Large Bumper '74 142 - Absorber Replacement
 

My father is restoring a 142 he imported from the USA and has asked me to post the following question on here in the hopes someone can help.

The 1974 model year is fitted with large 'bulldozer' type bumpers which are intended to retract on impact and then return to their normal position. The bumpers are each attached to two small cylinders which are mounted to the front and rear side members and I assume these were originally filled with a gas that liquefied under sudden pressure or a gel that became a liquid. Well after 43 years in the Texas sunshine whatever they were filled with ain't there now! As a result when they are pushed in they stay in the retracted position. Replacement units are no longer available so my options are to tack weld them open or replace each of the units with some type of shock absorber possibly with a small spring.

Has anyone come across this problem before and if so what was the solution? Any innovative ideas for overcoming this problem will be much appreciated.'

yes those are the USA hydraulic buffers , The best thing is to fit UK ones which are just a thick rubber cylinder , you would need the whole units from each side . The USA Bumper is thicker alloy too , not sure if they are compatible or if you would need the UK bumper too . There must be someone selling the whole bumper which bolts on with 4 bolts ...

Is it just the rears you need or the fronts also?

UK cars use rubber blocks as already mentioned

Hi All,

My father has asked me to post this following reply.

'I must thank the contributors to this Forum who responded to my enquiry concerning the US specification hydraulic bumper buffers which are fitted to both the front and rear of my 1974 142. As to changing the bumpers I would prefer to use the bumpers from the earlier model year but would have to adapt these since the fittings are totally different to the 'bulldozer' type fitted to later cars. But before proceeding, since the early model 240s sold in the States also had these units, I will contact a Volvo 240 contact in the US and ask him how they overcome the problem of none operational hydraulic buffers. At the moment I think the easiest solution will to be to lock the units in the fully open position by drilling/tapping a suitably sized hole in the outer casing and then securing this to the inner casing with a suitably sized socket screw. All in all an interesting problem!'