240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Having seen your donut in the pics on fcp now Alan, i'd suggest boiling an old pan of water and dropping the donut in for 10-15 minutes before you start fitting it to make it more pliable.

You're right about never a dull moment, been trying to find and have now decided to recondition, the front drop links for my Rover. Fortunately i had the idea of reconditioning them before i bought a bag of NOS ones ~9 years ago so i have plenty to experiment with!

Good point Dave, a bit of mild heat always helps. It will be interesting to see what state those pieces are - whether they look 40 years old, or perhaps have been replaced sometime (might still have been some decades ago). The flange bolts cracked really easily, so I'm thinking it has been apart since it left Gothenburg.

Our older cars keep us on our toes don't they? But on the positive side they tend to be much easier to work on than newer ones - and one can experiment with things like your drop links in a way that one wouldn't with a new car :-)

Alan

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

You know what the reading was today on the fluid in the reservoir Alan - give it another 10-14 days and retest it. If it's showing coontamination thenyou know there's somethign wrong on the car - possibly, i'll come back to this shortly. If it's still close to what it was today, you know one or other of the garbages hasn't done their job properly.

My guess would be Hellfrauds, wouldn't trust them with a wheelbarrow personally. That said, given lockdown i wouldn't put it past any garge, independent or otherwise to fudge some results by adding contaminants to brake fluid.

I mentioned the possibility of something wrong with the car. It could be a leaky breather valve in the resrvoir cap, alowing air in at all times except the odd times that it is needed to prevent a vacuum in the reservoir. Also given the fact we've had a lot of variable temperature, humidity and weather over the past 2-3 weeks, it could simply be that as the air in the reservoir heats up and releases the condensation present in it, that condensation forms overnight on the inside of the reservoir (think plastic sheet in the desert to collect water) and is contamination the reservoir fluid only.
As you can imagine, this would be extreme circumstances and for a 3% rise in contamiants in 10 days or even 18 months is, i would suggest, pretty high, especially as a localised thing.

I think monitor it over the next few weeks and see if that brings any clues as to what is going on.

You may remember this one from the summer Dave. I was changing the rear brake pads on my Triumph and thought I might as well flush the rear brake fluid at the same time (only takes 5 minutes and uses a cup full of DOT4). Whilst I had the brake kit out I tested the brake fluid on the Skoda, because it happened to be standing next to the bike. Result: no contamination at all.

So, there is nothing wrong with the system, this is 3 months later. We will never know the answer to this one :-)

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

You may remember this one from the summer Dave. I was changing the rear brake pads on my Triumph and thought I might as well flush the rear brake fluid at the same time (only takes 5 minutes and uses a cup full of DOT4). Whilst I had the brake kit out I tested the brake fluid on the Skoda, because it happened to be standing next to the bike. Result: no contamination at all.

So, there is nothing wrong with the system, this is 3 months later. We will never know the answer to this one :-)

Alan

Back to my original suggestion then Alan - one of the garages fudged the results and i know which my money is on!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Back to my original suggestion then Alan - one of the garages fudged the results and i know which my money is on!

I think that is the only reasonable conclusion one may reach Dave. Who was at fault? I can't be sure, but I can say the local independent garage will continue looking after the Skoda for me :-)

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

I think that is the only reasonable conclusion one may reach Dave. Who was at fault? I can't be sure, but I can say the local independent garage will continue looking after the Skoda for me :-)

Alan

We're in agreement then Alan!

[Othen]

Early on in the RB project there was a bit of discussion as to whether the headlamps were the originals. I found this sales brochure for sale on eBay (it is not really worth buying, these would have been given away for free by Volvo dealers back in the day):



... what I notice is the RB's front end all looks original:



It looks (to me) like Volvo may have only used these headlamps for a year or two around 1980.

I'm quite pleased with this outcome - I like the RB being more or less original (with a few little fixes and improvements along the way).

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Glad you've found something to answer the mystery Alan!

[Stephen Edwin]

Originally Posted by Othen

..... I found this sales brochure for sale on eBay (it is not really worth buying, these would have been given away for free by Volvo dealers back in the day)

...

Faultless logic.

But.

You can't go back to collect a free one. Unless you have a time machine or similoar.

And.

Would you like and want to have it?

Why not treat yourself?

Enjoy!


Comrade Stephen Edwin

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Glad you've found something to answer the mystery Alan!

It would be nice to re-fit the chrome windscreen surround like the one in the photo Dave, but that would be a lot of fuss, and the more modern type fitted now is perfectly good. I’ll hang on to the surround and if the RB ever needs a new windscreen I’ll get it fitted then.

I’m pleased about the headlamps (with the one up-one down wipers) and grille though, even if I say so myself, the RB looks pretty good for a 40 year old.

:-)

[Lucien]

Originally Posted by Othen

It looks (to me) like Volvo may have only used these headlamps for a year or two around 1980.

I'm quite pleased with this outcome - I like the RB being more or less original (with a few little fixes and improvements along the way).

Alan

I think you're right. In the UK in 1980 the 244DL had the square headlights; the GL had rectangular (as well as overdrive, tinted windows, sunroof, metallic paint and leather or plush upholstery) and the GLE/GLT had GL spec plus fuel injected engine (but the GLT got black cloth seats). The limited edition black 244 Thor also got the rectangular headlights and the black cloth seats.

regards
Lucien