1993 245 - a 50 footer resto attempt

[Alan29]

Pretty much finished up the 745 turbo and instead of finishing what I started or working on what I already have (Gen 1 Montero) we decided to take on another Volvo. Initially this was going to be a daily driver type classic restoration for my wife but she chickened out last minute. The deal was already done so I picked it up anyways thanks to the help of a friend.

This one is a 1993 automatic with the screwed in roof rack everyone loves but no sunroof. Odometer shows 45k but the trip is of course zero'd out. Kind of odd it would be so low for the usual failure but who knows. Suspension doesn't feel super soft, the door hinges are stiff from lack of lube but no sag, and the underside is super dry. Might run a carfax on it just for fun to see if I can find any more clues on the actual mileage but I'll wait until I clean out the interior...maybe there will be a service invoice in there somewhere. Would be cool if the mileage was actually that low but it really doesn't matter. The body is pretty straight and it only has a couple spots of surface rust. Plus its complete and aside from the aftermarket alarm seems pretty unmolested.

This one stopped running when parked about five years ago. Prior owner says he was told it was a fuel pump issue so both pumps were changed but still wouldn't crank despite getting spark. He tried a few things but he and his son couldn't get it going. Car has good bones, its my third redblock project, and I feel pretty confident after all these wins on the 745. What could possibly go wrong....

The Mission:
Nice daily driver type restoration. Make mechanically reliable and perhaps a little more fun to drive. Also make it look as good as I can without a full respray or going all out on body work.

Immediate plans:
1. Basic cleanup of exterior and interior to remove all the spiders prior to taking residence in garage.
2. List my Gen 1 Montero for sale (hopefully it sells)
3. Drain the old gas, troubleshoot, etc to get it running to see what I'm working with.
4. The usual stage 0 stuff
5. Pull motor for thorough cleaning, seals, etc and manual swap.
6. New liftgate hinges and wiring. Clean/lube all hinges and I think it may need one or both hood hinges replaced.
7. Pull all the exterior moldings for cleaning/conditioning and see how well I can restore this paint.
8. Find a replacement right fender and have it painted somewhere (thankfully its a basic black).
9. Interior restoration...driver seat refurb, new covers (I really want to go with tan cloth if possible), replace
10. Some sort of wheels and tires
11. Get some miles on it before sorting out the suspension and other needs
12. Forget all of the above, drink beer, and fix shit in whatever order makes sense that day.

Eventually I would like to put a cam of some sort in it and likely go with the IPD stainless sport exhaust. Obviously nothing is going to make the b230 as fast as my 745 but I just want to make it a little more fun on the road.

 

[Alan29]

Nothing crazy on it just yet. Sort of went through it and removed some items inside that needed to be stored in the garage and did a preliminary check on some things. Found this weird wiring shenanigans....

This purple/white wire at the harness that runs across the rear body panel was cut and larger wire connected:

The thicker gauge wire leads to a cut purple wire to the tail lamp:

And between this new weird thick gauge wire is another one that leads to an inline fuse which then proceeds to the front of the car:

No clue what this is all about as I've never seen anything like it. It does have signs of an aftermarket alarm but I don't think it could be part of that. Obviously there will be some more digging into this but I think I need to throw a bug bomb in there to take care of the numerous spiders taking residence in the interior first.


I did get a chance to scrub off all the dirt. She cleans up pretty nice and I think the paint will mostly buff out. It had rain guards on the front windows at some point as you can see with the leftover adhesive, but it also had these weird rivets in the door as well. At some point I'll need to remove them and I guess just plug weld the little holes?

 

[dl242gt]

Something in the rear lights failed and they bypassed the bulb out relay with their own feed to the tail light circuit?

 

[Alan29]

Something in the rear lights failed and they bypassed the bulb out relay with their own feed to the tail light circuit?

Ah yeah you might be right on the bulb out relay. I'm itching to dig into this issue but it's on hold until I can sell the Montero so I have a spot inside the garage.

 

[Sharingan 19]

"Jax Adjacent, FL" You say..... need to get this thing running so you can come to a meetup that has yet to be planned...

 

[Alan29]

"Jax Adjacent, FL" You say..... need to get this thing running so you can come to a meetup that has yet to be planned...

That the Dailey one? I at least have one ready to go. My plan was to get both Volvos ready for concourse de lemons in spring.

 

[Alan29]

Alright so I finally sold the Montero and it was time to clean up the 240 a bit to get it into the garage so I can avoid this shit:

The initial move was a not so deep clean of the engine compartment and undercarriage. This wasn't really to make it look nice...it was really to evict the spiders before moving it inside. I'll give it a deeper clean later on.

Before:

After:

Next I decided to clean up the interior since I'll be spending a lot of time in there tracing issues. Lots of garbage and random parts removed. Found a lifetime supply of cheap fuses, some reading glasses, an Ikea screwdriver, a new Volvo antenna cable, and a random MC. No signs of rodents (yay). No hidden treasures (boo). Its not quite as bad as I expected but it needs work. Lots of photos here just to document progress or lack thereof:

Spent some time inspecting obvious electrical issues. All the leads were pulled out of the connector on this suppressor relay. Connector itself is good and I'm able to remove the corrosion but as usual the seal portion for those female bullet connectors failed long ago:

Inside I found to splices for what I would assume was the aftermarket alarm that was removed at some point. Just going to tape over those as they didn't cut the wires only the insulation for the splices:

Fuse panel is just chillin...not secured whatsoever but no other signs of reengineering:

Found what that large gauge wire with the 10a fuse connects to. Guess they just hard wired the brake lights directly to the switch. I'm going to reverse all this and do a proper diag on the issue later on. I know for sure both liftgate harnesses are completely severed as well. Not sure if that has any impact on the brake lights but that'll get corrected when I replace the saggy hinges:

Got bored and removed the luggage rack. As usual the sheet metal is a little distorted at the holes. Plan for now is to plug them up with grommets similar to the IPD kit. Later on I'll weld them up (once I learn how to weld):

Here we are now all safe and sound in the garage:

So thats it for right now. I need to get an FCP order in for some stage zero stuff and fix that relay connector. Lots of other checks to do before I attempt a start.

 

[ZVOLV]

4 terminal connector that will have two heavy gauge wires that you want:

Volvo Harness Parts

Dave's Volvo Page. Hard to find Volvo terminals and connectors.

www.prancingmoose.com

 

[atomicdeathmonkey]

Nice work, love these type of projects !

 

[magicianman89]

Enjoyed your 740 resto, looking forward to this one as well

 

[TouzinFish]

Your threads are great, looking forward to updates on this 240!

 

[Alan29]

Finally got some work done on the car today. Drained the oil and it was about a quart or two overfilled (filled my 7 quart catch pan about 1.5" from the top). Thankfully its all oil and it is relatively fresh and I saw no sparkly bits. I guess the prior owner just dumped too much in it. I was going to pull the plugs and spray in some fogging oil to prep it for starting next weekend, but I forgot I needed to check the fuel tank since its been sitting for 5+ years.

Pulled the sending unit and found this:

Pretty sure the whole doesn't start thing could be from lack of gas. Prior owner stated he changed out the main pump but I think I'm the first person in the tank in a long while. Its pretty much bone dry in there. I extracted the float that popped off and pulled the tank since its pretty easy with these cars. Photo makes it look way worse than it was in person. Thats basically the worst of it and its just a fine film of garbage. Filled it up with some degreaser and did an easy clean on it. No rust and still has some varnish staining and some really stuck on crud but I think its good enough to run it as is for a while. Bonus points the assembly is in great shape. I'm going to change the pump and sock as well as test the sending unit for function before slapping it back in with a new seal.

Aside from all the brown widow webs and egg sacks its pretty clean under here:

HELL YEAH BARB IT GOTEM DANG 373 STREET GEARS GOBBLESS

The entire harness to the speed sensor in the diff looks like this. I need to get a pigtail from Dave and replace this while I have the tank out:

I also replaced the CPS with a new "quality unit" from Bougicord. Prior owner said he threw a cheap off brand one in there in his diag process so I figured I would put a better quality unit in while I'm doing stuff. If anyone knows how this is supposed to be mounted with that zinc coated brace below the connector please let me know. Little bummed someone cut that lovely reusable zip tie from Volvo:

Picked these up from a fellow TBer last weekend. They've already been stripped and primed so I just need to figure out what color to paint them.

Thats it for now. While the tank is out I'm going to go ahead and replace the big fuel feed line to the main pump since its kind of soft and torn at the end. The return line is still in nice shape. I'm going to pull the main pump and filter as well. Filter and pump look newish but I'd like to figure out what sort of pump is on there now. Given its been attempted to run for god knows how long without fuel in it (the two fuses were jumped) I may just replace the main pump for piece of mind.

Figure with all this open access in the rear I might do the rear springs, shocks, brake lines, etc. I'm up in the area on suspension though. I think I want to go with overloads in the back and new stock replacements for the front, but I'm not sure about dampers this time around. I'd like to improve the handling on it but retain stock ride height and have those overloads for hauling stuff periodically.

 

[Alan29]

This project has moved to a snails pace. I'm at somewhat of a standstill until my IPD order gets here...my submersible hose for the in tank pump is in with the order for my stainless brake hoses which I didn't think would take this long to make. In the meantime I'm making the vehicle even less drivable...

Decided to stop messing around with attempting to clean the tank plus I found some rust forming in the seam so I ordered RockAuto's finest (cheapest) tank. It came in excellent shape. All the flanges were like this:

Powdercoating of course cracked when straightening but I had planned on painting it anyways. Here it is after paint. Flanges aren't perfect but they are flat enough to work with. I need to touch up some undercoating on the underside of the car so I might use the rest of the can on the bottom half of the tank later on:

Removed the PCV goodies for an inspection and clean. Flame trap was not clogged and all the hoses are in good working order. I don't normally do this but I cleaned out the box instead of replacing as it really didn't have anything in there like my prior/other redblocks. Reassembled with a new o-ring of course:

Old mismatched plugs. I guess we changed the plugs until we cured a misfire?

Whoa...baller filter:

Rear brakes off and pounded out the stripped stud on each side. Opted to remove the springs for better leverage access on the caliper bolts. Amazingly everything came off without heat. Bleeders and brake line fittings also came out without much fuss. I still need to knock off the loose stuff before I hit it with some Eastwood converter and some silver enamel before reassembling with new pads and rotors. I was going to pull the dust shields to clean and paint them but I wasn't aware that requires removal of the parking brake bits. Not really looking to mess with that so I'm just going to clean them up.

As she sits now. Still lots to do but I guess its progress.

 

[TouzinFish]

I'm surprised the PCV was that clean. I've gotta get an under-hood light like that, I bet it's super handy. Good updates, as usual.

 

[Old Iron]

Nice project. Love seeing a 240 come back to life like this.

 

[Alan29]

I was hoping to get this thing started (or at least try to start) before the end of the month but its not happening. Between the wife's new P2 needing stuff and waiting on parts to get here its been a pretty slow process.

Before and after of a caliper piston. No pitting or scoring on the important part of the piston or inside of the calipers. Seems good enough but I'm still waiting on seals and dust boots after Rock screwed me over on my order (it never came):

Finally bought wiring to replace the crumbled speed sensor harness. I was surprised to see how crumbly the wiring was inside the passenger compartment. Bought a new connector housing and silicone bullet terminals from Modern Classic SAAB. Very affordable and the silicone boots have a nice tight fit. The forward part that crimps on the copper was a little difficult to work with compared to others I have used so I ended up flowing some solder in there as well. I bought a bunch of extras for other jobs since the rubber boots on the factory harness tend to disintegrate.

The new roommate:

Still have some wiring to fix. I've been putting off tracing the leads to replace that connector to the condenser fan relay...really tight and my back isn't too happy with me right now. I still need to figure out the wiring for the ecodes I acquired. The wiring into the turn signals is crispy and of course I need to redo the wiring for the headlights. Part of me wants to take the easy way by just cutting off the old headlamp connectors and wiring to the new connectors, but the other part of me is thinking I may get some male 9004 connectors so I can easily switch back if needed.

 

[Alan29]

Little more progress this weekend. I think my weekday afterwork progress will slow quite a bit with this time change.

If anyone is curious, I found these rear caliper seals at FCP. Made in Germany and were only a few bucks more than the NLA Raybestos seals I previously tried to get from Rock.

Rust Encapsulator Plus followed by silver engine enamel. Don't judge me for my masking of the line fitting. I didn't have my scissors handy and I really didn't care since its not visible. Will be doing this to the front at some point:

Test fit of the wheel. I forgot just how inboard these sit on a 240...740 offest doesn't help either I suppose. Not sure if its worth getting a 5mm spacer to get them spaced out to 20mm. I still need to decide on a color.

Yesterday I finally replaced that rotted out connector for the condenser fan relay. I also spent some time going over everything in preparation to potentially start next weekend. I found 50% of the fuses in the panel were the wronge amperage or were missing. Fixed all that. Also found the timing on the distributor was quite a bit off (see first pic). Tore down the front of the motor and all the marks were off. I don't think it would be off enough to create that no start condition for the prior owners, but who knows. Between that, the absolute lack of gasoline in the tank, and some wiring shenanigans maybe all of that came into play?

Shockingly no signs of leaks at the front seals.

So thats where I am now. This week I'm going to button up the back of the car (tank in, brakes on, etc) then put in the new timing belt and tensioner. Once I get it running I'll flush the coolant and replace the water pump...then its front brakes, paint wheels, get tires and maybe drive it?

 

[Alan29]

More progress!

Back brakes are on and tank with new hose is in:

Also got it running today. It won't fire up unless I jump the fuses. Interestingly if I remove the jumper while its running it will stay idling just fine, but it won't start without jumping. I had a spare FP relay to swap out and it did the same. I have another 951 ECU to swap out if needed as well. After I got it running I took the win and called it a day. I'll diag this at a later time:

https://imgur.com/fyGFyjl

The camera makes it sound much noisier than it is in person. No smoking or anything...seems to idle great. WP leaks but I'm changing that out anyways. It desperately needs new accessory bushings before I button up the front. If anyone has any suggestions on bushings please let me know. Volvo is out of the question given the cost. Seems its that or PPS or urethane or the solid mounts.

 

[Crustacean Wagon]

No complaints after a year ish daily driving with poly

 

[Alan29]

No complaints after a year ish daily driving with poly

Which ones did you go with? Seems IPD no longer offers them and I've seen some grumblings over the latest Uro poly units.