welding project Juular's Scandi Noir. Volvo C70, 240 &122. Earth day.

[juular]

C70 still leaking, but less.

I'm fairly sure this manifold stud is the culprit. Apparently they can go into oilways and need sealant on the threads. Who knew?

Finding some time in the evenings to work on the 240 at the moment. The inner rear arches are joyful.

 

This will be slow to build back up but at least it will be largely hidden.

Close enough.

 

[juular]

Took that manifold stud out. It was dripping with oil.

Bit of threadlock on it, a bit of rtv under the washer. Fingers crossed.

I was given the advice to check the long sump pan bolts next to the transmission as sometimes they need sealant. Right enough I pulled the rearmost one out and oil came out. Sealed this up in a similar way and refitted it.

I thought I was winning this war and was going to drive it to work this morning, then it wouldn't start.

I'd tightened the engine mount bolt right through the cam position sensor wiring.

Still it gives me an excuse to borrow the Mrs's V8 for today's commute. Silver linings.

 

[juular]

Cough. 

Aye.

Only went out for a takeaway. I don't know which part was worse, having to sit and eat it on the hard shoulder, or looking under the bonnet the next day and realising that the problem was a hose had popped off the throttle body.  (It was dark, alright?)

To top it off the ungrateful bastard is still leaking.  The anaerobic sealant finally arrived (I ordered it way back when I was rebuilding the engine) so I'm going to have to drop the sump and redo it. Might have to take the timing belt off and reseal the cam cover too, but so far it looks totally dry up there so I'm going to give that a damn good ignoring in the meantime.

Now onto the horror show that is the 240's rear arches.

The joys of underseal removal.

 

Already started hacking up the rear sill to arch area.

Highly technical templating procedure.

Rebuilding it.

Rebuilding the inner arch.

 

This above is the worst bit of welding I've done, chock full of pinholes and not actually attached in places. I might actually hack it out and redo it as it doesn't fit very well either.

Access is really difficult and it's hard to get light on the work area, especially since it's facing the sun most of the day.  It didn't help that my welder started playing up and sputtering like mad for no reason randomly - no idea what's going on there.

I tried just bending a flange on but it's not quite working as expected.

I am thinking of binning that lip and just welding the inner to the outer, then adding a flange on to the outer. It may not be correct but it may actually be more resilient, as it will no longer be double skinned and trap moisture.

Onto the rear section and spare wheel well.

HOLE.

 

 

And the last little coner.

This is ALMOST one side of the car completely done.

BONUS CONTENT. Here are some Swedish honeys I spotted locally.

Followed by a very tidy Amazon.

[Minimad5]

Keep up the good work.

Re:- Welds. I'd turn up the Amps a wee bit and / or slow down. Use a flap disc to grind back most of the raised areas and pass over again with the greater amps as some welds look to be sitting on top of the metal.

Do by all means ignore all of that ^ , as I ain't the best welder in the world (evident I my P4 thread) , DO however keep ploughing away as it is great to see others keeping old snotters alive

[juular]

13 hours ago, Minimad5 said:

Keep up the good work.

Re:- Welds. I'd turn up the Amps a wee bit and / or slow down. Use a flap disc to grind back most of the raised areas and pass over again with the greater amps as some welds look to be sitting on top of the metal.

Do by all means ignore all of that ^ , as I ain't the best welder in the world (evident I my P4 thread) , DO however keep ploughing away as it is great to see others keeping old snotters alive

Thanks. 

I think I have an intermittent wire feed problem, or the wire itself is poor. It's a pretty good machine and it flatters my lack of skill. But occasionally without changing anything it all goes a bit limp and won't actually fuse metal, just sputters.

I sent the welder back to R-tech this year who said it was alright but supplied me with a replacement torch. It didn't help. The only thing that hasn't been replaced is the wire.

Cranking the amps right up seems to result in larger blobs that still sit on top. 

Going to have a look at it tonight and see if I can figure it out.

 

[Minimad5]

3 hours ago, juular said:

Thanks. 

I think I have an intermittent wire feed problem, or the wire itself is poor. It's a pretty good machine and it flatters my lack of skill. But occasionally without changing anything it all goes a bit limp and won't actually fuse metal, just sputters.

I sent the welder back to R-tech this year who said it was alright but supplied me with a replacement torch. It didn't help. The only thing that hasn't been replaced is the wire.

Cranking the amps right up seems to result in larger blobs that still sit on top. 

Going to have a look at it tonight and see if I can figure it out.

 

Tried slowing down ? , the worst that could happen is you end up with a hole 🤷‍♂️

[juular]

21 minutes ago, Minimad5 said:

Tried slowing down ? , the worst that could happen is you end up with a hole 🤷‍♂️

Yep, that's the weird part. You'd expect it to blow clean through at for example 75% power, but when it's playing up all you get is blobs of weld that barely fuse even when you crank up to 10.  You can grab the pliers and yank the weld right off.

I don't weld beads on thin metal, generally it's a series of stationary tacks.

Sometimes I'll get pissed at it and go do something else. I can then come back to it without changing anything and it'll weld beautifully like frying bacon.

I've eliminated the earth by welding directly onto the clamp. The gas is fine and the regulator is new.

It does the same occasionally on totally clean new sheet metal on the bench too.

My only other suspicion is that perhaps there's something up with the supply of power to my shed outlet.

[GingerNuttz]

I bought wire from ebay months back and it fed like shit in my mig. It would run for a few feet and start stuttering so I just replaced it with better stuff from our local place and it sorted it out. 

[juular]

1 minute ago, GingerNuttz said:

I bought wire from ebay months back and it fed like shit in my mig. It would run for a few feet and start stuttering so I just replaced it with better stuff from our local place and it sorted it out. 

What brand was it? 

The stuff in the machine came with it -  SIF branded I think which I'm led to believe is alright. Not to be confused with SIP which I hear is total mince.

[GingerNuttz]

3 minutes ago, juular said:

What brand was it? 

The stuff in the machine came with it -  SIF branded I think which I'm led to believe is alright. Not to be confused with SIP which I hear is total mince.

It was some white box no name crap they sent but was advertised as super 6.

sif wire is what I replaced it with and it's been flawless since. 

[juular]

18 minutes ago, GingerNuttz said:

It was some white box no name crap they sent but was advertised as super 6.

sif wire is what I replaced it with and it's been flawless since. 

Right, I think I must have either a feed problem or a power supply issue.

My confidence, technique and experience have been improving a lot, and yet I feel the results are becoming increasingly worse. 

I realised I always wear earplugs when working, but last night I did a stint without and heard the occasional noise from the wire feed. Somewhere to start.

[GingerNuttz]

Are you running 0.6 or 0.8? 

[juular]

0.6

[GingerNuttz]

0.6 over long torches fed like shit for me and used to bird nest constantly so I stuck to using 0.8. 

[juular]

Interesting. I have a spare torch to hack up!

[Tickman]

I use .6 in mine and haven't had a problem yet.

Is the torch as straight as possible? Might be adding resistance against the feed if it isn't.

[GingerNuttz]

I should have said it wasn't an Rtech machine that I had issues with on 0.6 it's was a GYS 182.

 

[juular]

32 minutes ago, Tickman said:

I use .6 in mine and haven't had a problem yet.

Is the torch as straight as possible? Might be adding resistance against the feed if it isn't.

It does get considerably worse if I've just contorted myself under the car and using the gun at an angle. 

[3VOM]

Any possibility the crap wire had messed up the liner? I read somewhere that could happen.

One issue I had was that the feed was at quite an angle in the welder, which, combined with not being a brand new clean pinch wheel meant the feed slipped randomly until we tightened the pinch bolt up more than we originally thought necessary.

(we = me and chodweaver who was helping me out with the welding.)

[juular]

24 minutes ago, 3VOM said:

Any possibility the crap wire had messed up the liner? I read somewhere that could happen.

Probably not, as the results were the same with the new torch.

It's more likely the feed as you say.

[juular]

This is driving me batshit.

On the right of this photo you can see what I'd consider a good weld. This is at voltage 1/10 and wire feed 4/10 right as the chart recommends.  Sounded like frying bacon. The penetration is exactly right, there is no gap visible on the back. The HAZ is nice and even.

Right down the middle is a weld I did immediately after. I didn't move, change settings or anything else. All I did was point at the different location.

When I started there it was a weak, popping fizzle and I could just flick the finished weld off. I moved further down - same thing. 

I went to the welder and cranked the voltage up to 3/10 and WF 5/10. That would be enough to blow through normally but it just laid some weak pigeon shit on top of the metal.

I had to turn it up to 7/10 and 6/10 to actually get a weld to even fuse at all. It wouldn't blow through at this setting.

On the back the weld isn't even visible, just a gaping seam and no penetration.

Here's a couple of videos I took in February before I sent the welder back.

This is welding onto clean 1mm steel with the welder set to 5 voltage and 8 wire speed.

That would normally blow right through in a nanosecond but as you can see it does almost nothing. 

It barely triggered the exposure darkening on my camera and actually never triggered the helmet darkening.

 

 

 

 

Worth mentioning that right after those videos I went out and welded a bit of my windscreen surround perfectly at the recommended settings.

[dean36014]

I know you've welded onto the clamp to remove issues with a dodgy earth, but, is there a good clean connection between the earth clamp and the earth lead?

[GMcD]

I'm the last person that should offer advice but you're more than welcome to borrow my welder/ accessories/ 0.8 wire if you want to trial/error or just use it to keep going.  No plans to use it until winter time. 

[chodweaver]

Any possibility the crap wire had messed up the liner? I read somewhere that could happen.
One issue I had was that the feed was at quite an angle in the welder, which, combined with not being a brand new clean pinch wheel meant the feed slipped randomly until we tightened the pinch bolt up more than we originally thought necessary.
(we = me and chodweaver who was helping me out with the welding.)

Those vids do suggest there's a problem either with too little current/voltage going into the arc, or the wire feed stuttering and causing burn back. 3VOM and i had a more severe case of that, due to the wire spool hub running dry and putting up too much resistance for the feed rollers to overcome. A generous application of vaseline helped. Check how smoothly the wire feeds both off the spool and through the torch liner. With the feed rollers and the spool tensioner released, there should be little resistance to the wire coming through - pull some through with pliers and see what the feed rollers have to overcome. Also, have you replaced the torch tip recently? If not, compare the hole with a new one - the wire needs to be quite snug as it exits the tip as this is where the wire gets its current from. A sloppy, worn hole in the tip* will cause intermittent current feed and disrupt the arc.

* OOOH ERRR, Matron!

[juular]

11 hours ago, dean36014 said:

I know you've welded onto the clamp to remove issues with a dodgy earth, but, is there a good clean connection between the earth clamp and the earth lead?

Yes, I actually replaced the lead with a new one.

[juular]

9 hours ago, Gerrymcd said:

I'm the last person that should offer advice but you're more than welcome to borrow my welder/ accessories/ 0.8 wire if you want to trial/error or just use it to keep going.  No plans to use it until winter time. 

Cheers! I'll see how I get on and I may take you up on that, if only to test out.

[juular]

8 hours ago, chodweaver said:

Those vids do suggest there's a problem either with too little current/voltage going into the arc, or the wire feed stuttering and causing burn back. 3VOM and i had a more severe case of that, due to the wire spool hub running dry and putting up too much resistance for the feed rollers to overcome. A generous application of vaseline helped. Check how smoothly the wire feeds both off the spool and through the torch liner. With the feed rollers and the spool tensioner released, there should be little resistance to the wire coming through - pull some through with pliers and see what the feed rollers have to overcome. Also, have you replaced the torch tip recently? If not, compare the hole with a new one - the wire needs to be quite snug as it exits the tip as this is where the wire gets its current from. A sloppy, worn hole in the tip* will cause intermittent current feed and disrupt the arc.

* OOOH ERRR, Matron!

Interesting you mention that. It does seem to get better when I change the tip. Could be a coincidence.  However, it doesn't take long for it to go back to playing up. I'm not sure how often tips should be changed but I'm guessing it's not every half an hour. 

The wire does feel a bit loose in the tip, although it's definitely an 0.6 tip (etched on the side).

[Scruffy Bodger]

Is the swan neck on the torch loose? I sorted a welder out for a friend a while back that had this issue, the torch design meant that if it wasn't done up tight it caused a bad connection to the tip, losing loads of amps. He'd also swapped the wire at some point and not swapped the wire feed wheel over so it was set for the wrong size wire. I also blew out a load of rust dust out the liner by turning the CO2 on my reg right up while the wire was out.

Those 3 things sorted and it welds like the day he bought it.

[juular]

16 minutes ago, Scruffy Bodger said:

Is the swan neck on the torch loose? I sorted a welder out for a friend a while back that had this issue, the torch design meant that if it wasn't done up tight it caused a bad connection to the tip, losing loads of amps. He'd also swapped the wire at some point and not swapped the wire feed wheel over so it was set for the wrong size wire. I also blew out a load of rust dust out the liner by turning the CO2 on my reg right up while the wire was out.

Those 3 things sorted and it welds like the day he bought it.

Thanks, that's a good shout about the swan neck actually. As I say, the more awkward the position the more the likelihood that it will start playing up.

[Scruffy Bodger]

As others have said, try and keep the liner as straight as possible, if need be actually move the welder further away from where you are working if the wire feed isn't doing its job.

As for tips, depending on what you are welding I'd only expect to get thru a couple per wire reel at most. Check periodically that they haven't come loose either, they can have a habit of doing that.

If problems persist weld to weld as you've mentioned I'd be looking at the welder with suspicion. Is it a synergic one?