New pride & joy

[JimDay]

I fitted the Volvo modified top mount on mine when I first got the V70

[acshortt5]

Originally Posted by deathrider311271

u telling me i got the wrong bush in my ME7????

Possibly. Although having seen and fitted both types there seemed to be nothing different bar the colour.

I did have an issue with the purple one that I fitted to the S70 in that the sleeve seemed too big and there was too much movement around the bolt so I fitted a new, slightly larger, stainless steel bolt and nut which solved the problem. I didn't encounter this issue when fitting the yellow one to my dads me7 C70.

I also should have clarified that I was referring to the Powerflex ones. I think there is another make, superflex?, that might do a purple me7 bush.

If it fits and works then I wouldn't worry about it tbh.

[Luxobarge]

Mine's a Superflex (Blue/purple, as you can see) and funnily enough, you're right, the tube in the middle is indeed a little too wide. I just tightened it up hard, and it's working fine, but it's not ideal so I might do the same and put a slightly fatter bolt in there.

Interesting - Thanks!

[acshortt5]

Originally Posted by Luxobarge

Mine's a Superflex (Blue/purple, as you can see) and funnily enough, you're right, the tube in the middle is indeed a little too wide. I just tightened it up hard, and it's working fine, but it's not ideal so I might do the same and put a slightly fatter bolt in there.

Interesting - Thanks!

When you do install the larger bolt you may need to enlarge the black cage at either end slightly using a dremmel (quick and easy option) or a file (boring and slow option). Just so you know.

[timbob]

Originally Posted by Luxobarge

OK, more tinkering this evening.

First job was to put the new water pump in. It was very difficult to clean off all the previous sealant, although there was only a very thin bit on there, so I used a thin smear of Loctite 598 on the gasket and located the gasket on the two dowels. Then fiddled the water pump in the hole and located it on the dowels, and back in with the 7 x 10mm bolts - new ones are supplied with the pump. All went in OK, actually easier than taking it out, as the bolts all wind in most of the way by hand.

Then re-fit the belt - I was dreading this, given how difficult it was to get the old one out from behind the crank pulley, but in fact it went back in really easily, only took a couple of minutes.

Here is my nice new shiny water pump fitted and new belt threaded around crank pulley:



Then clean up the other components, put the hydraulic tensioner in a vice to compress it (you need quite a large vice to take the length) and put a pin in it to hold the tension until the belt is on. Fit all the components in reverse order: Hydraulic tensioner, tensioner pulley, idle pulley and fit the belt.

Here it is fitted up:



Wound the engine over a few times with a socket (30mm) on the crank pulley and checked the timing marks - the cams and crank hadn't moved at all while I worked on it, so all was good. Then used a large pair of pliers to remove the pin in the hydraulic tensioner, gave it a few moments to tension up and rotated the engine a few more times - again, all the marks checked out so that's good.

I started the engine briefly at this point, and it ran fine, so back on with the little tin shield around the crank pulley (not too difficult) and back on with the covers etc. and then I fitted the auxiliary belt tensioner. Then I went to fit the new auxiliary belt, but it seems they've given me the wrong one - the new one is about 2 inches longer, and has grooves on both sides, so I'll have to take that back in the morning - shame, Camberley Auto Factors were doing so well up to now - all correct parts apart from this!

Anyway, I fitted the coolant reservoir temporarily and re-filled with nice new red long-life coolant, job (nearly) done! It's nice to be able to see the coolant level in my newly cleaned reservoir!

Here it is all ready apart from missing an aux belt:



I celebrated by putting a new washer on the oil filler cap - hopefully keep the top-end leaks down a bit.

So, sort out the belt in the morning, then that's another couple of jobs ticked off.

Next I think it's time to clean the throttle body and swap the lower suspension arms - not looking forward to that, I hope the ball joint clamp comes undone OK!

More anon.

I was forwarded your thread. I have gotten as far as you did with the original timing belt. I haven't been able to get it over the lump by the pulley balancer. I gave up last night and will try to complete the task this evening. I replaced the water pump and all the pullys and tensioners. The plastic piece that fits on the tensioner, which way does it fit on? I never found anyone or any photo showing its location when it is against the pulley.

[Luxobarge]

No updates for a while - because nothing's gone wrong!

Until last Friday that is....

Wife and I were driving around the local area stopping at pubs to try and find some holiday work for our son. Car was fine until we came out of the 5th pub, turned the key and the dashlights came on, but the starter wouldn't engage - nothing!

This happened shortly after I bought the car and I put it down to draining the battery with lots of fiddling around at home, and after a decent charge it's been fine since. However, it obviously doesn't like lots of very short journeys!

We called a local friend who came out with jump leads and it fired up straight away, so I'm sure it was a dodgy battery.

Got a new one today - a Yuasa Elite (High power version) from CAF, £94 all in, which is a bit of a £ hit but it's a good quality battery and should last a good few years.

After months of drought around here it's finally started raining, so I treated it to a pair of new Bosch wiper blades, as the old ones were rattling and scraping across the screen - it had 19" ones fitted, but apparently it should have 21" blades, so I bought these and have a much better swept area - happy days!

Hopefully no more expense for a while.

Meanwhile we've been very much enjoying the car - what a machine!

[Sprogz]

As everyone else has said, excellent write up.

Followed your pattern and have done my drop links today (as well as some electricals - Qs pending). Had to cut one off, NSF threaded as I undid bottom bolt. Drives a whole lot better.

You fancy doing a NSF CV joint before me and writing it up?

[Luxobarge]

Originally Posted by Sprogz

You fancy doing a NSF CV joint before me and writing it up?

Hehe - it'll need to be done some time, but that's not going to be this side of winter. Happy to do yours together at my place though if you want.

No other updates from me ont his thread - car's been going absolutely great, no problems to report whatsoever. Just shows - I'm really glad I did all the work in one go earlier in the year, it's paid off well.

Did a 500-odd mile return trip to North Wales recently, all loaded up with bikes etc. and absolutely no problems, and boy, is this car comfortable! I got out of it feeling more rested & relaxed than any car I've owned before, and that includes two Jags!

Cheers all

[tickman]

Just read through this Rick, nice to see you on here and the quality of the write ups have not changed at all.
Still have the Saab and the Morris Minor as well as the Jag?

I assume it is still going as it should

John.

[Luxobarge]

Originally Posted by tickman

Just read through this Rick, nice to see you on here and the quality of the write ups have not changed at all.
Still have the Saab and the Morris Minor as well as the Jag?

I assume it is still going as it should

John.

Hi John - Thanks!

Yeah still have the Jag and the Morris Minor (and my Midget) but the Black Saab went a while back now, it was rear-ended by some mad g*t's going over twice the speed limit when our car was stationary, and was written off. Gutted doesn't even come close....

Nothing much to report on the flying brick recently, the only problem I've had was a simple one - on a 20-mile trip last month I noticed that the car seemed to be lacking urge, and was down on fuel consumption too. When we arrived, there was a cloud of smoke pouring off the front nearside brake - it was red hot!

Clearly a caliper had seized - quite surprising given that I thoroughly serviced the brakes earlier, and changed the fluid thoroughly, but there you go.

I cooled it down by dowsing it in water, gave it a bit of a thump and it more or less behaved on the way home, but then I replaced the caliper (I couldn't be arsed with re-building it myself) - no pics I'm afraid, it was a really simple 20-minute job. I didn't even use the pressure bleeder to bleed the new caliper, I just left the nipple open with a clear tube running into a jar, and when the fluid ran through it with no bubbles (entirely by gravity alone - no pumping) I did up the bleed nipple and job's a good'un.

Other than that the flying brick soldiers on, all that work I did earlier in this thread is paying dividends as it's just given no problems whatsoever apart from the above - long may it last!

Due another service before too long, MoT next month too, so we'll see how that goes.

Cheers all!