Propshaft went "BANG" at 150+mph.......
 

After having some work done on mine today (extension housing bush/seal) and having had some vibration problems last time after doing the prop centre bearing, we decided to run it up to a good speed while still on the axle stands.

No real vibration (apart from a small amount almost certainly due to a slight wheel balance problem) at 20, 30, 40, 50 70mph so i eased further down on the loud pedal.
SPeedo needle kept climbing and off the scale at 140mph then with about 150mph showing i eased off the loud pedal at which point there was a "BANG!" followed by a strange sound and vibration from the propshaft area just underneath the centre console.

Fearing the worst, my mate dived underneath to see if he could see the source of the noise/vibration.
Nothing found.
We then tried it on the road to make sure it wasn't the fact the wheels didn't need a load on them to quieten noisy wheel bearings.
Nope, not that either.

Coming to the conclusion it had to be something in the area of the centre bearing, we returned, jacked it back up and my mate dived underneath and dropped the front of the prop off the back of the gearbox. No obvious play in the gearbox (shouldn't have been after renewing the bush and seal an hour or three earlier!) so whipped the flange bolt out of the output shaft to re-clean the thread and apply Loctite to the thread, just to be on the safe side.

Then he spotted a "clean looking swept area on the underside of the trans tunnel".

Oh dear!

Oh dear, oh dear!!

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!!!

OH FLICK!!!! (Squint and you'll get what i was really thinking! ;) )

Straightaway i thought part of the propshaft had come adrift.

OK, it wasn't the propshaft itself but the rubber dust cover behind the prop centre bearing. It had split and remained tethered to the rest of its former self by a thin piece of rubber.

As such it was spinning around with the propshaft and above certain road speeds (25-30mph) was slapping the floor like those clacker things used to slap the spokes on your Raleigh Grifter (or Chopper) when you were a sprog.

This was causing some vibration not to mention a hell of a lot of noise! Oh yeah, and me panicking and angry! :realmad:

An "enthusiastic tug" soon had the offending bit of rubber removed from its past life and normal service was resumed.
I say "normal" - it's a lot smoother, quieter and seems more "eager" too.

While my mate was doing the extension housing i crawled uner and dropped the engine oil and filter, also had an oil extractor pump running to empty the ATF from the box too.
With 3.5L of fresh ATF-U, a new oil filter and 5L of Gulf 10W40 topped up to 6L with some old stock Triple QX10W40 the engine was a lot quieter and the box much smoother with more defined but cushioned changes.

Anyway, probably the only time i'll legally see the speedo genuinely reading 150mph, even if the car wasn't traveling anywhere at the time! :lol:

Dave,

That's a sign you need to start treating the old lady with a bit of respect and not playing at being a boy racer :)

She gets plenty of respect Simon - and used too. Given the previous problem with the centre bearing being slightly out of line and causing a lot of vibration, i wanted to be doubly-sure this time, hence testing to slightly further than i normally would.

However i'm now confident that no matter what road speed i reach, the propshaft isn't going to do anything stupid.

Compared to a year ago, it's a totally different car though. Much quieter, smoother, no horrible vibrations, starts/runs better, handles and rides better in short, vastly improved, even though i say it myself!

So as you can see, she gets plenty of respect and TLC, still needs a bit more but that's more general such as keeping it clean and tidy and serviced. At least it seems i'm now down to routine servicing for the repairs side of things at last!

Just a new set of tyres to fit then i'll start refurbishing the alloys, one at a time when i can afford the 5th new tyre so the handling isn't compromised by a part-worn spare.

Oh yeah - the LPG conversion too. Just bought a tow-bar on fleabay to mount the LPG filler on so i don't have to have an ugly LPG filler cut through the main body panels anywhere.

Talking of which, do you (or anyone else on here) happen to know where the Lambda sensor lives on the B280F models and is it simply blanked off with a plug on the B280E? If so i can remove the plug and fit a Lambda sensor (or two) for the LPG system to do its stuff with.
If there isn't a plugged hole, i have a fall-back plan but it would be nice to use an OE position if at all possible. ;) :D

Dave,

Just pulling your leg I know you look after her very well :)

Only a couple of more weeks and mine goes away for the winter and I can start sorting all the little jobs I need to and the list is growing.

Then after Xmas shes going in to have the damage the idiot on the mobility scooter did sorted

Knew you were pulling my leg Simon - thought i'd pretend not though, just for fun! :D

If i'm lucky with the tyres then for now at least i won't have to do any balancing. When i come to refurb them, it will be one wheel at a time, completely stripped down, no balance weights or anything, then wire-brushed, sanded, maybe sand-blasted, dings filled with JBWeld or similar, all sanded and smoothed then painted. I'm considering a gunmetal grey for the inner part and the insides of the little "square holes" round the edge of the front and a high-gloss, almost chrome-like silver for the front face.

Not sure on the centre caps yet, may do them body colour with a stick on "VOLVO" graphic in black.

Whichever way i end up doing them, they'll be getting a generous coating of wax polish before going anywhere near the road!

I know mine also needs a little bit of the "electric glue gun" treatment viz one small patch in the front passenger footwell, battery tray and a small spot on the drivers side inner wig just above the chassis rail.
Other than those three little bits, she's solid underneath. After that (and the tyres) she'll be ready to fly through the MoT again (hopefully!) and carry on giving excellent service. ;) :D

Dave,

Thanks for reminding me about wheels mine need doing as well so I'll add them to the ever growing "to do" list.

The only panel problem I have (other than the damage) is the battery box but that's a quick fix and some black paint.

Bit busy at work at the moment so will start looking parts shortly gather them all together to do over the Xmas holiday

I don't know i'f you've got the panels sorted yet Simon but i've just discovered from a thread on here that Lakes Volvo is shutting at the end of the month.

As such, you might get a cheap deal on the doors but you don't have much time! ;) :D

Dave,

I saw that two so trying to sort out getting over there before they close as I haven't yet sorted the panels

Oil exractor pump ?
 

Hi Dave, I'd be interested in seeing your extractor pump, show it on here or email me, David.

This be it David :

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/JcoAA...rfS/s-l400.jpg

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-Electr...oAAOSwS41ZerfS

I also bought some stiff nylon tubing and adaptors to connect to the inlet side on the premise that not only being stiffer than the PVC tubing would offer a larger cross-sectional area to suck the old fluid up - big mistake! It makes it too difficult to develop the vacuum so used the supplied small bore PVC tubing.

It's also worth priming the pump with a small amount of fresh oil before attempting to extract the old fluid from the car, just so the pump isn't "running dry" for too long.

It makes life so much easier and to be honest, if the car hadn't been up on axle stands for the gearbox work i would have used it for the engine oil change as well. It makes life much cleaner as well, discharge the pump into an old 5L tub/bottle and everything is more or less enclosed, unlike dropping the sump plug and letting it get blown by the wind here there and everywhere! ;) :D