Gunts 1978 245L

Gunt_Puncher

Hi all, cross-posting this from the reddit 240 forum, I am a newcomer to Volvo ownership so be gentle..

After 18 months or so of lurking and envy I finally have a Volvo to call my own. I wanted a Volvo wagon as a project for my kids and I to learn on together, as I am not mechanically experienced. I saw this one parked on the side of the road, I stopped to have a quick look. The elderly owner happened to come out and seemed quite chuffed that someone was taking interest in his beloved 1978 245L that he had owned since new!

He wasn’t driving it anymore, due to buying an EV, and told me to send him an offer if I was interested. I did so a few days later, he accepted and told me to come pick it up the next day. When I picked it up, we went for his final drive in the car he had owned for 45 years, I could tell he was quite emotional about letting it go.

Then, to my amazement, he refused to take my cash and said he was happy that the Volvo was going to someone who would make more memories in it! He went on to tell me that had been having health issues and had no immediate family, he just wanted to do some good deeds in the hope they get paid forward. What a legend.

I plan on taking the Volvo back to him regularly to show him any progress I make with my kids. Just thought I would share this cool story with the community on here. I will be leaning on you for plenty of advice over the coming years I believe!

A few details of the car, it’s a 1978 245 L (yes, just an L). As you can see in the pics it has had the 5 seat conversion completed.

Mine is a B21 engine with SU carburetor. 4 speed manual. Only 260,000kms.

Known issues:

*Starts perfect every time, but after a few minutes will stall if I don’t keep on some throttle. (Needs a good tune I think, but might be beyond my ability)

*Front wipers don’t work at all (have confirmed the motor is getting power, but no signs of life), rear wiper arm is broken

*Timing belt has done 100k kms

*Full of spiders

*Internal heating/cooling systems/fan don’t appear to be operating

*Small amount of rust in the usual spot under rear quarter windows and rust in the spare wheel well

*Warbling noise from front wheels (most likely bearings?)

Any advice for the above issues would be much appreciated! i will look to make some large part orders in one hit from overseas to save on shipping. Any advice as to what I should definitely look to replace ASAP or in the near future given the car hadn’t don’t much driving for a few years?

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Gunt_Puncher

Title should read 1978 🙄

ramrod

I can supply all of the engine parts, so all belts, seals, hoses, gaskets, radiator, water pump, everything

Sounds like the carb might need rebuilding too

You might as well get everything done once

serk

Welcome to the L club, Gunt. Nice colour and I'm jealous of your rear wooden slats still there and intact! Paint looks to be in good nick and you've even got an early spoiler on the front - cool!

Gunt_Puncher

serk Yep, I love that spoiler. Paint is getting quite thin from years of polishing, but holding up okay

jamesinc

Hey @Gunt_Puncher this looks like a good project and welcome to the forums 🙂

With respect to the running issues, do you know about the choke/how to use it? If it's been left out, that might explain the motor conking out.

But, it could be as simple as an idle speed adjustment.

If you want to understand it all, go to ozvolvo.org/archive and search TP11740 and download the carburetted fuel systems service manual

Gunt_Puncher

jamesinc Holy hell there is some info in there! Thanks for that!

I think I am using the choke correctly, fully out to start (starts perfectly), then reducing the amount as it warms up. However, no matter what the setting, after a few minutes it will stall regardless of position/engine temp if I dont give it any throttle

jamesinc

Hmm, how much pedal do you need? And is it like, it idles happily then just stops, or is it more like it coughs more and more until it stops entirely?

How much throttle do you have to give it? Like what's the minimum amount of throttle to get it to keep idling? Tiny bit?

I think, take that greenbook from my last post, go to page 24 and do procedures B1, B2, B3, and B4.

Then, do B7, which is how you set the base idle RPM. You'll see a brass flathead screw in the manifold. Give it a hit of WD40 before you try to adjust it, they can get stuck and it's easy to strip the head off. If you screw it anti-clockwise, that should bring the idle speed up. If it is fighting you, with the engine off, make a note/measurement of how far below the manifold it is sitting, back it off completely, you'll then probably need a small pair of pliers to get hold of it, pull it out, and put some vaseline or rubber grease on the o-ring. Then re-install and it should be easy to adjust.

While it's out you can also hit the hole it sits in with come carby cleaner.

Major Ledfoot

Nice find. That 242GT front spoiler is quite hard to find now.

Suggest you change the engine's timing belt as soon as you can (you'll want the square tooth type belt).

Also suggest you do a 'Stage 0' - i.e. replace all the rubber hoses which have carried vacuum, fuel and coolant since last century, and the oils and fluids. I'd be checking the condition of the brake hoses too.

Your front wiper motor issue and your nonworking heater fan issue sounds like you'll need to do a dashboard removal in order to get to the faulty electrical components &/or their connectors. Lots and lots and lots of Philips screws need to be removed, and plan to take a couple of days to do it if you've not removed one before.

Heater fan motor replacement is a Rite Of Passage for 240 owners....

Being a YM78, you might find the fan motor is the old-type Electrolux motor with multiple windings for different fan speeds - this type usually wears out its (replaceable) brushes and they're repairable if the bearings are okay. If the bearing are cactus, you may have to replace the motor with updated permanent magnet type motor and add a resistor along with a new fan switch. The tech archive has the replacement process covered in the 240 air conditioning service Green Book listed as TP11584-1 Volvo 240 Air Conditioning Repair and Maintenance.pdf .

Before going for registration, check your ADR compliance plate to see if it's plated as a 2-seater or a 5-seater. 245Ls were plated as 2-seaters back in the day so they'd qualify for the new car sales tax breaks applicable for commercial vehicles back in the day. So even though they're pretty much mechanically identical to 245 wagons, your state or territory might insist on an engineer's report on the rear seat 'modifications' before they'll rego it.

Front wheel bearings for a YM78 should use the early small type of bearing kits which are common to Holdens, unless the PO changed the strut tubes to later types. See https://ozvolvo.org/d/13880-13880

Ordering parts from overseas is often the cheapest way to get replacements, but beware of hitting the $1000 limit. The Usual Suspects (FCP Euro, Skandix, VP Autoparts, iPD) plus gcp.se and Rock Auto will ask a fraction of what the local dealers want for a given part in 90% of cases (e.g. $45 dollars each for a 16V head bolt from an Australian dealer, versus $120/ set of 10 shipped from the USA....) Berry Motor Group in Melbourne also carry new and used parts.

There are other retailers in OZ who carry parts, but they often don't know what parts fit which models since many take the view that All Volvos Look The Same So The Parts Are All The Same when they are most definitely not, so caution (and parts familiarity) is needed when shopping from them.

Since you'll have to pull the rear cargo area windows out to deal with the rust repairs, there's the option of replacing the seals with 1990+ types which have drainage dimples. However, if you do this, the 1990+ type seals don't allow you to refit the alloy brightwork around the windows. The 'butt cheeks' aka rear spare wheel wells are a common rust problem; VP Auto and Brookhouse in the UK offer replacements if you want to replace them rather than repair what you have.

Good luck with your project.

volvodriverman

Looks like the one that lived up Melville St. in Hobart?

Gunt_Puncher

volvodriverman It sure is!

Slowbrick

Another free 245L appears! The one I became the carer for 12 years ago was also free and was a one owner car. I didnt ever get to meet the original owner as she had passed away. I did however take it back to the place about 5 years later and one of the people living there instantly recognized the car and told us all about the woman who owned it and passed on her son's details so I could email him with photos. She had bought it in Hobart and when she moved to Mt Irvine in the Blue Mountains had brought the car with her. Quite cool really.

Here is the day we picked it up in 2013.

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Here is when we took it back in 2018 after passing through on the way home.

Looks like you have a great solid base there to either preserve or make something of it. Welcome!

Johnno_

Hey! Another 240 wagoneer. I'm fairly new too (6 weeks) and done a fair bit on mine already and like you always wanted one. Glad you are considering looking after it and taking it back to the generous owner from time to time. They are easy to work on, very "modular" and logically well put together. I'm learning a lot as I go.

Plenty of good advice here. Listen to everything what these guys have to say, they have years of experience with these cars.

volvodriverman

Sweet good score man!

Porkchop

As far as wiper issues go, my now defunct 1979 244 dropped the cable mechanism in the middle of a twisting country road in torrential rain many years ago and I was able to get things sorted thanks to an article named "The Zen of Volvo wiper repair", it's a pretty fiddly job getting at the area concerned under the dashboard, bummer is that the article (last referenced 2011) has disappeared from the interweb. This site offers some detailed stuff on wiper repairs/issues: https://cleanflametrap.com/wiper.html

good luck!

deNs

Porkchop

A quick google helped me find a single google result, here, and the wayback archive of that link lead me to here:

Zen of Volvo 240 Wiper Linkage

Is that the page you're talking about?

Porkchop

I tried repeatedly to get the link to work for me yesterday but nada:

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Glad that you navigated your way to it, it was simply a case of refitting the linkage cable and adjustment for me but it was a frustrating and time-consuming process to get there….