Gunts 1978 245L

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Sweet good score man!

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!

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

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….