Rico's '89 manual 240 wagon

lasercowboy · 2015-07-18T07:52:07+00:00

Restore it! That looks like an awesome Project. Most 240s have the same problems anyway!

lasercowboy

The next minor crisis was signalled by the car leaving little a little oily wee wherever it went. It turned out to be a slow but rapidly increasing leak from the clutch slave cylinder. After inspecting the condition of the cylinder, it was sufficiently corroded inside that even a seal kit wasn't going to save it... So a quick FCP order later, and we were back in business!

Original condition. Somewhere in amongst the oilfield, there is a slave cylinder...

Disassembled and cleaned up... but ultimately unserviceable without being sleeved.

Volvo is now re-christened Ronnie (Veronica). Post-new clutch cylinder, out with other volvo friends at a Vic Friday Night Hang:

jamesinc

@lasercowboy when you butyl'd the A/C pipes (I assume you mean the joins), did the A/C system get a lot quieter? The A/C in Nina's 244 is loud AF. Not the fan bearings or anything like that, just the woosh of air through the vents. I assume it's because of gaps in the pipe joins, which originally had some kind of foam in them (long perished).

lasercowboy

@jamesinc I butyl'd the copper pipes themselves, as unlagged they sweat like billy-o and the passenger footwell gets wet. Long story short, it turned out that wasn't why my passenger footwell was getting wet, but oh well! One job I won't have to do in the future... In fact, the air con doesn't work properly in my car anyway, so I'm not in the best position to advise. But the air handling system to the cabin on these beasts is always pretty noisy to be honest. Having the knee bolster carpetty bits in place and cinched up with those quarter-turn black fasteners seems to help a bit, but overall it's a loud aircon system!

lasercowboy

So the next minor crisis in Veronica's life was a green engine bay squirtgasm on a hot day. Not entirely unexpected as I'd not driven her hard in the heat, and most of the cooling system was original. After a fair amount of fault finding it turned out that the coolant expansion tank had become brittle and sprung a leak along the seam.

This seemed like a good opportunity to do a few other bits of the cooling system - give the radiator a very thorough clean and flush, replace a few of the more suspicious looking hoses, and do the water pump and belts. The last of those turned out to be not quite the "one spanner job" that Haynes seems to think, but definitely worth doing as feel that was the last of my 240 cherries to pop!

I've now done an alternator, blower motor, water pump, slave cylinder, odometer gear and flame trap (among many other less iconic repairs) - are there any other fundamental 240 experiences without which your life is not quite complete?

Anyhow, the main issue with the water pump replacement was removing the fan blades - those tiny nuts are frikking soft, and although 3 came off nicely with a ring spanner, the last one rounded like it was made of cheese. Two dremel disks later, and we were back in action! Pretty smooth sailing from there.

Gave the old lass a good belt around the windy bits of Warrandyte and I think it's safe to say that the cooling system is happily back in action and holding its own.

Coolant bottle, weeing when excited:

New water pump. So shiny!

lasercowboy

Things have been fairly quiet here, with work, winter and travel. I've just been using Ronnie on the weekends and the occasional light freight duty (such as when the mother-in-law bought a 200 kg, 6 foot 6 mirror and only much later realised that it wouldn't fit into her mondeo sedan...)

One piece of exciting news: Ronnie has finally gotten her shiny new shoes - hubcaps for her painted steelies courtesy of @Angus242164

I can't express how happy I am with these things!

Angus242164

Glad to see them being put to good use! Better than them sitting in a box here forever.

lasercowboy

They look really great, and finish the look. I'd been seeking some for ages (ever since i got rid of the awful plastic wheel trims and painted the steelies).

Still keen on the all-black (no chrome) GLT-style side and edge trims for the body, but they seem to be hard to find in Oz now. Might have to get some from the wreckers next time I'm in the UK...

lasercowboy

It was time for Ronnie to get a bit more intake-side love. I'd been meaning to clean the throttle body for ages, and kept forgetting to get a gasket. While down at Voldat to get my new club log book signed off, John was kind enough to hook me up with a throttle body gasket. What a dude!

The throttle body looked pretty nasty, and it was a labour of love to clean, but worth it! Took a little while for the idle to adjust and settle after re-fitting, but all good now.

Unfortunately, refitting it reminded me how feral the engine bay was, so I finally bit the bullet and washed the top end down. Not a very pretty job, but fairly pleased for a first going over. Another one or two passes over the coming months and it should look reasonable. I'll get in again either tomorrow or next weekend, take the tray off and do the bottom end and gearbox.

Now my question: the strip of sound deadening at the top of the firewall... has partially disintegrated and is looking pretty terrible, soaked with oil, etc. Will I notice any acoustic/thermal difference if I remove it? And if so, is it worth replacing it?

Pics below!

How a throttle body should not look inside:

And now, how it should look!

Shiny! But showing up the rest of the engine...

Cleaning time! Before:

And after:

Can i remove this without consequences?

lasercowboy

Bruces: having finally gotten the 240 about as mechanically good as I want it (until something else goes wrong, and with the exception of the front end linkages + bushes which will be done this summer), I'm now starting to look at aesthetics. The paint on the bonnet is totally rooted, and the roof is pretty bad (my respray on the front section ok but not great!) The two front guards have significant dings from the PO which don't look like they'd be easily repairable (see below).

My options as I see them:
1) replace the bonnet and guards, preferably with nice ones from a wreck with the same paint code. This was a pretty popular colour, so I don't think it'd be too hard. I've found a guy selling a pair of guards in the right colour in pretty shiny condition for $160, but they're in NSW.
2) try and repair/repaint the current equipment. I have no experience doing such things, so I'd probably do a sucky job, and a dent/scratch repair place quoted me ~$900 for the dings in the two front guards only.
3) Find a really nice GLE auto in shiny condition with good paint, and transfer everything good over from my wags to that one, keeping lots of bits for spares.

Any thoughts/advice?

Angus242164

What is the paint code? I have a parts car in a similar looking colour.

lasercowboy

It's 400 (aka 400-1 i think) - metallic beige. Just sounds sexy, doesn't it? :D

familyman

It could be done easy enough by a panelbeater, but personally, I'd replace that guard. The headlight one may mean it's 'pulled' the top surface down slightly. Plus if you plan to paint the rest anyway... yeah - get one the same colour so the hinge area won't need painting, and not be a different enough shade to tell, and you get a clean skin.

Vee_Que

John at voldat has a lot of 240 panels out the back.

lasercowboy

@Angus242164 did you figure out if your parts car is 400 code, or is it the darker gold? Thanks for checking btw! I remain optimistic as always.

I've decided against the guards in Sydney - the logistics are too complex, and this is non-urgent.

Angus242164

It completely slipped my mind to check today, while I was out harvesting parts from some of the other wrecks in "240 row" today, d'oh!

I'll make sure I take a look tomorrow.

lasercowboy

No worries, thanks! As I say, this is non-urgent. I'm trying to be more patient and wait for the right things to come along. It's a big challenge for me, and a new skill to master!

Angus242164

I just took a look, and the code on the parts car is 637 unfortunately. I think your code might have only been used from about '89 onwards, and my parts car is an '86.

lasercowboy

Damn! Thanks for checking anyway :) Will keep looking.

lasercowboy

A reminder list for myself on what still needs doing in the short (and long) term:

Needs doing
Check lines to charcoal canister (petrol smell)
Fit oil pressure sender (Berry)
Front suspension - tie rods + tie rod ends, sway bar linkages + bushes
Fit brass shifter bushings once they arrive
Replace firewall material once it arrives
Bitumen paint on chassis and underside

Parts sought
Front tow hitch cover - paint code unimportant
Front wings (guards) - paint code 400
Bonnet - paint code 400
Leather gear boot
Wooden dash trim (ex-GLE)
Handbrake console (tan pref.)

Far future/additionals
Get aircon working
Respray on roof (and bonnet)
Front fog lamps
Black roof rack
Black out/paint exterior trim
Repaint front splitter
Electric windows

Angus242164

That all sounds pretty achievable, I've seen bigger lists (mostly my own).

I can help you with a tow hook cover and black leather shifter boot, I also have power window regulators, motors, switches and tan armrests to suit the switches. I don't have the main power window harness though, I ran out of those.

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