped straight in.

So today I was on call and wasn't called out. With a delivery from the postie, I thought I really need to get out and do some tinkering. Fuck the system etc

 

Yeah. Not 205 action but still... had to do something and the 740 is just outside. The tape player shat itself that time the Association of Associated Massivs did the final open day of The Electric train Museum in Coventry then the Wythall Bus Museum. Going up the M40 for dinner it decided to play funny and not rewind / FF. Then after dinner the alternator shat itself. Anyways a duff belt was suspected and A few days ago, I managed to prize it out the car and have a look. Belt gone as expected. The video will describe the rebuild which was, in the best traditions, the opposite of disassembly.

Taking it apart...

  

As expected...

                   

[Ghosty]

Your tape deck broke in October 2017: 

1990 and 1987 740 GLEs by max_burton, on Flickr

that picture was taken in the Wythall car park as we were comparing GLEs, I drove down with Conelrad and almost passed out at the wheel on the way home (!). 

 On the topic of us having the same car, I've just won a 205 D Turbo on eBay, also a grey five door K plater, except mine has a sunroof. 

[Six-cylinder]

There is nothing like a parade of 740s!

[davidfowler2000]

Dates: Various

Lockdown has really put this project back but now that we're allowed to go further than 5 miles for recreation, things can get started again. So to recap the MoT fail sheet mostly consisted of Brakes, Bearings, Doors not working and exterior lighting. With a few odds and ends as advisories. Part were procured including some new tools which I done a review* of...

The thing I was MOST concerned about was the doors. Were the latches completely hooped? Was there something more sinister? As it turns out the common failure mode for them is the lever on the back of the exterior handle not returning to it's home position and causing the lock and latch to bind up. Cue many hours of me pulling door cards off and dousing everything with WD40. The rear passenger door which was stuck shut was interesting. All the doors were cured and new locks put in with new keys.

Next I thought I'd tackle the rear brakes because I hate drums and wanted to get them out the way. I got the new shoes and a drum on the driver side but the cylinders were not for budging - the two bolts I managed to get moving but the copper brake line is fused to it. I'll get someone else to do that.

A few trips up to do some more recon for parts in the meantime. The steel coolant pipe behind the driver's wing had rotted out (TADTS) so a new one was procured from KAM Racing in stainless steel. As an aside some new rubber hose for the injector leak off and some hose for the rear screenwash which turned out to be too short.

Tuesday 14/07/2020

Dragged myself out of bed and decided to head up again today with some new bits, a wiring diagram, tools and the power washer.

Task #1 get it on charge so it could be moved. The battery hasn't had a full charge in months as it was left connected during lock down. Well I didn't know that was going to happen. While it was doing that off the 740 I did the leakoff hoses.

     

Then out in to the open for it's first bit of summer daylight in 16 years and a wash...

     

 

     

     

Now that I can work on without getting (too) manky by touching anything, it's back inside for the next task - brake lights. Both were non functioning and the fuse was OK. Turns out it was just two dud bulbs so after much footering with the brake light switch and hotwiring, I cleaned the crap off them and got some illumination.

They're still dodgy and I could see a blue arc in one of them when I was plugging it in so I'll just replace both.

Next - Oil pressure tell tale. Wire had fallen off the pressure switch.

And to test that, a startup was in order but more charge was required...

 

 

So as hinted at, the handbrake tell tale has been acting up. Time to investigate THAT...

 

Easily got it. Took it out for a shufty...

So it gets a positive feed from a wire and ground out through the screw. Time to clean those contacts then...

And...

This has all taken a while 'cos I don't work quickly on cars plus electric gremlins need fastidiousness to track down. Time marching, time to do a checklist:

Required - Brake light bulbs, front side light bulb, number plate bulbs, 4mm ID hose at a proper length.
As mentioned someone else can do the back brakes because drums can get in the sea. I'll also be leaving pretty much everything on the front end for a garage to do - brakes, driveshafts, gearbox oil seals, drop links, timing belt, water pump - because the front wheel bearings need done and I don't have a press so if someone is going to be in there anyways, they might as well do the whole lot plus working in a small lockup is less than ideal.

Anyways I think that's all for today.

 

BONUS ACTION

 

[Six-cylinder]

I got to drive ghosty's one at the weekend, I loved it but I am too wide for the seats!

[dollywobbler]

Looks a bonny wee thing.