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

[Rust Collector]

I've just read through the solid chunk of updates I've missed on this - absolutely fantastic work!! That's an incredible amount of progress in a short space of time. I can't wait to see this car completed, 240 saloons are mega cool.

[juular]

There's not a huge amount to do to get the 240 back on the road. The rear suspension needs cleaned up, derusted and re-bushed.

I had a massive clearout as my garden was starting to look like a scrappy.

Brushing under this car was the most cathartic thing ever.

Found a leak on my new welding regulator, which means £40 of Argon got pissed into the wind.

Emptied a tin of dynax seam sealer into every cavity, rail, sills etc.

Painted the floors.

Painted then undersealed all the repairs - another coat is going to be necessary.

Started stripping the suspension parts.

This is a really shit job. In the future I'm simply going to pull the front and rear off, stick it into a big bin and send it off to be blasted.

De-bushed everything. Another really shit job.

 

The big bushes on the axle are really stubborn.

I resorted to a combination of fire, spinning sharp things and a hacksaw.

More time consuming stripping.

No point in trying to fix this spring top mount, it's fit for the bin.

Rust treatment.

 

 

At this point things have stalled as I need to either make or buy a bush press.

[juular]

How did Juular die?

49 times we fought that beast
Your old man and me
It had a chicken head with duck feet
With woman's face too
(Oh, that's rad!)

 

And it was waiting in the bushes for us
Then ripped off your dad's face
He was screaming something awful

In fact it was this huge mess
I had to change the floors
(The floors?)

You see his blood it drained into the boards
And I had to change them
But we all got a chicken duck woman thing
Waiting for us

M12 threaded bar bush press : 0

Shonky home made trolley jack bush press : 0

Volvo trailing arm bushes : 1

These are getting flung at a garage, they can deal with them!

[juular]

A lot of waiting around at the moment. Have flung those suspension arms at a friendly garage to sort the bushes out. I'm also still waiting on windscreen quotes from a lot of places. 

Rebuilt the rear brake calipers.

Made a start on stripping all the gunk off the axle.

The underseal is really horrible stuff. Most rotating tools just smear it about. Attacked with a blow torch, it burns for ages before settling into a hard ceramic like barrier that is really difficult to remove.

The best way so far is to use the knotted wire wheel to cut it down as much as possible, then go over it with the power file and a 40 grit belt. It's very, very slow work.

You might wonder why I'm bothering but half of the axle is very rusty and I'd like to treat and paint it, but the underseal reacts with and blocks paint from sticking. It's best to start with a clean slate since the axle is off.

The big bushes were surprisingly easy to reinstall using a big hammer. I used a woodworking vice opened out as a spreader to stop the ears bending.

 

Then some rust treatment.

I'll paint that midweek when the weather looks dry.

I also made a start on fixing the ongoing oil leak on the c70. I haven't driven it since August.

As suspected the sump sealant was pretty useless. When I dropped the pan there was hardly any left on it. 

I've got the anaerobic stuff ready to put on, when I find the energy to get on with it.

[juular]

The C70 has been sitting having a word with itself for a couple of months now. There's nothing actually wrong with it, but I feel a bit anti-social driving something that dribbles itself everywhere. 

I think the leak is coming from a few places. The spark plug O-rings are evidently shot.

 

The cam cover doesn't seem to visibly be leaking but the sealant I used doesn't seem up to the job so I may as well change it while taking the seals out.

Timing belt off - again. This time last year I was hesitant to do the timing belt myself. I think I've had it on and off 5 times since then.

Most of the sealant I put on seems to have gone..

Scrubbed up and new seals in place.

Anaerobic sealant rolled on.

Same job for the other end.

Finished this off with a fresh oil and filter.

I had to tap the cam oil seals back into place, so I had to take the distributor rotor and cam sensor off. I broke them both in the process.

Since the car was going nowhere, I did a couple of other jobs I've been putting off.

New driver's side brake hose.

I bought one of those cheap Lidl oil pumps to bleed the 240s brakes, this was a good time to test it out.

Seems to work!

 

And the last job for a wee while hopefully..

This is the normal GT steering wheel with suede trim.

Tinker, bang, unscrew.

Much better!

[GMcD]

Lovely. The wood is eleventy million percent better looking 😎.

 

[juular]

47 minutes ago, Gerrymcd said:

Lovely. The wood is eleventy million percent better looking 😎.

 

I have the LS400 to thank for my sudden lust for wood. 😍

[juular]

The 240 did get some attention as well.

Rear axle painted.

Got the suspension arms back from the garage with the new bushes in. In the future, I'm not messing about trying to do them myself.

 

The fuel tank needed a bit of TLC as the seam had started to rust. It wasn't leaking so I used the power file to remove as much rust as possible, then treated what was left.

 

Finally, this is the state of the lower spring retainers.

That will be right!

The originals are 1mm, so some flat 2mm should do the job.

I've altered the idea a little by welding through a bit of M12 threaded bar and a nut on top.

That way I won't have to counterhold anything to put them back together, I'll just spin a nut on the ends.

[juular]

C70 update after doing all the work to fix the oil leaks.

Shat itself again. 

More accurately I put the front cam seals in at a jaunty angle and forgot to true them up before I put the belts on and started the engine.

Thankfully all I needed to do was tap them back into place through the holes in the sprockets, so no need to take the belts off again. A ton of degreaser was launched in there so the oil didn't eat the belts.

Took it another drive and it was STILL leaking from pretty much the same place as before.

This ruled out the sump and cam cover so I changed the last thing it could possibly be.

That's the turbo oil return pipe and yes, that small o-ring is buggered.

Thankfully I had a stash of gaskets from the engine rebuild.

With that replaced I took it a drive.

FINALLY no more leaks!

Oh wait, what's that doing at that angle?

Fuck.

Yeah that's utterly shagged. 

Most of that bit of pipe is a temporary repair from the past.

Am I flinging more money at this car? 

Am I fuck!

A bit of bodging required.

TOTAL MINT

It's a good 20cm shorter now I've cut out the really rotten bits. I am hoping it's enough to see out the winter and by then hopefully this car will have started to be less of an ungrateful cunt. I might treat it to a new bit of exhaust if it behaves.

Took it out a nice autumn run down the back roads.

.. and FINALLY, I reckon I'm happy with it.

Here's what I've done to the car in a year of ownership.

Timing and drive belts, tensioners and pulleys

Front shocks and top mounts

Track rod ends

Discs and pads all round

Poly ARB bushes

Poly subframe bushes

Poly top engine mount

New OEM lower engine mount

New battery

CV joint

ABS ECU resolder

EBD switch

Transmission fluid swapped

Turbo drain pipe gaskets

Engine rebuild with uprated Conrods, big end bearings, new seals and gaskets all round

All new vac hoses 

Replaced leaking coolant hoses

New turbo control solenoid

Distributor cap and rotor

Cam seals

Cam sensor

HT leads

PCV rebuild with new hoses

Oil cooler delete

Injector seals

Front calipers and flexis

Wood steering wheel

You have to wonder if there's anything left to change..

Why did I bother? 

I like to see things through, I don't need it as a daily driver, I looked at it as a rolling (sometimes stationary) project / way to learn how to do pretty much anything on a car. I didn't have any pressure to get it fixed which helps a lot with the tolerance levels. Quite distinctly not the autoshite way. If it was my daily this would have been bridged a long time ago.

And that would have been a massive shame because this is a BRILLIANT car.

Kicking its arse up the back roads on an autumn evening, the soundtrack of burbling / offbeat grumpiness / utter madness at WOT,  the comfiest heated seats ever, perfect driving position, and the best sound system I have ever heard in a car.. that's enough to make this all worth it.

Can now focus on getting the 240 back on the road, which isn't far away at all.

[somewhatfoolish]

I'm having sympathetic nervous tics at the thought of welding shitty old exhausts again.

[EML]

The C70 is still a dam fine looking car, well done with your persistance of fixing up the swedish coupe

 

[juular]

All that's left for the 240 is to basically put everything back on.

Fuel tank got a quick coat.

 

Replaced the faulty in-tank fuel pump.

 

 

Gave the sender tracks a good scrub with acetone and the readings are far more reliable.

Full:

Empty:

 

Fuel pump tested with a battery and a bit of water.  As you can see from the pools on the tank it works fine, and pumps in the right direction (some aftermarket pumps are wired in reverse).

 

 

Last bit of the fuel tank puzzle is the front bracket which has started to deteriorate, so I made a copy.

 

 

 

Exhaust and filler neck refitted.

 

 

 

 

Tank fitted, new bracket in place.

 

 

Brake lines cleaned up.

 

 

New braided flexis.

 

 

Underfloor pump tray refitted.

 

 

Fuel lines refitted and clamped down.

 

 

And the first oil change in 12 years!

 

 

May as well treat it ( was cheaper than the cheap shite, to be fair!)

 

The next job is to refit the rear axle.

I'll also be pulling some bits and pieces off this veteran!

 

[juular]

Happy 137000, C70!

Still retaining fluids and providing forward motion. WIN.

[juular]

Another bit done on the 240.

Carpets scrubbed up nicely, they are in really good condition. They were properly foosty when taken out of the car last year, but just being stored in a heated room was enough to get rid of any dampness.

A couple of bits arrived to finish off the fuel sender unit, so that got put back into the tank and everything wired and plumbed in.

Popped off the old fuel filter, the fuel inside didn't smell particularly healthy.  There are a couple of adapters on the filter that need to be moved over to the new one.

Bulkhead furniture refitted.  I got a replacement foam mat from a scrap car to keep it OEM.

Just as things were going well the wiper motor fought back. I was just tightening up the bolt that connects the linkages to the spindle when it sheared off.  Then the linkages decided to spontaneously explode on me and throw their weird steel wire connections in my face.

 

I'm not sure on the way forward with that. I've tried drilling it down and using a bolt extractor, but as you probably already know they are total shite and this achieved nothing. My next move is to drill it and tap it for an M7 bolt which should still fit within the diameter of the spindle.

I sacked off doing anything else on the front of the car and went to the back.

Rear axle moved into position.

Using axle stands for an actual axle, NOVEL APPROACH.

Stripped a boatload of underseal off the axle brake lines and polished them up.

New flares and unions.

Secured in place before anything else goes on.

It then got mega dark and cold very quickly so that got abandoned until next week.

Before the half shafts go in, I noticed that one of the bearing outer races that was sitting in the axle had gone mega rusty.

It's not possible to buy these separately so I had to buy a complete wheel bearing.  Changing the actual bearing needs a large floor standing press to fit the shaft in, so I'm hoping I can get away with just swapping over the outer races. Then, if I need a new bearing in the future I'll have one lying around.

 

[juular]

Wiper motor spindle disaster postponed for now.

Drilled out to M6.

Bought a tap and die set.

Ran the m7 tap down it.

Fitted the only M7 bolt I have.

 

Needs cut to length, but otherwise, wiper motor saved!

 

[juular]

Rear axle almost done now.

SPORTS SHOCKS. GET YER SPORTS SHOCKS. TWO FURRA POUUUUUN-A!

Half shafts, new splash guards and brake shoes refitted one side, the other side shoes have fallen apart.

I hoped to get the calipers on but Autodoc have sent the wrong pad fitting kits. Still, it's a nice thing to look at.

There is a surprising amount of lateral play in the offside half shaft. When I checked the bearing against the new one I have, there was no difference in play. I am led to believe this might be normal?

While fitting the brake shoes I noticed that the offside brake expander has two clevis pins holding the parts together that have gone missing.

So it's either £30 for a complete expander, or unbelievably, £50 EACH for the pins themselves.

Of course I'm doing neither.

An M5 bolt fits the centre hole exactly. I cut it to size, peened one end over with a ball peen hammer, then ground the bolt head at the other end right down.

For the handbrake cable end, an M6 fits nicely.

Cut to size.

It has to be an exact length as it needs to slide inside the mechanism when installed. 

The next job will be recommissioning all of the  car's electrics before fitting the interior.

[juular]

I'd hope to be way further on than this, but the car is fighting back.

Hooked up the wiper linkages to the repaired spindle.

Refitted the handbrake cables.

 

One of the sunroof pipes that drain into the A-pillar was leaking, so I cut and lengthened it with a barbed connector and a bit of water hose left over from my camper conversion.

 

Next I made an attempt to refit the fuse panel so that I could then test the electrics.  This screws into a metal plate that in turn screws into the door hinge support bracket.  Of course, when I remade this, I folded it in the wrong direction and the panel no longer has anything to screw into.

 

To solve this I extended it with a small bit of steel.

Then the whole lot gets secured with a self tapper.

 

Next I wanted to test the electrics while the interior was out and all wiring was accessible.

I fitted fuses and tested systems one by one. This is how it went.

Wiper motor - dead

Screenwash pump - dead

Headlight wipers - dead

Horn - dead

Fuel pumps (both) - dead

Electric windows  - dead

Lights - working

Starter motor - working

So that's just the main stuff, I haven't fitted the dash and tested that yet.

Let's start with the wipers. Of course I had to disconnect everything again and bench test the motor. Nothing at all from supplying power straight to the low or high speed pins.

Opened it up.  Ah. That commutator is looking pretty corroded.

After a clean.

I then continuity tested it from the pins to the commutator and got a reading so good to go.

These motors earth directly to the bodywork under the scuttle so I cleaned up the earthing bolt point.

 

And scraped the paint off the earth point.

Boooooooooooom.

Screenwash pump - that turned out to be a simple fix by sorting this excuse for an earth point.

 

Next up, horn.

Pressing the horn did nothing, so I took the black wire out of the back of the steering column and ground it against the chassis (the horn works on a switched earth). It worked.. happy times.

So I pulled off the horn pad to have a look.

Unfortunately the connector ring underneath the steering wheel seems to be loose / broken. Of course the bolt on the wheel needs a deep socket that I don't have, so I can't go any further for now.

On to the electric windows.

With each door individually plugged into the system none of the switches did anything. 

I then realised that the whole system was wired to run via the driver's door 4 way switch. Since the driver's door had been stripped down already by the previous owner  (not a good sign) I had to dig through the spares to find it.

Still nothing worked. I had to go round with the meter and check every connection, where I found quite a few corroded pins.

And finally..

However only 3 windows were working and the driver's side was still dead. Going by the stripped down door I assumed the motor was seized and the previous owner had tried to sort it.  Applying power directly to the pins confirmed this.

Taking the regulator out is a right faff, mainly because the hole in the door is too small.

Also, before removing the motor you have to cable tie the mechanism together otherwise it just springs open and then you're fucked.

Before looking at the motor I also pulled out the headlight wiper motors as well so that I could do these all in one go in the evening.

Door window motor:

On opening up it's clear to see there's a bit of a water ingress problem.

Again, this one had a filthy commutator which I cleaned up.

Tested before reassembly and we're back in business!

Onto the headlight motors.

.

On these ones the small motors were working fine, but the toothed wheels that move the wiper spindles were jammed solid in their bearing frames.

The fix for these was to push the wheels out (not easy!) and use the power file to enlarge the bearing holes by around 1mm.

These both went back together and worked perfectly.

Since I had to take the lights and grille off again to remove the motors, I gave them a bit of a polish.

Before.

After

Before

After

 

 

 

 

[Tepper]

Great fixing going on here, not just replacing stuff. Top work!

[juular]

Very slowly chipping away at this.

Fixed the horn, as @Lacquer Peel kindly loaned me the 27mm deep socket to get the steering wheel off. The contacts just needed a good clean.

Gave the rear lights a clean and a polish. They were utterly howling.

Bulbs individually tested via the multiplug connector to rule out any issues.

Refitted the driver's electric window regulator and motor.  For some reason the motor wiring is soldered to the pins rather than plugged, so I had to cut it, then when refitting I crimped on some spade connectors.

Back in business.

The reassembled headlight wipers were also reinstalled and worked perfectly (after a bit of confusion as I replaced one motor upside down thus reversing the polarity).

Refitted the dash, surprisingly easy on this car.

That'll be the washers working (had to go and dry my face).

On refitting the dash centre console I found that the hazard light switch wasn't working.

Pulling the switch apart I was met with an explosion of small parts.

Eventually worked it out, this little sledge thing complete with its tiny springs and shitty clips runs back and forward against the pins.

It's not making great contact thanks to a lack of pressure - the pins must have worn down a bit. I added a little bit of hot glue to the area where it runs against the switch body to act like a spacer / shim.

That now works again.

Continued refitting the underlay and carpets.

Refitting the handbrake console allowed me to test the electric mirror switches.

Surprised but very pleased they work perfectly.

Two pretty major other faults were found though - the reverse lights don't work and the driver's seatbelt was jammed solid.

Here is a photo of where the reverse light switch is located on the gearbox..

Jammed right up against the transmission tunnel. That is going to be hilarious*.

I opened up the seatbelt mechanism.

It flung its spring violently in my face and tangled itself into an impossible mess. I ordered a replacement off a scrap car, because fuck that.

[Datsuncog]

Great progress here!
Now looking satisfying close to being an aktual car again...

I really enjoyed my redblock 240 estate; amazingly, everything worked bar the tailgate lock and the trip counter reset button (even if the wipers were ve-e-e-e-ry slow). Lovely solid feel, and a great engine note.

Sadly, it got a bit crispy towards the back end and after some dire warnings at MOT time, I passed it back to the previous owner for £30 less than I'd paid eighteen months before.

It ended up having a rather short but very eventful trip to Mildenhall Raceway, and that was that.

Regrets...

[juular]

I'm determined that this year's Christmas present to myself is going to be an MOT pass for the 240.

Fixed the reverse lights.  As you can see even with the box dropped as far as it will go, there's still no room to get in about the reverse switch.

Solution : wedge a jack into the transmission tunnel and open it up. Plenty of space now.

Thankfully the issue was just corroded bullet connectors.  A new bit of wiring and fresh connectors fixed the reverse lights.

Brake parts arrived.

 

I started bleeding the brakes but the metric bleed screws I've used don't seem to be a particularly good fit which is making it really tricky. Imperial ones are on order. 

I did at least get a good solid stream of fluid to each caliper, but the brake pedal felt really crunchy.   Since the master cylinder has been sitting 12 years or so unused, I decided it wouldn't hurt to replace the seals.

Old seals

New seals and a clean up

The pedal feels better although obviously still  mega spongy, there's loads of air in the system.

Refilled the diff.

Cut the old speedo drive plug off as it had disintegrated.  Spliced in one from a scrap car. Heatshrink applied afterwards.

Finished refitting the interior. What a nice feeling.

 

Being able to actually sit in it feels brilliant.  It's incredibly comfy.

So @Lacquer Peelcame over with a can of petrol and we tried to get it to run.

This is about as good as we managed.

The weather and the darkness colluded to make sure we didn't get it fired up, but it sounds like it wants to live.

In the process of taking the spark plugs in and out, the thread on #1 became really chewed up. It's an aluminium head which doesn't help.

I made up a ghetto mini-tap by cutting 4 notches into a plug.

This worked really well. In and out a couple of times and it seems to have sorted the threads right out.

Plug fitting nicely now. Of course the plug is buggered now (check out that gap, and the electrode end fell off) but it's cheaper than a new head.

New plugs are on order, and I'll try to get it running next weekend.

Thoughts and prayers gratefully received.

 

[Split_Pin]

Just caught up with this thread, hats off to you for doing this all essentially  outdoors.

It looks tantalisingly close to being on the road!

[Tepper]

I had the same experience with the seats in my V70. When it was beating me, I'd have a quick sit down and go 'Ooh, this is comfy. Must fix it!'

[juular]

1 hour ago, Tepper said:

I had the same experience with the seats in my V70. When it was beating me, I'd have a quick sit down and go 'Ooh, this is comfy. Must fix it!'

That is surprisingly accurate. The rear bench is like a chesterfield sofa!

[juular]

With the engine failing to start, I decided to give everything a check over, starting with the basics.

New NGK plugs, since I butchered one to create a tap. 

Pulled the cold start injector off the manifold and tested it.  It wasn't spraying any fuel when given 12V, so I gave it a good scrub and it started working again.

Cleaned the distributor cap and rotor - it was pretty mucky.

Pulled off the Auxiliary Air Valve and check to see that it was open.

I then tested that by aiming a heat gun at the body to see if it would close properly. It did.

I then opened up the air meter sock and lifted the plate up and down until I could feel the fuel metering plunger 'tap' against it.  It clearly was a little bit sticky with sitting for a wee while. Moving it for a while was enough to get it to slide freely.  I could also hear the injectors 'sing' when the plate was lifted which was a good sign the fuel pressure was about right.

That should be enough to get it to fire.

 

She lives!  As you can see she's a bit grumpy though, and refuses to idle at all. As soon as you let off the accelerator, it stalls. It's definitely motivating to hear the characteristic VUUUUU from the fan for the first time.

From the sound of it there's not enough air getting in to keep the idle high enough.  I opened up the idle position screw on the throttle body and tried again.

Way better! But still not right.

Next I adjusted the idle air/fuel mixture screw on the kjet unit. From the smell, it was running far too rich, so I turned it anticlockwise to lean it out. 

Much happier!

I'm not done though, as this car keeps throwing obstacles at me.

Firstly, there appears to be a bit of a vacuum issue as there is a bit of hunting occasionally, plus when you step on the brake pedal the engine almost stalls.  

More pressing is that it's leaking water.

The water pump is absolutely covered in coolant residue.

Seals and gasket are completely shot.

Since I'm going to have to wait for seals to arrive, I carried on as I can never leave anything alone for a minute.

Throttle body off.  It was utterly clogged with crap plus the vacuum ports were blocked.

Cleaned up.

Decided to crack on and service the PCV system since it's a possible source of vacuum leaks and major issues. Pulled the manifold.

PCV box pulled off and cleaned through with carb cleaner spray.

Flame trap, clogged solid.

48 hours sitting in carb cleaner wasn't enough, I had to get a needle and poke each opening through. It was absolutely solid with sludge.

With the manifold off I could then also check the thermotime switch that controls the cold start injector.  

This is meant to be closed circuit until a certain temperature, then it opens.   I tested this using a shot glass of boiling water and thankfully it worked properly, as they're about £200 to replace.

Next up, brakes.  I swapped the one-way valve from the booster onto the C70 to see if it was alright, and it was. So unfortunately that points to a dead brake servo.  I pulled it off to check it.

Sure enough, when I push the rod in, air tries to escape via the vacuum port, which would then be getting sucked into the manifold creating a lean mix.

So that's another boatload of parts ordered..

 

In the meantime I was getting a windscreen fitted, so I went over my welded repairs with some filler while the screen was out.

 

Saved the windscreen guy a bit of work..

Yaaas!

And finally, one of the last bits of the puzzle.

Hoping to have an MOT within the fortnight.

 

 

 

 

[SRi05]

Amazing stuff man. Tantalizingly close to being on the road now

[Split_Pin]

Great diagnosis of the lean mixture. I'd have taken about 9 months to work out that sort of thing (probably have thrown my toys out the pram long before though)

Lovely to see this coming on, it's been a labour of love (sometimes!)

[cort1977]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

Great diagnosis of the lean mixture. I'd have taken about 9 months to work out that sort of thing (probably have thrown my toys out the pram long before though)

That's what I was thinking too.  I would either have done that or fired up the parts cannon before getting the arse with the whole thing and leaving ti sitting for months...

Great work and looking forward to seeing it driving.

[captain_70s]

Just caught up with all this, amazing stuff.

Every few posts I remember this is all being done outside in winter... 😬

[juular]

19 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Every few posts I remember this is all being done outside in winter... 😬

I'm a bit wrong in that I really don't mind the cold, in fact I prefer the winter to the heat in the summer. Trying to weld / undo bolts with sweat running into your eyes is pretty miserable and I always end up with a thumping migraine.   Winter is also good in the sense nobody is using their gardens so I can use the grinder and smack things with hammers and nobody cares. 👍