A quiet day the 'morro... 14042025 XC70 A remote chance of success...

[ruffgeezer]

It's going to be that busy, I've had to write a list of times and occurrences. 

One full service, 3 due out, 2 due in with 1 leaving on Saturday.

Hopefully everyone else involved is poised and ready, and I'll get time at some point to have a sit down!

 

[hairnet]

finger out

 

[ruffgeezer]

First tasks have been to fill this one with scrap and a full service on the other one.

Price for cats is low at the moment so we'll keep this one...

Waiting on brakes for this, but nearly there.

I've word that one of the movements today has been delayed but is due anytime now, the second is due around 1445.

 

[High Jetter]

27 minutes ago, ruffgeezer said:

I've word that one of the movements today has been delayed but is due anytime now, the second is due around 1445.

Are we talking poo count here? 😀

Hope it all goes to plan.

[ruffgeezer]

3 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Are we talking poo count here? 😀

Hope it all goes to plan.

No time for loaf crimping today!

One out, one in...

 

[ruffgeezer]

With the Yaris stashed and the Partner off for frag feed, I started loading up the little ax ready for it's new owner later when @Mac69400 arrived with this:-

I only had time for a quick sit in it had a natter with Andrew before he left in the other Peugeot 

 

I'm knackered now, but still there is work to be done!

[ruffgeezer]

After a brief Breakfast/lunchtime interlude, an nice man has arrived to take another of my problems away...

Truth be told I saved it because I wanted to get my red one sorted, but I barely got anywhere with this one so thought better of it.

It's off to provide vital parts for 3 others in Yorkshire now.

[Mac69400]

Great to meet you this afternoon, and I've enjoyed the journey back in my van with windows very much. 

Despite my girlfriend's antipathy towards it, they're all the car you need. 

[Mac69400]

It was also lovely to meet @Dan_ZTT this morning and take the XC70 up to @ruffgeezer. I've had a great day today meeting two of my internet imaginary friends, and they've turned out to be real, nice people. 

I've left an eyesore of a Peugeot Expert outside Dan's house but I'm sure I'll get it moved soon. 

[ruffgeezer]

Yes I should also thank @Dan_ZTT for such a smooth transaction.   Hopefully I'll get a chance to explore the XC in the daylight tomorrow.

[stuboy]

great work, love the tortie cat!

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, Mac69400 said:

It was also lovely to meet @Dan_ZTT this morning and take the XC70 up to @ruffgeezer. I've had a great day today meeting two of my internet imaginary friends, and they've turned out to be real, nice people. 

I've left an eyesore of a Peugeot Expert outside Dan's house but I'm sure I'll get it moved soon. 

This place. 

[Rustybullethole]

Movers and shakers, scrapers and breakers, hot Swedes and Koreans brakeless. 

All action.

These are undoubtedly all the vehicle you'll ever need. The only issue with them is the conundrum of to call them a car or a van. 

@Mac69400Does this one contain some parts for another? Am up by Evesham next week and am trying to convince a mate he needs a shit partner. 

[Mac69400]

22 minutes ago, Rustybullethole said:

 

@Mac69400Does this one contain some parts for another? Am up by Evesham next week and am trying to convince a mate he needs a shit partner. 

It does, I was going to get in touch with you about them. Let me know when you're up and we'll sort something out. 

[ruffgeezer]

Yes I did dispatch @Mac69400 with your box of bits safely stowed and under guard by H the dog, who is ace.

[Rustybullethole]

Cheers fellas. Might even wash the vancar today in preparation for new bits.

May not though as busy day. Will see. 

@Mac69400 shall be in touch 👍🏽

[ruffgeezer]

That's the little Yaris dispatched now too, thanks to @Pat Earrings and family.  Nice to meet you all.  

[Pat Earrings]

14 minutes ago, ruffgeezer said:

That's the little Yaris dispatched now too, thanks to @Pat Earrings and family.  Nice to meet you all.  

What an absolute pleasure it was to meet you mate. They love it already, thank you,, top bloke and shiter 🙌🏽

[Mac69400]

Rustybullethole loaded up with bits of Partner/Berlingo. I hope the box survives the trip.

Lovely to meet you this afternoon, and thanks again for the eggs. 

[Rustybullethole]

1 hour ago, Mac69400 said:

Rustybullethole loaded up with bits of Partner/Berlingo. I hope the box survives the trip.

Lovely to meet you this afternoon, and thanks again for the eggs. 

The pleasure was mine good sir.

Parts all back safe and soon to be tarting up a careworn Citroen. Id sort of forgotten how massive modern headlights are! 

[ruffgeezer]

Finally made a start on the gold XC70 last night whilst stuck on hold to EE.

I'd only intended on swapping the cars about on the drive, but by the time I got through to a human on the phone, I'd got the car up on axle stands with the back wheels off.

After the phone call, I stripped off the rear calipers and discs to inspect the handbrake shoes.

How a Volvo of this age has still not got handbrake show adjusters I don't know. It's failed many times on parking brake efficiency.

The solid bar here can be swapped with a normal adjuster from the 850.  They can now be bought on ebay for just over a tenner a pair.

Brake pads look pretty fresh.

 

The nearside rear had a spring missing from the shoe, but luckily it was found inside the drum.

 

This is the new chinesium adjust vs the solid bar that it will replace.

This tyre will also need to be deslt with.

[Bear]

On 21/03/2025 at 17:18, ruffgeezer said:

With the Yaris stashed and the Partner off for frag feed, I started loading up the little ax ready for it's new owner later when @Mac69400 arrived with this:-

*wakes up and pays attention*

Hang on, why has it got an extra foglight?

[ruffgeezer]

I suspect that the original light switch failed as the original rear fog lamp circuit has been entirely replaced.

Edit:- Actually, it wouldn't entirely surprise me to fund a fault in the towbar socket - it's hidden under the back bumper and a lot of tow sockets have a cut out switch for the rear fog lamps on the car built in. 

[ruffgeezer]

So today I thought I'd fit the handbrake shoe adjusters, only they didn't want to fit - they were considerably longer than the plate they were to replace.

Now I'd normally have thrown them back at the ebay vendor and ordered more, but I've been trying to embrace alternative ways of thinking with my repairs. Amongst my friends and family I'm lucky to know an engineer whom use to work on ships when at sea and former Army tank engineer.   These have provided me with another perspective as to how things might get done.

It's not completely clear from this picture, but the adjuster is a good 7-8mm longer than it ought to be.

It's a bit more obvious once I'd measured the plate and compared it though:-

First mark is the point at which the plate stopped, then I needed to take account t of the thickness of the end piece of the adjuster:-

There is also a bevel in the end, so i used a 10mm drill bit to add that before cutting the adjuster down.  I'll not harp on about this bit too long as slowly drilling large holes is boreing.

I've missed a picture but I cut the adjuster down with a hacksaw, here's a before and after.

Here it is fitted and tested, I treated myself to more drama though as the spring had come adrift was missing a piece of it's tail, and I as attempted to put a bit more bend on it, it shot out of my molegrips and landed in the hedge somewhere behind me.  Luckily ECP had a set on the shelf so I await those.

Here's one side built up ready to go...

I thought I'd have a look under the bonnet next...

Cambelt label! Winner...

15 years ago?  Oh bollocks.  Perhaps it'll be ok?

 

Fuck.

 

[ruffgeezer]

I've seen a full cambelt kit and waterpump on Facebook in St Helens, are there any shiters in thst neck of the woods whom might be able to collect it and send it on for me?  

@purplebargeken perhaps, if that isn't imposing too much?

[ruffgeezer]

Bit more of a wrestle with the car today,  fitting the front arms on these is a pair  in the arse as you really have to separate the whole hub to get the arms back on - I found that out the hard way.

I'm not convinced the arm bush was excessively worn, but since I got a pair of Febi Bilstein arms for a reasonable discount,  I thought it best to chuck them on.

I was at the point of swearing and wrestling before giving up and removing the top bolts from the hub.

Ember was busy testing the strength of the boot struts.

One side has a new arm fitted, I still need to tighten all the mounting bolts, replace the clip on the inner CV boot and fit the drop link.

I'm also collecting a part worn tyre tomorrow for the shabby NSR.

[mercedade]

18 hours ago, ruffgeezer said:

Bit more of a wrestle with the car today,  fitting the front arms on these is a pair  in the arse as you really have to separate the whole hub to get the arms back on - I found that out the hard way.

I'm not convinced the arm bush was excessively worn, but since I got a pair of Febi Bilstein arms for a reasonable discount,  I thought it best to chuck them on.

I was at the point of swearing and wrestling before giving up and removing the top bolts from the hub.

 

Strictly speaking, you don't have to, it just avoids some of the serious dangers.

On my XC90 (same setup) I had managed to remove the floppy old arm before, like you, discovering that the new arm wouldn't re-seat on the bottom ball joint as the hub had dropped and there was no way of managing to force the lower arm down far enough whilst simultaneously moving the hub over the locating hole for the balljoint.

What I ended up doing was using some ratchet straps that positively twannnnggggged  with tension to pull down the lower arm enough that I could then use a wheely jack (like the one in your photo, but with the front wheels chocked in the block-paving) to raise the hub up enough to then move the ball joint juuust enough to locate over the arm and then lower it down without the jack moving.

What those 70 odd words don't convey is the sheer amount of time the first side took me (like, 8 hours over two days), nor the twanging my own sphincter was doing every time my fingers got close to the ball-joint/locator interface.

So really, you did it the right way. It's just that those top bolts on the hub looked so, so rusty, right?

[ruffgeezer]

What didn't help is I watched a video of a bloke fitting arms to a v70 to remind me how it was done, and he didn't struggle,  I then read about fitting arms on the xc70 and found out they can't be fitted the same way.

I got the passenger side done today in less than half the time.

 

[ruffgeezer]

Sorted the headlight aim out this morning (bulb upside down) and replaced the sidelight bulb.  Just waiting on the correct droplinks, changing the rear tyre and fitting the timing belt kit.

[ruffgeezer]

Oh and I must change the clamp on the rear silencer.  I use M10 70mm clamps on the XC70s from a tractor parts firm,  you.get far more pull on an M10 thread U clamp, the M8 tend to break before you get much crush on an exhaust that big.  I've been trying hard to forget about the full stainless steel system on ebay for £700.

I wonder at what point I should waft the XC in @Bear's direction.