Crowley the '92 240

Man these upgraded fusebox designs are so nice.

This car has had endless fuse issues. I refurbished everything but ultimately the metal contacts were too fatigued and weren't gripping the fuses well enough.

I installed this today, which took maybe half an hour, then spent an hour or so trying to debug why the headlights were coming on with the parkers. Ultimately found that the headlight/parker relay, the cabin one you only get on later 240s, someone had replaced it with a 5 pin 87/87 relay, when it's supposed to be 87/87b.

It may seem like an inconsequential difference, but when open, an 87/87 has continuity between those pins, whereas an 87/87b does not, due to each pin having a dedicated switch in the relay.

I also rewired the central locking triggers (both the lock barrel and the pull knob sensors). The wiring was all perished and shorting. For the lock barrel switch, I took the switch completely apart, removed the contact sliders, cut the old wire off them and (painstakingly) soldered new connections. For the door pull I had just enough exposed wire to solder to. The wires were all oxidised, soldering them took a lot of cleaning and fluxing then boiling the flux with the iron, cleaning it up, repeating, until the solder wicked nicely into the wires.

It all works great now, except after one use of the key the barrel cylinder popped off, so I must not have properly clipped it in place. I had been at it for 8 hours by this point so decided to sort it out another day.

Next up will be new shocks on all corners, then of course the turbo swap, which will probably happen after Nats.
Cars are pain!

jamesinc Next up will be new shocks on all corners, then of course the turbo swap, which will probably happen after Nats.

I return. I did replace all four shocks about two weeks ago, the rears were okay, the fronts were absolute toast, and were Volvo OE shocks so probably original (the strut came from Billie the 1981 244, but actually I believe it really came from the '92 240 @Slowbrick and I parted out a decade ago).

I loaned Nina my S40 while I got into the turbo swap. @Maximus lent me a bunch of help today also.

End of day 1, motor and transmission are completely disconnected and only held in by mounts. Will pick up tomorrow.

I took a moment to try and put a stop to this nasty rust. I really don't understand the random rust bubbles on this car, it's weird for a '93.

I might go to VG Auto Paints in Girraween tomorrow and get them to make me a rattle can of this metallic green so I can dress the engine bay a bit better. I want to power wash it while the engine is out too.

Went to VG this morning, bought paint and paint accessories, and finished cleaning up this rust.

I've thrown in the towel, the heat and humidity today suck and have worn me out rapidly. I might come back to it tonight if it cools off enough.

I did in fact come back to it this evening, and the engine has now been swapped:

Tweaked the oil feed hose to get it away from the inner guard, bye bye $50.

Doing this without removing the hose was a challenge, I used a Dremel and cutting disc to cut the hose just shy of the old fitting after wrapping it in electrical tape, then I installed the new fitting as per the usual process. After that, I sprayed it thoroughly with brake cleaner, then stuck the open end in a bottle and hotwired the starter to pump some oil through the feed line and make sure it was well end truly clean before reinstalling on the CHRA.

I've been chipping away at the project over the weekend, I pulled the gear selector and replaced the overdrive wire as the insulation had perished, the transmission is now done done.

I have also been messing around with the radiator overflow, I was trying to use the stock 240 bottle and I did set it up that way but I just didn't like it, it doesn't suit the 740T coolant hose I'm running, so I installed the 740 style overflow. I improved the setup over the original from Billie and having modified some bracketry I pulled it back out and gave it a coat of Dulux epoxy enamel, which I've had nothing but great results from.

I still need to mount the relays for the rad fan and driving lights and finish relocating the AMM. I decided I wanted to use the correct wire colours but didn't gave enough of everything on hand so I've ordered a few spools of this and that.

I think the car will be driving in the next few days pending delivery of a few parts.

I still need to find someone who can tig a 5/8 barb onto the intake pipe though, I lack the equipment and the skill to do it myself.

I went to visit Billie yesterday to remove the electrical parts I needed: