Hi all,
I've lurked around here for a while now and not posted too much, I thought I should properly introduce myself and get a progress thread going.
The car:
I bought my 1982 Volvo 244GL a few years ago when I was learning to drive manual. It has a B23E with an M46 transmission and the normal equipment you'd expect from a GL. I don't have any pictures from when I first bought the car however it has not changed aesthetically at all since then.
The car was in fairly good condition however had several small issues to deal with off the bat. The door pockets were missing, the overdrive worked occasionally and the heater motor was nonfunctioning (if only I knew the pain this would cause later). I purchased the car for $1100 from an old lady that had owned it from the showroom, with complete service history from a Brisbane Volvo specialist. My father is an auto electrician and has a solid knowledge in the mechanical bits as well. He has helped significantly over the time I’ve owned the car. My mates have affectionately named the car ‘Helga’.
What’s been done:
For the roadworthy, the first thing to tackle was the heater blower motor. The articles were not kidding when they said that the entire car is built around it. We used the cleanflametrap.com as a guide and eventually got the job done after a solid day’s frustration.
Next up was the overdrive function. It would often fail to engage and disengage the overdrive however operated fine when it did. After a bit of research I checked the relay and a few other items however they all seemed to be functioning okay. At a loss we took the car to a ‘Volvo Specialist’ on the Sunshine Coast who replaced a part (the mechanical actuator maybe? Sorry, this was a couple of years ago) and deemed it solved. The fix did not work whatsoever and the car still failed to engage and disengage. Frustrated, we investigated a little further and discover that the overdrive unit has a small plate that can be removed with a small flat filter behind it. The filter was very gunky and needed a good clean. The Volvo ‘specialist’ made no mention of this and clearly didn’t think to clean it. After replacing the filter and plate, the car shifted in and out of overdrive with ease.
And with that the major issues were solved and the car was on the road for a while before suddenly shuddering to a halt whilst coming home from work. The diagnosis was the fuel pump had failed and the car needed to be towed, luckily only a few kilometers, fully covered by RACQ roadside assist. After opening up the fuel tank from the boot we were surprised to see that there was in fact no in tank fuel pump present at all, which had increased the load on the main pump and caused it to fail. I have no idea how long it lasted however it was at the very least 6000km. New fuel pumps fitted and it was back on the road.
The next issue was a brake pedal that suddenly felt very spongy and went a lot closer to the floor than usual. The fluid was at the right level and was not leaking. After bleeding and rebleeding the brake system to no effect, the problem had seemed to worsen. When we were completing the bleeding process, we had depressed the brake pedal to the floor, damaging the master cylinder even further. A new master cylinder was fitted and the issue fixed.
The car then drove problem free for a while, I moved to the ACT from the Sunshine Coast and started uni. We now come to about two months ago from now, when the car developed a nasty put put sound coming from the engine bay. Without any guidance from dad now I had moved, I was a little paranoid of a significant issue with the engine and did not want to drive it in case of damaging it any further. A call to NRMA had a mechanic on his way who quickly diagnosed the issue as a leak in the long EGR line that runs near to and parallel with the firewall. After being assured it wasn’t a major issue and could still drive the car, I took it to a local shop and told them what the NRMA guy had told me and asked for a quote to get it fixed. They quoted $350 for parts and labor which I promptly decided against.
I am taking the car back home on break in December where I’m hoping to get it fixed with the help of Dad. I grew impatient this weekend and attempted to remove the pipe myself to see if I could apply a bit of exhaust putty to get rid of the noise temporarily before I drove up. In the process of undoing the nut of the pipe on the EGR line, I managed to shear the other EGR line that’s connected to the EGR valve. Now not only did it have an annoying put put noise I also had a hissing sound caused by outside air being sucked into the injection manifold and the engine was not happy as a result. I have done my best to simply crimp the pipe shut and the hissing has mostly ceased and the engine seems to be running relatively smoothly. Perhaps luckily for Helga, I don’t have much time off between now and when I go back home for Christmas so I will likely be leaving it until then.
Christmas break plans:
Fix or remove EGR system
Fit voltmeter, oil pressure, voltmeter, vacuum and ambient temp gauge. Still need to find senders for ambient temp and oil pressure.
Possibly buy and fit DVS special front springs, king rear springs, Bilstein B6’s. (Still considering my finances on these)
Buy and fit DVS chassis brace.
Buy and fit generic central locking.
Replace/clean flametrap system
Source tan door pockets
Possibly buy and fit Virgos, I’ve got someone that will sell me four in pretty good condition for $120 however without centre caps. Anywhere I could find these on the cheap? At this rate it looks like they’ll cost more than the rims themselves.
And that’s where Helga is at now. Sorry for the large wall of text, I probably should have been briefer but hopefully some of this may help others. I hope to learn and contribute where I can!
