240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

I was going to suggest spraying the original speaker covers that came with the car Alan, some plastic primer followed by BL Champagne Beige would be a good match for your interior.

You could either pop the mesh out before spraying to give a bit of contrast once refitted or spray the mesh as well for an "all-in-one-colour" look.

Meanwhile the replacemenit grilles are looking good!

I did consider that Dave, but the orange ones stand a little more proud and are circular, so the window winder just catches them at the top of its stroke.

The new ones are a less different shape than the Volvo fitment cigar boxes. I think the Champagne Beige you suggest would look fine on the new grey ones - don't you think?

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

I did consider that Dave, but the orange ones stand a little more proud and are circular, so the window winder just catches them at the top of its stroke.

The new ones are a less different shape than the Volvo fitment cigar boxes. I think the Champagne Beige you suggest would look fine on the new grey ones - don't you think?

Alan

Indeed Alan, my suggestion was open to modification so spraying the new grilles if they're more suited to the window winder clearance that would be a better way.

PS this is the colour i was referring to, i think it's pretty close to the colour of your interior?

[heckflosse]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Indeed Alan, my suggestion was open to modification so spraying the new grilles if they're more suited to the window winder clearance that would be a better way.

PS this is the colour i was referring to, i think it's pretty close to the colour of your interior?

A cold sweat inducing image there , Sir!

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by heckflosse

A cold sweat inducing image there , Sir!

The All-aggro does have that effect on people! I first searched for "BL Champagne Beige" and was presented with loads of images of champagne blonde ladies looking lovely after using the accompanying ads for hair dye!

Next search was "Allegro Champagne Beige" as it was shorter to type than "Ambassador Champagne Beige" which might have been a bit less scary!

[Bugjam1999]

Hi- couple of comments on engine removal and replacement:

Buy a load leveller, they’re essential for the job.

First off, take the front wheels off and support the front of the car on axle stands under the front jacking points so the car is level. Remove the front slam panel as part of the strip down (these are spot welded into place on a later car, so I would have suggested drilling out the spotwelds and replacing them with nuts and bolts of your car was later).

Once the engine crane is in place and taking the weight of the engine and gearbox, remove the engine mounts and the 4 bolts holding the engine cross member to the car body. With the 4 bolts removed, push the engine cross member down as far as you can, this will provide a valuable extra bit of room. You don’t need to remove anything else- like the suspension or brake components.

Regarding the interior parts- SEM ‘Camel’ is an excellent match for the beige interior, I’ve used it previously to paint replacement black interior parts as beige parts are now very hard to find and as fragile as a crisp if you can find them.

Cheers

[Bob Meadows]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-240...wAAOSwAaVfoI2M

Alan:~
Just in case you may still be interested?
Ashlea Classics (good company for parts) have a pair for just under £20:00 plus £3:00 postage.
Regards Bob

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Bob Meadows

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-240...wAAOSwAaVfoI2M

Alan:~
Just in case you may still be interested?
Ashlea Classics (good company for parts) have a pair for just under £20:00 plus £3:00 postage.
Regards Bob

Many thanks Bob,
I quite like the idea of having fixed the rather garish orange covers that used to catch on the window winder with some more sober ones that cost me £2. It is within the ethos of the RB project (to constantly improve at low cost, but with no attempt whatsoever at an original restoration).
Thank you for the link though (but £20 for two pieces of plastic is too much for a tightwad like me).
Best wishes,
Alan

[Bob Meadows]

Same thoughts from a thrifty Lancashire lad!
All The Best
Regards Bob.

[Othen]

Regular readers will know the Royal barge is in a use and regular maintenance phase at the moment - but there are always little jobs that come up from time to time on a 40 year old motor car. I had noticed that a mouse appeared to be squeaking away somewhere at the front of the engine - the frequency seemed to be more or less proportional to engine speed so having eliminated the most obvious (alternator and steering belts) the prime suspect was the cambelt tensioner.

Readers may recall that I changed the RB's cambelt when swapped the cylinder head for a reconditioned one some months ago, but at that time the tensioner seemed fine but I didn't change it. I know, before anyone tells me... everything is easy with hindsight. Anyway, a new Gates tensioner cost £15 and was delivered a few weeks ago, it being quite a nice day (for January in England) I put the RB up on some ramps and swapped it today.

It took only a few minutes to pull off the under engine cover and the shroud containing the electric fan, which gave pretty good access to the front of the motor:



Fortunately on the B21a the cambelt cover can be removed after the alternator belts and is only held on by 4 bolts (a mix of 8mm/10mm/12mm - I wonder why Mr Volvo did that?):



With the motor at TBC one can just see the crank timing mark through this gap:



... so I marked the belt where it met the camshaft sprocket with both tippex and a think marker pen:



... and also the auxiliary sprocket:



... and pulled the belt off just enough to remove the tensioner:



Here is the crappy old idler and the smart new one:



... I know, I should have changed it with the belt etc, etc. A vice was pretty handy in getting the spring back into the new tensioner:



Everything went together pretty easily and my tippex/pen marks got the timing spot on (I wond it over a couple of times by hand and noticed the manufacturer's timing marks were still just visible on the belt, so I checked it again using them:



I suppose the whole job took about an hour and a quarter - including a break for a brew. The B21a is a really easy motor to work on.

The bearing in the old idler really was a bit noisy when I span in - so I think I saved it just in time.

I've just taken the RB for a test run and I'm pleased to say it is all nice and quiet again. I quite enjoy the RB keeping me busy with little jobs like this :-)

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2021.

Alan

[loki_the_glt]

Nice work; as has been said before about many things "hindsight has 20-20 vision".

As you say,the redblocks are easy to do most jobs on; number 4 spark plug on manual cars is a bit more difficult as the clutch master cylinder gets in the way and the camshaft mounted distributor has to rank as one of Volvo's less intelligent pieces of "design" but things like the timing belt set-up might almost have been designed with the owner-mechanic in mind.