240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[john.wigley]

OR a group purchase by a number of enthusiasts living in reasonably close proximity (say 10 in a 10 mile radius (?)) might make it more cost-effective, given the limited use that that one person would presumably make of it.

You would only need one person with enough space to house it - the rest could pay him nominal 'rent' of a few beer tokens per year.

Told you I was a tight-wad! It comes of being a child of the fifties. Having seen my own mother agonise over spending the last half-crown in her purse at the end of the week on food for the table or coal for the fire, I'd be up for something like that - how about it chaps!

Regards, John.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by john.wigley

OR a group purchase by a number of enthusiasts living in reasonably close proximity (say 10 in a 10 mile radius (?)) might make it more cost-effective, given the limited use that that one person would presumably make of it.

You would only need one person with enough space to house it - the rest could pay him nominal 'rent' of a few beer tokens per year.

Told you I was a tight-wad! It comes of being a child of the fifties. Having seen my own mother agonise over spending the last half-crown in her purse at the end of the week on food for the table or coal for the fire, I'd be up for something like that - how about it chaps!

Regards, John.

An excellent idea John but my experience of life and things like this have come up with the following figures. Out of those interested, 1:10 will actually be interested enough to consider taking it to the next stage of investigating costs and potentially investing. Out of those, 1:3 will actually have everything in place (the interest, enthusiasm, funds, proximity to the proposed "guardian" etc) to actually commit.

Working those figures back, that means you'd need to find 300 people interested in saving money and changing their own tyres. Out of those 300, 30 will be interested enough to find out more and 10 of those will have everything in place to commit etc.

This was borne out by something on another forum, a group purchase of stainless exhaust manifolds for one particular model. The 1:10 was already eliminated and out of the 10-12 initial interests given, only 3 of us (including the one funding the group purchase) were able/willing to commit and that was with two of those taking two manifolds each.
The third person dropped out fairly soon after so we were down to two and then found the supplier wasn't willing to offer any discount for buying 6 which the person funding it all was prepared to buy , keep and then sell on later to those whose fortunes had once more improved.
As you can guess, it didn't happen!

I'm sure you know i'm not saying this to rain on your parade but the big problem, being realistic, is getting enough people interested in the concept to progress things.

[john.wigley]

I know, 'L.S.', I know. It was ever thus. But wouldn't it be great if it did work? As I sit here listening to the doom and gloom on the radio, especially just up the road in Leicester, I really do need something to cheer me up and think happy thoughts!

Regards, John.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by john.wigley

I know, 'L.S.', I know. It was ever thus. But wouldn't it be great if it did work? As I sit here listening to the doom and gloom on the radio, especially just up the road in Leicester, I really do need something to cheer me up and think happy thoughts!

Regards, John.

It would indeed be great if it worked John!

Leicester always struck me as a "cramped" place, everything very close together - perhaps that's supporting/promoting the spread of the Kung Flu as Alan calls it.

In fairness i was mainly at Hykeham (North if memory serves) at the landfill site and only saw the town 2-3 times but everything seemed very "cosy" there.

[Clifford Pope]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Interesting! Can i ask if the alloy and steel wheels were the same rim diameter and width?
.

Yes - I was in the process of swapping a tyre from a standard steel wheel to a Scorpius alloy.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Yes, and if you learned how to use it to save yourself having to get your tyres fitted at a generic tyre bay, it might eventually make financial sense.

Mine paid for itself the first time i used it, even in its basic "out of the box" form. I bought 4 Falken tyres for £57 each at the time and used the tyre machine to fit them. I can't remember the cost of the machine but it was ~£50 delivered. Therefore total cost for tyres and the machine was ~£280. I had valves and i already had a manual wheel balancer and weights which had previously cost me about £50 total.

The same tyres supplied, fitted and balanced at a generic high street chain of tyre fitters worked out ~£110 each at the cheapest so ~£440 so the worst case scenario was i was already ~£110 in profit (or savings) the first time i used it.

So far, it's worked out about £120 on a cheap set of tyres and about £220 on a "middle of the road" (no pun intended!) set of tyres for the saving. On that basis, it would take you 7 sets of tyres to recoup the cost on cheap tyres or about 3.5 sets on a mid-range set of tyres. Arguably you could extend it to premium tyres and would probably be more like ~£300/set saving.

Excellent.

I'm thinking: if I buy much cheaper tyres direct from Tyre Leader - I have them delivered to Corby Tyres and pay £25 each to have them fitted and balanced (well worth it for the Porsche, the saving is £60-£100 per tyre). The margins are less for the Skoda and the Royal Barge, but I could probably save £20 and £10 respectively (per wheel). I suppose allowing for a few punctures and some tyres wearing out, I might have an average of about 6 tyres fitted per year - at an average of about £18 - so let's call it £100/year I could save.

A new machine would pay for itself in 8 years - and probably have a residual value of half that by the time it was amortised. If I had room I'd probably do it (I'd still have to invest in something to balance the wheels).

:-)

[Othen]

Eagle eyed readers may recall me changing the nearside engine mount last week - it was split in half, an easy job and a great improvement for £6.

The transmission mount arrived with the postie today, the weather was nice and I had nothing else to do, so I decided to fit the offside engine mount and while I had the RB in the air change the transmission mount as well.

First the offside engine mount: it looked fiendishly difficult to access, so the same as previously: disconnect the battery, put the car on ramps and fit my lovely home re-purposed engine brace:



... this proved to be really useful, at one point the engine slipped off the jack under the sump, which would have been chaos if not for the brace - it could only fall perhaps 5mm, so all was well.

I took the weight of the motor with my bike hoist under the sump via a block of wood, then tightened up the brace to suit.

The 3 nuts (17mm) onto the captive studs on the lower bracket come off easily. The 3 bolts fixing the upper bracket to the block were another matter. The first came out easily from underneath the car. The second needed the oil filter removed, but was not too difficult. The final one (lower, front) would have been impossible without removing the alternator. It came off with a 12mm ring spanner - a quarter of a turn at a time. Eventually we got there and the mount plus two brackets could be pulled out. This bit took ages and involved lots of swearing.

The old and the new:



whilst still complete, the old rubber had the consistency of a bungee cord, was shortened and distorted - the new one was a thing of beauty in comparison.

Here is the cleaned up (20 minutes in a bucket of Screwfix degreaser and hot water plus a good scrub) re-assembled mounting - ready to be fitted:



... and here is the offending bolt that was so difficult to remove - it is captive once the rubber bit is fitted:



... I can't imagine why Volvo made that bit so difficult.

Another 20 minutes got all the threads started and everything back into place - not so difficult. Once the alternator and oil filter were re-fitted everything could be jacked down. What an improvement - the motor sits about an inch higher than previously - there is now good clearance between the sump and the cross-member.

The transmission mount was much easier. I took the weight of the auto box with my bike lift, then removed the 17mm nut holding the back of the mounting with a long socket through the hole Mr Volvo has thoughtfully provided, and loosened the other end with a 17mm ring spanner 1/3 of a turn at a time (very Saabesque - not a compliment). The old rubber block was complete but a bit worse for 40 years of wear:



The cross member came off easily enough (4 x 14mm screws i think) and I took the opportunity to give it a clean and brush up before re-assembly:



... a second jack was useful to raise the cross member up into place, but other than that there was nothing unusual to report.

This lot ended up taking half as day (punctuated by some tea breaks, Bob's second walk and chatting with the postie), nearly all of which was in getting access to the lower bracket on the offside engine mount. I hope I don't have to do that job again soon.

Then the test drive: it was evident even before I got the RB off the ramps that everything was much better - engine shake was greatly reduced and the whole car seemed better. On the road the result was remarkable: no more lump slopping around whenever it felt like it, better gear changes and generally everything felt much tighter.

This was a really good £19 spent (the engine mounts were £6 each and the transmission mount was £7). I'm pleased with the outcome.

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

Eagle eyed readers may recall me changing the nearside engine mount last week - it was split in half, an easy job and a great improvement for £6.

The transmission mount arrived with the postie today, the weather was nice and I had nothing else to do, so I decided to fit the offside engine mount and while I had the RB in the air change the transmission mount as well.

First the offside engine mount: it looked fiendishly difficult to access, so the same as previously: disconnect the battery, put the car on ramps and fit my lovely home re-purposed engine brace:



... this proved to be really useful, at one point the engine slipped off the jack under the sump, which would have been chaos if not for the brace - it could only fall perhaps 5mm, so all was well.

I took the weight of the motor with my bike hoist under the sump via a block of wood, then tightened up the brace to suit.

The 3 nuts (17mm) onto the captive studs on the lower bracket come off easily. The 3 bolts fixing the upper bracket to the block were another matter. The first came out easily from underneath the car. The second needed the oil filter removed, but was not too difficult. The final one (lower, front) would have been impossible without removing the alternator. It came off with a 12mm ring spanner - a quarter of a turn at a time. Eventually we got there and the mount plus two brackets could be pulled out. This bit took ages and involved lots of swearing.

The old and the new:



whilst still complete, the old rubber had the consistency of a bungee cord, was shortened and distorted - the new one was a thing of beauty in comparison.

Here is the cleaned up (20 minutes in a bucket of Screwfix degreaser and hot water plus a good scrub) re-assembled mounting - ready to be fitted:



... and here is the offending bolt that was so difficult to remove - it is captive once the rubber bit is fitted:



... I can't imagine why Volvo made that bit so difficult.

Another 20 minutes got all the threads started and everything back into place - not so difficult. Once the alternator and oil filter were re-fitted everything could be jacked down. What an improvement - the motor sits about an inch higher than previously - there is now good clearance between the sump and the cross-member.

The transmission mount was much easier. I took the weight of the auto box with my bike lift, then removed the 17mm nut holding the back of the mounting with a long socket through the hole Mr Volvo has thoughtfully provided, and loosened the other end with a 17mm ring spanner 1/3 of a turn at a time (very Saabesque - not a compliment). The old rubber block was complete but a bit worse for 40 years of wear:



The cross member came off easily enough (4 x 14mm screws i think) and I took the opportunity to give it a clean and brush up before re-assembly:



... a second jack was useful to raise the cross member up into place, but other than that there was nothing unusual to report.

This lot ended up taking half as day (punctuated by some tea breaks, Bob's second walk and chatting with the postie), nearly all of which was in getting access to the lower bracket on the offside engine mount. I hope I don't have to do that job again soon.

Then the test drive: it was evident even before I got the RB off the ramps that everything was much better - engine shake was greatly reduced and the whole car seemed better. On the road the result was remarkable: no more lump slopping around whenever it felt like it, better gear changes and generally everything felt much tighter.

This was a really good £19 spent (the engine mounts were £6 each and the transmission mount was £7). I'm pleased with the outcome.

Alan

Another "mount"ain climbed and defeated Alan!

That second mount looks very jelly-like, oil contaminated perhaps and turned it to jelly instead of rubber?

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Another "mount"ain climbed and defeated Alan!

That second mount looks very jelly-like, oil contaminated perhaps and turned it to jelly instead of rubber?

You are making a profession from these word puns Dave - were you a reporter for the 'Sun' previously? :-)

I think you are right - both of the old rubber mounts were much softer than they should have been - maybe oil contamination, maybe just 40 years of vibration? I'm pleased I got all three changed though, the Royal Barge is much better now.

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

You are making a profession from these word puns Dave - were you a reporter for the 'Sun' previously? :-)

I think you are right - both of the old rubber mounts were much softer than they should have been - maybe oil contamination, maybe just 40 years of vibration? I'm pleased I got all three changed though, the Royal Barge is much better now.

Alan

Hmmm, bit of an oxymoron there Alan - to be a reporter you have to be at least semi-literate.That immediately over-qualifies 90% of journalists for working on The Sun.

If i was pushed to offer a reason for the state of those engine mounts, i'd say the primary cause was oil contamination aided and abetted by the vibration plus the degradation and perishing of age.