240 estate retractable load cover
 

The useful link below will take you to a Volvo service bulletin aimed at retensionning a load cover for a 7/900 series estate - you might think that they'd be pretty similar...

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=120613

So I tackled this innocuous job with a friend the other day and the following tips may help us 240ers:

The instructions refer to 'releasing the material'. I assumed that the plastic covers clicked outwards and stayed out allowing you to tension away from the vinyl sheet. They don't. They have a slot cut in them. You and your accomplice will get into all sorts of bother trying to wind the spring up if you don't keep the material out of the slots - Volvo suggest (very unclearly) that you fold back the material and tape it. You could, but you will find that you and your accomplice's thumbs will do this task perfectly well!

The instructions refer to turning the left hand end cover clockwise. After a couple of attempts, I found mine wanted to be tensionned counter clockwise. You have to assume that the direction is from the point of view of the person doing the tensionning holding the plastic cover and looking across the blind along the length of the roller - make sense? In that case, mine wanted to go counter clockwise. Doing it clockwise resulted in a blind that wanted to self-extend, but not retract!

Lastly, I got to 20 turns and the roller violently spun the other way. The instructions say you go to 23 turns. Second time, I tried 15 turns and this was also too much. My cover is reinstalled in the car with 12 turns which is enough to hold the blind reasonably taut without stressing it. What is 'a turn' as Volvo put it? I took it to mean a complete revolution. The clicks that you will feel as you manipulate the blind seem to be at about 140 degrees to each other - in other words more than 2 per revolution, but not 3! Difficult to judge - maybe they are at 180 degrees and 'a turn' means 1 click, so 23 clicks = roughly 12 revolutions? My view was that the blind is at least 25 years old (maybe older) and I'd like it to last a little longer so I wasn't going to stress it unduly

Good luck if you are tackling this simplish job. The Volvo bulletin is confusing and once you've sussed what you are doing, this should not take long

Nick