- Joined
- Oct 1, 2019
- Location
- Mississauga, ON (Canada)
If I get it ready by August I will be throwing the Gems on it just so there's fresh rubber for road trips.
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The Hacked Saga: A Tale of Way Too Many Projects (100, 200, 900-series)
- Thread starter fatcatbestcat
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2019
- Location
- Mississauga, ON (Canada)
New glass! Lambda Sond badge properly installed! Yay!
Alright, so apparently I forgot to post about what else happened that weekend after I got the glass in and waited the requisite 48 hours for the sealant to cure.
The blower motor on this car doesn't work, which is a big no-no (mostly because I don't think the windows fogging up in the rain is a good thing), plus I wanted to replace the wiper motor and might as well do blower resistor and heater core/hoses while I'm in there.
Boy was that a mistake. I should have checked to see that this was probably a 20+ hour job and there was no way the dash was coming apart in one session.
jmiles was kind enough to drop by and lend a hand - most critically in the moral support department because I think I lost my will to live about eight times that day. Round about this image is when I started having regrets.
So the wipers weren't working properly - I found them kinda weak and the PO suggested the motor was dead. So I got a known good rebuilt motor from OVERDRIVE and got ready to swap it in. Of course, it works but in the exact same manner as before. So it's really a bad fuse, ground or relay. That was a good use of time, but at least I now have the gasket on both sides of the firewall bulkhead. I'm suspicious that water was getting in from the unsealed engine bay side.
Right around this point is when I seriously started contemplating part out and crush; I didn't realize the entire dash crash structure has to come out just to get at the damn blower motor. And now I know the crash bolts have to be drilled out to go further than this. I might abandon any pretense of doing anything more than blower/resistor replacement.
I made damn sure that the new Continental motor works before I put it in later. It spins nicely and is extremely quiet. Watch the old blower motor be fine, and the resistor or a bad fuse be the culprit. The old one is quite rusty and I had to beat on the passenger side impeller a bit just to get it off.
Just to be clear, the car is already safetied for life (the length of my ownership) so I will not be parting out or crushing it. Although I desperately want to - I think it wants to live. Somehow the brakes work perfectly after taking it for an extended test drive and getting them nice and broken in again. And it leaks zero fluids.
I'm getting an uncracked dash for it too, since the old one sorta disintegrated on removal.
Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
umesswitme
Member
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2022
"Never done an early dash but late doesn't seem that bad"
the year is still young!
leecatd8209
The Fourfather
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2015
- Location
- Reading, PA
I didn't have to drill anything out to get my HVAC box out. I'd put an evaporator in it while you're there if you ever think you might want to tackle the AC.
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2019
- Location
- Mississauga, ON (Canada)
The AC is long gone out of this car and I don't really have any hope of refreshing it, at least not this year.
But that's good news if I can avoid drilling out the crash bolts. I'm doing another all-day on Saturday and hoping to get the blower motor out and replaced at a minimum. Or cry. Or both.
Teaching moment: Always test the wiring/ground/fuses/switch/relay first! Before embarking on the hard procedures!
Most times, I like to test motors first (before ripping everything apart) by temporarily hardwiring them directly to the 12V battery. Blowers, power windows, windshield wipers, antennas, fuel pumps, etc.
umesswitme
Member
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2022
Not trying to hijack the thread but how would one bypass the resistor to test the blower motor. I thought all power went through the resistor to the motor.Teaching moment: Always test the wiring/ground/fuses/switch/relay first! Before embarking on the hard procedures!
Most times, I like to test motors first (before ripping everything apart) by temporarily hardwiring them directly to the 12V battery. Blowers, power windows, windshield wipers, antennas, fuel pumps, etc.
IIRC the highest speed setting on the knob is zero resistance(bypassed) for most cars, not sure about 240s, but thats usually the case.
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2019
- Location
- Mississauga, ON (Canada)
So it's a few weeks later, and I have a little progress on the car since things started coming apart.
Around this time, I treated the 940 to a new headlight. Been kinda financially neglecting this thing because there isn't much else to do. Just been a solid daily since I've owned it.
And the last stretch this weekend to get it ready for a Volvo Club meet.
I guess that's all for now - I can drive this thing on weekends but I desperately need to fix the gauges and the awful fuel smell. I have about a month before I'm supposed to take this thing to the cottage so I gotta scramble. Worst case, the 940 is still my backup.
Around this time, I treated the 940 to a new headlight. Been kinda financially neglecting this thing because there isn't much else to do. Just been a solid daily since I've owned it.
And the last stretch this weekend to get it ready for a Volvo Club meet.
I guess that's all for now - I can drive this thing on weekends but I desperately need to fix the gauges and the awful fuel smell. I have about a month before I'm supposed to take this thing to the cottage so I gotta scramble. Worst case, the 940 is still my backup.
jmiles
Active member
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2004
- Location
- Waterloo, Ontario
Epic dedication to the Volvo karma.
I have learned much by watching and being a third arm to provide tools.
Also providing myself as a foil to the Stephane and Sean’s heroic efforts using the stories of my 244, 960 and my naivety surrounding what they heck I’ve gotten myself into.
Cheers man!
I have learned much by watching and being a third arm to provide tools.
Also providing myself as a foil to the Stephane and Sean’s heroic efforts using the stories of my 244, 960 and my naivety surrounding what they heck I’ve gotten myself into.
Cheers man!
smoothdurban
I do my own stunts
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2013
- Location
- Kemble Ontario
I take it you made it back? I did see a c30 with a major coolant leak after leaving the meet yesterday.
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2019
- Location
- Mississauga, ON (Canada)
The alarming gas smell and heater stuck on seem to only be minor inconveniences. I didn't drive all the way home to Mississauga but it seems fine driving around town in Guelph. I'm working on getting a replacement sending unit and seal for the tank, really really really hoping it's not the filler neck that's leaking.
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2019
- Location
- Mississauga, ON (Canada)
Fuel system motherfuckery.
So, after driving around with awful gas fumes inside the vehicle, it was time to start looking at the fuel system. I guess I probably should have seen this coming;
Yeah, so - needless to say I can see why the fuel gauge wasn't working. This also is probably responsible for the gas fumes inside the vehicle...
Now, ideally if the top of the tank is this bad, it might have made sense to drop the tank. Except I made the mistake of filling up the car before I left for the trip to St. Jacob's and it probably had 45L of gas in it. Sooooooooooooooooooooooo
Time to replace the sending unit. @Hodginsa was there, ostensibly to pull parts off the parts car, but for some reason he ended up being the one to do it. I was just there to hand him tools and take pictures.
So with all that done, the fuel gauge suddenly works (what a surprise!), and the gas smell inside the car is also gone. The speedo wasn't working, but I figured that was just because it wasn't seated properly in the cluster. I was taking it apart anyway to jump the temp faker board in an effort to get that gauge working. This is cool.
So someone previously had removed the faker board. Great. But they didn't think to jumper across it, therefore rendering the gauge completely inoperable. Incredible. So, I jumped a wire directly from the temp sender in the head to the gauge terminal in the cluster, and suddenly the temp gauge works!
With all my gauges working, I chose to risk it for the biscuit and drive the thing home. On highway 401. This was the real test.
And it made it, no problem. The temp gauge ran kinda hot but it never got to a point where it looked like it was overheating. On the highway, it sat right at 9:00, which felt pretty good. It runs good, and is perfectly happy sitting at 2,000 rpm at 100 km/h. The greatest thing? The odometer works too, and is accurate!
So, now it's home - what's next?
Well, the heater is still stuck on at full blast. I pulled off the side plate to make sure the capillary went back in properly, and it did. I was hoping I could adjust the old heater valve (which is probably the original from 1988), and of course both adjustment screws are totally stripped which tells me the permaheater is a long-standing issue. This was definitely a winter-only car for a previous owner, so maybe they just didn't bother.
I've ordered up a new valve, hopefully I can get it installed this week. I have to take this to the cottage in Owen Sound next week sooooo there is a bit of a deadline.
So, after driving around with awful gas fumes inside the vehicle, it was time to start looking at the fuel system. I guess I probably should have seen this coming;
Yeah, so - needless to say I can see why the fuel gauge wasn't working. This also is probably responsible for the gas fumes inside the vehicle...
Now, ideally if the top of the tank is this bad, it might have made sense to drop the tank. Except I made the mistake of filling up the car before I left for the trip to St. Jacob's and it probably had 45L of gas in it. Sooooooooooooooooooooooo
Time to replace the sending unit. @Hodginsa was there, ostensibly to pull parts off the parts car, but for some reason he ended up being the one to do it. I was just there to hand him tools and take pictures.
So with all that done, the fuel gauge suddenly works (what a surprise!), and the gas smell inside the car is also gone. The speedo wasn't working, but I figured that was just because it wasn't seated properly in the cluster. I was taking it apart anyway to jump the temp faker board in an effort to get that gauge working. This is cool.
So someone previously had removed the faker board. Great. But they didn't think to jumper across it, therefore rendering the gauge completely inoperable. Incredible. So, I jumped a wire directly from the temp sender in the head to the gauge terminal in the cluster, and suddenly the temp gauge works!
With all my gauges working, I chose to risk it for the biscuit and drive the thing home. On highway 401. This was the real test.
And it made it, no problem. The temp gauge ran kinda hot but it never got to a point where it looked like it was overheating. On the highway, it sat right at 9:00, which felt pretty good. It runs good, and is perfectly happy sitting at 2,000 rpm at 100 km/h. The greatest thing? The odometer works too, and is accurate!
So, now it's home - what's next?
Well, the heater is still stuck on at full blast. I pulled off the side plate to make sure the capillary went back in properly, and it did. I was hoping I could adjust the old heater valve (which is probably the original from 1988), and of course both adjustment screws are totally stripped which tells me the permaheater is a long-standing issue. This was definitely a winter-only car for a previous owner, so maybe they just didn't bother.
I've ordered up a new valve, hopefully I can get it installed this week. I have to take this to the cottage in Owen Sound next week sooooo there is a bit of a deadline.
Scaramanga
Active member
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2017
- Location
- Sweden
Moving forward. Well done!Fuel system motherfuckery.
So, after driving around with awful gas fumes inside the vehicle, it was time to start looking at the fuel system. I guess I probably should have seen this coming;
Yeah, so - needless to say I can see why the fuel gauge wasn't working. This also is probably responsible for the gas fumes inside the vehicle...
Now, ideally if the top of the tank is this bad, it might have made sense to drop the tank. Except I made the mistake of filling up the car before I left for the trip to St. Jacob's and it probably had 45L of gas in it. Sooooooooooooooooooooooo
Time to replace the sending unit. @Hodginsa was there, ostensibly to pull parts off the parts car, but for some reason he ended up being the one to do it. I was just there to hand him tools and take pictures.
So with all that done, the fuel gauge suddenly works (what a surprise!), and the gas smell inside the car is also gone. The speedo wasn't working, but I figured that was just because it wasn't seated properly in the cluster. I was taking it apart anyway to jump the temp faker board in an effort to get that gauge working. This is cool.
So someone previously had removed the faker board. Great. But they didn't think to jumper across it, therefore rendering the gauge completely inoperable. Incredible. So, I jumped a wire directly from the temp sender in the head to the gauge terminal in the cluster, and suddenly the temp gauge works!
With all my gauges working, I chose to risk it for the biscuit and drive the thing home. On highway 401. This was the real test.
And it made it, no problem. The temp gauge ran kinda hot but it never got to a point where it looked like it was overheating. On the highway, it sat right at 9:00, which felt pretty good. It runs good, and is perfectly happy sitting at 2,000 rpm at 100 km/h. The greatest thing? The odometer works too, and is accurate!
So, now it's home - what's next?
Well, the heater is still stuck on at full blast. I pulled off the side plate to make sure the capillary went back in properly, and it did. I was hoping I could adjust the old heater valve (which is probably the original from 1988), and of course both adjustment screws are totally stripped which tells me the permaheater is a long-standing issue. This was definitely a winter-only car for a previous owner, so maybe they just didn't bother.
I've ordered up a new valve, hopefully I can get it installed this week. I have to take this to the cottage in Owen Sound next week sooooo there is a bit of a deadline.
bgpzfm142
spinning armature child
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2013
- Location
- Launceston, Tasmana
Well done curing your fuel tank's matricidal matriarchal fornication - your sender unit certainly doesn't look as bad inside as the one I pulled from Project Reddington.
Off to Owen Sound, eh? I worked with somebody from there about 25 years ago.
Off to Owen Sound, eh? I worked with somebody from there about 25 years ago.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2019
- Location
- Mississauga, ON (Canada)
Doesn't surprise me, there's a few industries there but for the most part it's cottage country for city folks like me.
I may not have solved all my fuel system issues though...
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2019
- Location
- Mississauga, ON (Canada)
Couple weeks later. The fuel leak did not stop me from taking the wagon on vacation and thoroughly enjoying just cruising around in a stock shitbox 240. It actually had zero problems or failures apart from the gas leak - which I now figure is a combination of a cracked filler neck (on order) and possibly a leak in the top seam on the gas tank itself... which I have to get around to ordering.
And, back at home - time to swap back to the 940 as I'm "storing" my insurance for the 245 for the season because it's quite expensive to insure two cars on my policy. Of course, I left the battery connected in the red car but it fired right up as it always does. Going from an auto 240 to a manual 940 is quite weird - sometimes I forget how much further from the windshield you sit, and how much lower the dash seems to be.
When it comes time to put winter tires on the 940, I will be swapping the Gems onto the 240 as my summer vehicle. I hope. I've decided not to lower or continue modifying the 940 at all since the wagon is going to need so much more attention. I'm going to throw some 740 wagon springs in the back of the red car fairly soon, hopefully fixing its saggy ass.
245 parked "for the season" aka I'm not driving it on the street until after some more work is done. There's a few holes that need patched and the rockers and lower front fenders are pretty much toast. I'm toying with the idea of a coffin hood or flathood (if I can find one) conversion. To the point where I bought an early cowl to weld in. That's probably about the point of no return where the car ends up getting crushed.
Meanwhile, just selling the '88 and going off and buying an earlier wagon is sounding pretty appealing...
And, back at home - time to swap back to the 940 as I'm "storing" my insurance for the 245 for the season because it's quite expensive to insure two cars on my policy. Of course, I left the battery connected in the red car but it fired right up as it always does. Going from an auto 240 to a manual 940 is quite weird - sometimes I forget how much further from the windshield you sit, and how much lower the dash seems to be.
When it comes time to put winter tires on the 940, I will be swapping the Gems onto the 240 as my summer vehicle. I hope. I've decided not to lower or continue modifying the 940 at all since the wagon is going to need so much more attention. I'm going to throw some 740 wagon springs in the back of the red car fairly soon, hopefully fixing its saggy ass.
245 parked "for the season" aka I'm not driving it on the street until after some more work is done. There's a few holes that need patched and the rockers and lower front fenders are pretty much toast. I'm toying with the idea of a coffin hood or flathood (if I can find one) conversion. To the point where I bought an early cowl to weld in. That's probably about the point of no return where the car ends up getting crushed.
Meanwhile, just selling the '88 and going off and buying an earlier wagon is sounding pretty appealing...
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2019
- Location
- Mississauga, ON (Canada)
Fall not-update.
Really have not done a lot with the wagon, the back lot at the shop has been graded so it gets to live back there for now. I really don't know where to go with it right now - I get the feeling any mechanical work I do to it will be overshadowed by the rust hiding everywhere that I have to fix... but of course if I go about cutting it apart to fix the rust, it may never go back together. So for now I've just been collecting parts.
Switching back to the 940 after I got back from vacation was a bit weird - it's easy to forget that the seating position is totally different. The windshield is way further away from you than on a 240, and there's so much more interior space.
I assumed it had leaked a bunch of oil while it sat for a month, and ended up overfilling it and having a giant cloud of smoke come out from under the hood. Thought I was having an engine fire, but no. Engine bay got a nice oil bath. Wiped as much off as I could and kept going and the burnt plastic smell went away fairly quickly. Also, the manual boost controller has been deleted, and it's back on stock boost. It's noticeably slower but it runs very happily on 87 octane, plus it seems to have picked up 2-3 city MPG now that it's not in boost all the time.
Of course, I get home and the bulb failure light starts randomly coming on and the driver's turn signal stops working. I replaced the bulb for the turn signal, but I noticed that the reflector inside is pretty badly chipped and a giant flake of reflector is just bouncing around in there, so I need a new corner light. Only a matter of time before the flake smashes the bulb.
I figured out that the center brake light wasn't working, and like a doofus I spent quite a while ripping the rear seat out to try and figure out why the wires had snapped off the housing...
Of course, this was made way more difficult by the fact that the clip on the passenger side was hopelessly bent. I think I knocked 2-3 years off my life expectancy trying to bend/squish/crush the seat and get it off. I ended up having to bend it back into shape with some pliers before the seat would come out.
Anyway, that ended up being a big waste of time because it occurred to me that the spoiler has a center brake light in it, I always thought it was just a reflector. The bulb was dead, I replaced it, problem solved. Whew. I guess at least I'm an expert on removing rear sedan seats!
A couple weeks pass with no real problems, and then it rains and the failure light came back. Turns out the fiberglass on these spoilers is not the strongest...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Well, unfortunately I don't have a good way of fixing this except for replacing the whole spoiler. So it's getting bubbly packing tape to hold it in. I'm so done with this.
Really have not done a lot with the wagon, the back lot at the shop has been graded so it gets to live back there for now. I really don't know where to go with it right now - I get the feeling any mechanical work I do to it will be overshadowed by the rust hiding everywhere that I have to fix... but of course if I go about cutting it apart to fix the rust, it may never go back together. So for now I've just been collecting parts.
Switching back to the 940 after I got back from vacation was a bit weird - it's easy to forget that the seating position is totally different. The windshield is way further away from you than on a 240, and there's so much more interior space.
I assumed it had leaked a bunch of oil while it sat for a month, and ended up overfilling it and having a giant cloud of smoke come out from under the hood. Thought I was having an engine fire, but no. Engine bay got a nice oil bath. Wiped as much off as I could and kept going and the burnt plastic smell went away fairly quickly. Also, the manual boost controller has been deleted, and it's back on stock boost. It's noticeably slower but it runs very happily on 87 octane, plus it seems to have picked up 2-3 city MPG now that it's not in boost all the time.
Of course, I get home and the bulb failure light starts randomly coming on and the driver's turn signal stops working. I replaced the bulb for the turn signal, but I noticed that the reflector inside is pretty badly chipped and a giant flake of reflector is just bouncing around in there, so I need a new corner light. Only a matter of time before the flake smashes the bulb.
I figured out that the center brake light wasn't working, and like a doofus I spent quite a while ripping the rear seat out to try and figure out why the wires had snapped off the housing...
Of course, this was made way more difficult by the fact that the clip on the passenger side was hopelessly bent. I think I knocked 2-3 years off my life expectancy trying to bend/squish/crush the seat and get it off. I ended up having to bend it back into shape with some pliers before the seat would come out.
Anyway, that ended up being a big waste of time because it occurred to me that the spoiler has a center brake light in it, I always thought it was just a reflector. The bulb was dead, I replaced it, problem solved. Whew. I guess at least I'm an expert on removing rear sedan seats!
A couple weeks pass with no real problems, and then it rains and the failure light came back. Turns out the fiberglass on these spoilers is not the strongest...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Well, unfortunately I don't have a good way of fixing this except for replacing the whole spoiler. So it's getting bubbly packing tape to hold it in. I'm so done with this.
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2019
- Location
- Mississauga, ON (Canada)
And last not-update that I had to move to a separate post because picture count...
Since I buffed up the paint on the 940 last year, the thing that's always been bothering me (apart from the bits where the paint is worn away) are all the awful spots of really bad clear coat that were done sometime in the early 2000s when the car was crashed and then repaired on the insurer's dime. They do not accept polishing, and most of the spots have faded to a tomato soup kinda colour. Makes it very obvious where the repairs were.
The worst offender has been the hood, which has been this permanent chalky colour the whole time I've owned it and nothing I had done with a buffer and compound has made a dent in it. Check out these really bad drips - you could feel them, they were deep enough to scratch with your fingertnails.
I knew this was going to be risky, but I've started slowly wet-sanding it, a little every day. 3000 grit did basically nothing, 2500 grit was starting to make the water bead off the paint (which is never did before), 2000 grit was starting to reveal some red. I went all the way down to 1500 grit, which is where I think I need to stay to get results.
It still looks godawful, but the parts where I've broken through the bad clear are reflective and bright - I'm going to keep going and see how this turns out.
Since I buffed up the paint on the 940 last year, the thing that's always been bothering me (apart from the bits where the paint is worn away) are all the awful spots of really bad clear coat that were done sometime in the early 2000s when the car was crashed and then repaired on the insurer's dime. They do not accept polishing, and most of the spots have faded to a tomato soup kinda colour. Makes it very obvious where the repairs were.
The worst offender has been the hood, which has been this permanent chalky colour the whole time I've owned it and nothing I had done with a buffer and compound has made a dent in it. Check out these really bad drips - you could feel them, they were deep enough to scratch with your fingertnails.
I knew this was going to be risky, but I've started slowly wet-sanding it, a little every day. 3000 grit did basically nothing, 2500 grit was starting to make the water bead off the paint (which is never did before), 2000 grit was starting to reveal some red. I went all the way down to 1500 grit, which is where I think I need to stay to get results.
It still looks godawful, but the parts where I've broken through the bad clear are reflective and bright - I'm going to keep going and see how this turns out.