Hey Guys,
Jaffa is in need of some love at the moment. She's a bit tired.
Brakes:
Vague braking, pulls to right on hard braking, and front right and left rear calipers sticky. Brake system has been flushed and repaired on several occasions in the past 5 years and has had several fluid flushes in that time.
When I put the car on the road this time 5 years ago, I had the front brakes reconditioned, the rear ones replaced with reconditioned, discs replaced, rubber brake hoses replaced, hard brake lines flushed, replaced pads, replaced master cylinder.
In the past 12 months the pads have been replaced, replaced vacuum hoses and brake servo seals and external elbow, and master cylinder as the one from 5 years ago began leaking fluid.
Each time the system has been flushed, dirty fluid comes out. It eventually comes good, but each time a flush is done at a later date it's dirty. Also flow for the RH front line has always been less than the others.
I am looking for solid suggestions on firstly whether I can get some decent brake calipers (pref new, or reconditioned) locally, and is it worth trying to get replacement hard lines, and will using the larger 164 / 140GL brake servo assist in better braking?
Cooling System:
The radiator was rebuilt about 3 years ago, and the core was replaced with a triple chamber Land Cruiser core. Thermostat and water pump replaced 5 years ago, then again 2 years ago, and again this year due to seal failures. Engine temperatures have been good since the rebuild, but this year the car sprung coolant leaks on the inlet to the water pump, and through some pinholes that appeared on the top of the driver's side brass tank. I took it into be looked at professionally recently and it was found the radiator had a lot of corrosion internally despite the rebuild and probably should not have rebuilt in the first place.
From what I've been told there seems to be a pressurisation issue within the cooling system. I've bought a new expansion tank cap, and will give that a go and see what happens along with the other recent changes to the cooling system.
Head gasket was replaced about 2.5 years ago.
Hard starting:
In the past 12 months the Jaffa has been increasingly difficult to start. Often starting on 3 cylinders for several minutes whilst having to use full choke and the accelerator to hold revs until things smooth out. And often needing a half dozen attempts to get it fire. The car has a 1-2-3 ignition fitted and initially that improved the starting of the car, which always needed full choke to get going, but usually started first or second go.
Since the hard starting has been happening, fuel pump has been replaced, carby (CD175) serviced, new rotor cap fitted. But I've yet to replace the rotor arm or ignition leads.
It's been alluded to that the cooling system and hard start issues could be connected.
When the car is warm there is no issue getting the car to start.
Exhaust:
My 5 year old mild steel exhaust is leaking in several locations now, and I am looking to replace it. It's a standard exhaust, but I feel it would be beneficial if it was replaced with something that would increase flow a little, and it would be nice to hear my redblock thrum some more but without a drone. I am after some ideas on what to do with a replacement.
Tyres & Rims:
I want to fit my 15 inch ATS rims to my car. They're 6 inch wide rims from memory, and will need a wider tyre than the 165 cheese cutters I have now on 5.5 inch 164 rims. I want to not have to compensate or adjust the speedo, what are the options for tyres that will have a negligible effect on the speedo? Also I don't want to increase the muscles needed to turn the steering wheel. Speaking of steering wheel, I would love to throw a Motolita wheel on the car, but the price tag is hard to justify, what other options are there that look similar and will fit a genuine Volvo boss kit?
In car audio:
My 4 inch door speakers are pretty tinny. Is there a way I could mount some 6 inch speakers under the dash somewhere, say pointing downward to the footwells? I have some 6 inch parcel speakers for the rear, but would like something decent up front too.
I think those are the main things I want to get on top of for now. There is likely to be a manual (M40) conversion in coming weeks, and switch from single carb to twin. I am also open to ideas to increase performance that allows me to keep mostly original or within the bounds of Volvo parts. There's been discussion with mates about a 16 valve conversion and other things, but it's not really where I want to go.