Chris1Roll's return to 700 ownership

[volvo always]

I replaced my over axle pipe a week ago and the worst part of the job was removing it from the first backbox on my 940.

The rear backbox came off easy as only been on 18 months but had to use a wood chisel on the join of the over axle pipe to the first backbox as gently cut the metal and bend it up. After 30 minutes of chiselling and bending finally got it off!

It's the little wins that are good and give you a sense of achievement.

Next job try and sort the snapped handbrake cable, then have another go at the AC.

James.

[Chris1Roll]

I Roll!



I got the backbox fitted in the week, I'm still waiting on a piece of pipe for the tailpipe but we can drive without that.
Why spend £30+ on the backbox fitting kit when you can spend £1.80 on a wallplate strap and use some random allen headed screws you have lying around:

Sleeved joint to the over-axle pipe:

With the extraneous bracket cut off, there is now acres of clearance:



I also spent a cloudy morning cleaning and polishing with 'super resin polish' after it had spent a month getting covered in dust and baking in the sun. The PO hadn't fully buffed off some previous product, and removing that took some time.

50/50:



At the end of it, I think it was looking pretty handsome:


I then had a nightmare last night, I thought I would try and protect it from the sun a bit with autoglyms 'Extra Gloss Protection' - it says apply a thin layer, allow to dry for 30 minutes, and then buff off.
The first two steps I could manage, but then..it wouldn't come off. As in, I had the stepladder out and thought I was going to bend the roof wouldn't come off! after 10 minutes the sweat was running down my face and I had managed perhaps a 12" square section, and the light was failing.
In the end I cut my losses and polished it again which thankfully took it off again, and then this morning I just went out, lightly misted it with water and used the normal liquid spray wax.
I don't know what happened - perhaps I put it on too thick? I think I shall practice on one of our other cars!

On Wednesday night I sorted the insurance and the tax, and then yesterday morning there was nothing for it but to venture out..

It seems absolutely fine

First stop was to give it a drink of E5 Super Unleaded, then we toddled off to Tropiquaria for a nice day out.
When we left, a quick look under the bonnet to make sure it still had oil and coolant in it (It did) and then make the return journey.

I'm so used to 5cylinder smooth+relative quietness these days that the 80's driving experience is quite different, but I soon got used to the redblock noises.

I was driving nice and steady with as much mechanical sympathy as possible but I still ended up having to overtake someone on the way home - it comes to something when I'm driving a 34 year old motor with what - 119hp when new?, coupled to a lazy auto, out on a gentle first drive, and get held up by a 72 plate doing 35 in a 50.
I don't think I'll be overtaking anything going much faster with it!

Some of the gearshifts are a bit firm. I'm not expecting butter smoothness from an 80's 4 speed, but I'll change the fluid and then assume that is what it is like.
Manual specs Dexron IID which I can get from smith and Allan, but I'm assuming Dexron III will be fine and a worthwhile 'upgrade'.
Just debating whether to do a series of drain and fills rather than interfering with 34yr old unions!

The odometer doesn't work. I checked the trip wasn't at 000 (the usual clue) when I looked at it, then didn't pay any attention after that. I now see the reset button is jammed right in behind the perspex.
It looks like it stopped working a few hundred after the last MOT in August, and judging by what the PO had done before I reckon at the most it's missing 5-6k.
Time for a cog replacement - does anyone know if I need to dismantle first and count the teeth or can I assume it will be the 25t one I need? It is a VDO cluster.

There is an intermittent bulb failure or possible bad earth (of course!)- it seemed to flash on briefly with the indicators at the same time as braking a couple of times, then it was on permanently for a few miles, then I never saw it again for the whole drive home.
(Nothing unusual from my memory - one of my previous ones flashed the seatbelt warning when indicating left, solved at the time by taking the seatbelt bulb out!)

On the way home I noticed an intermittent squeak from the V belts. Partly I guess because they were seating in, but mostly because I probably didn't crank them up hard enough so as not to risk damaging the bearings.
On inspection, the previously aligned water pump belts had moved away from each other.
Once the car had cooled down I retensioned them with a steel rule to guage them. (and realigned them as that seems like a good way to monitor). I just love how easy this car is to work on - If I had to, I could have done that job at the side of the road with the tool kit from the boot.

Its decided after being driven that ~850rpm is idle speed in D, and ~1050-1100 in P or N I still need to get an induction tach, then from the looks of it drive it a few miles and then set it.

A total of 32 miles successfully travelled according to google maps. We'll do quite a few more local journeys before venturing onto the motorway with it.

Overall, very very pleased with it, I think I am a touch over the £2k initial total budget (but not by much, say £50 max) and have something perfectly useable with a few minor jobs to do.

Even my daughter says "it would be acceptable for you to drop me off at school in it" which is praise indeed!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Chris1Roll

I Roll!...

Some of the gearshifts are a bit firm. I'm not expecting butter smoothness from an 80's 4 speed, but I'll change the fluid and then assume that is what it is like.
Manual specs Dexron IID which I can get from smith and Allan, but I'm assuming Dexron III will be fine and a worthwhile 'upgrade'.
Just debating whether to do a series of drain and fills rather than interfering with 34yr old unions!


...

Its decided after being driven that ~850rpm is idle speed in D, and ~1050-1100 in P or N I still need to get an induction tach, then from the looks of it drive it a few miles and then set it.

A total of 32 miles successfully travelled according to google maps. We'll do quite a few more local journeys before venturing onto the motorway with it.

Overall, very very pleased with it, I think I am a touch over the £2k initial total budget (but not by much, say £50 max) and have something perfectly useable with a few minor jobs to do.

Even my daughter says "it would be acceptable for you to drop me off at school in it" which is praise indeed!

Wonderful! Welcome back to the 1980's driving experience.

I would recommend you do two or three partial changes of the ATF rather than disturb the cooler pipe unions that haven't moved in a long time. You should be able to get about 3 litres out with each change, so after 3 partial changes you will have swapped out nearly all of it. The transmission will probably improve quite a bit, but don't expect it to be like a modern auto (but much better than a BW55 3 speeder!).

The tick over speed is always a bit of a compromise between D and N/P because there is nothing to compensate for the torque converter's resistance. Where you have it is probably okay, but you could try lowering it a bit to see if it will run like that without stalling the motor.

I'm really pleased about getting it back on the road for 2 grand - and delighted that broken cam belt didn't cause any damage.

[Moomoo]

A handsome fellow and no mistake!

Ah , the same pre-pink as mine!🙏☹️

[Laird Scooby]

Three or four part-changes is definitely the way to go with the ATF, the new fluid will be much thicker and the "seal swell" in the old fluid will have worn away, potentially leaving the seals dry and brittle. Introducing the new fluid gently this way gives the seal swell time to recondition the seals before it gets all new fluid in and allows them to become flexible again so they don't get popped by excess pressure.

Usually the 3rd part-change is the charm but i often do the 4th one as "confirming" all the old fluid is gone. I would strongly recommend Carlube ATF-U having used it many times (similar to Dex III) on AW boxes (and a few ZFs, not to mention Honda FWD boxes that can't use Dexron ) as it meets JWS3309, the original fluid recommended by AW for their boxes.

After doing 3-4 part-changes ~200 miles apart, do one part-change a year/12000 miles to keep the fluid as it should be and you'll be fine.

[Chris1Roll]

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement this past month

I've ordered an odometer cogwheel, so that will be the next little job.

In the meantime, my daughter and I established why the electric aerial doesn't work:



So thats fixed then!
Catching hold of the tip and extending it up and the radio now works.

(It wasn't just me, the PO said he never investigated it over the 3 years he had it and just bought a load of cassette tapes!)

[Chris1Roll]

The car continues to function well, all the oil and coolant are still inside of it etc and a few of the neighbours have said the think it is "fantastic" to quote one.

I was getting somewhat concerned by what the fuel consumption was looking like, after doing pretty much 100 miles (going by google maps and noting it down) it was suggesting I had used the best part of half a tank. A quick calculation in my head made that about 15mpg
I bottled it and went to fill up again and it only took 19.4 litres, for 97 miles the consumption is actually 22.7mpg - acceptable for having been doing the school run with it, and only slightly less than the family V70XC does on the same trips, so perfectly fine as a daily for me in that respect.

The fuel guage has thus been proven to be a random number generator. In fact about 5 miles after brimming it decided to remove all doubt and told me I only had quarter of a tank, then half, then nothing. Par for the course, to be honest I was quite surprised when I thought it worked! My previous GLE I filled up every 200 miles or so. Of course, with no odometer..

Just as well then, that the odometer cog has arrived.
You guys will have seen plenty of threads on replacing those, no doubt.

Turns out the reset knob was snapped:

I reckon that it was pressed while moving which broke the cog and jammed everything up, then pressed increasingly harder in a misguided attempt to 'fix' it, until it snapped and disappeared inside the cluster.
I guess that it now being missing will at least prevent me from being tempted into pressing it and breaking the cog again!

Getting the speedo needle off was a bit nervewracking - mine was the thicker spindle with the splines, so no glue to twist, just gentle brute force upwards. After 10 minutes of trying to twease it up i had to put more force than I relly wanted to on it and it thankfully popped off.
A filler knife (you can get a pack for a few pounds at toolstation) worked well for peeling off the face:

95% of the colouring stayed attached to the face, so hopefully the lighting will remain consistent.
And there is the little beige tooth off the cog that had found its way into the outer ring and jammed everything up:


Before I reassembled it, I tested all the bulbs with a multimeter and only found one blown - the dip beam light. I swapped it with the one from the traction control indicator (didn't know that was even an option in 1989!), then on switch on I discovered that it was on all the time even with the headlamps off, (it must indicate the day running lights are on) and it was also a horrible dirty yellowy green colour and promptly swapped it back again. I don't see any point in having a lamp lit 100% of the time?

What was left of the reset button wouldn't stay in the hole so I have left it out completely for now, with a tiny a piece of black felt stuck over the back of the hole to prevent an annoying light leak (and being able to see the white housing through the hole) It looks just fine like that.

I did notice that a) someone had been in before - witness marks on the little trim bits and the retaining screws - and b) one of the copper tracks that connects to the multiplug has been damaged - typically enough on the side that feeds the rest of the circuitry. I teased it back up and made sure the plug went on nice and square, and everything is working (bar the fuel guage) but If i do get any unwanted behavior that will be a first point of call. I'm not awesome with a soldering iron tbh.
Also the little white clip that fits over the wiring to the back of the speedo was just floating around back there because the tabs have been snapped off. The wiring connector feels pretty tightly fitted though, so it must just be there for belt and braces. I might keep my eye out for a set of clocks for some spares.

Found a bit more non-factory wiring:

I hate scotchlocks.
I'm kicking myself for not replacing them with a couple of crimps or wago connectors at the time, would only have taken seconds. I might do that in the near future if I can do it without having to redisturb that weakened copper track.

And... we have a working odometer
I then checked it against a gps app on my phone (The app is called DigiHUD, its quite good, you can make it project onto the windscreen).
The odometer is accurate to the GPS.
The speedo itself appears to read 4/5mph fast all the way up - perhaps the car isn't _quite_ as slow as I first thought.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Chris1Roll

The fuel guage has thus been proven to be a random number generator.


Before I reassembled it, I tested all the bulbs with a multimeter and only found one blown - the dip beam light. I swapped it with the one from the traction control indicator (didn't know that was even an option in 1989!), then on switch on I discovered that it was on all the time even with the headlamps off, (it must indicate the day running lights are on) and it was also a horrible dirty yellowy green colour and promptly swapped it back again. I don't see any point in having a lamp lit 100% of the time?


And... we have a working odometer
I then checked it against a gps app on my phone (The app is called DigiHUD, its quite good, you can make it project onto the windscreen).
The odometer is accurate to the GPS.
The speedo itself appears to read 4/5mph fast all the way up - perhaps the car isn't _quite_ as slow as I first thought.

Wow, a fuel gauge that actually does something! A novelty on a 7/9xx i reckon!

That greeny/yellow telltale is actually your sidelights on warning - designed to let you know the sidelights are on if you've been driving on sidelights and switched the ignition off. The sidelights remain on if the headlamp switch is in the sidelights position.

You removed the speedo needle to do the job, didn't you? If you got it back a couple of degrees out from where it should be, it will read 4-5mph fast all the way. Usually speedos read 5-10% fast, my 760 read ~14% fast until i fitted 195/65/15s on it, then only about 7-8% fast - 205/70/15s would have pretty much corrected it completely but not worth the extra cost.

Sounds like you've made some excellent progress there!

[Chris1Roll]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Wow, a fuel gauge that actually does something! A novelty on a 7/9xx i reckon!

That greeny/yellow telltale is actually your sidelights on warning - designed to let you know the sidelights are on if you've been driving on sidelights and switched the ignition off. The sidelights remain on if the headlamp switch is in the sidelights position.

Interesting.
I'm not sure mine was working quite as intended, if the ignition was on, it was lit, -in all three positions of the headlamp switch.
So it was working as a 'your ignition on' light. Is that how it is for everyone?
To be fair I didn't mess with the headlamp switch with the ignition off to check that.
Being lit all the time no wonder it was blown. The white plastic around it was all browned.
That does remind me it's been a long time since I had a flat battery from leaving the lights on.... I can get to the bulbs without pulling the multiplugs so perhaps I'll replace it.

You removed the speedo needle to do the job, didn't you? If you got it back a couple of degrees out from where it should be, it will read 4-5mph fast all the way. Usually speedos read 5-10% fast, my 760 read ~14% fast until i fitted 195/65/15s on it, then only about 7-8% fast - 205/70/15s would have pretty much corrected it completely but not worth the extra cost.

Sounds like you've made some excellent progress there!

Yes.
I did in fact take a picture of it's position before removal to compare to when refitting



The worst car we had before was a W reg P2 V70. Just over 80 on the speedo was 70 GPS.

Have you checked the odo with the different tyres? In theory it will be running.. fast I think?

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Chris1Roll

Interesting.
I'm not sure mine was working quite as intended, if the ignition was on, it was lit, -in all three positions of the headlamp switch.
So it was working as a 'your ignition on' light. Is that how it is for everyone?
To be fair I didn't mess with the headlamp switch with the ignition off to check that.
Being lit all the time no wonder it was blown. The white plastic around it was all browned.
That does remind me it's been a long time since I had a flat battery from leaving the lights on.... I can get to the bulbs without pulling the multiplugs so perhaps I'll replace it.



Yes.
I did in fact take a picture of it's position before removal to compare to when refitting



The worst car we had before was a W reg P2 V70. Just over 80 on the speedo was 70 GPS.

Have you checked the odo with the different tyres? In theory it will be running.. fast I think?

The acid test would be to reinstate the bulb and turn the sidelights on (key out of the ignition) and it should light but only in the sidelight position. If so, it's working as it should.

It's possible to get the needle back on the speedo shaft a little out. Before i changed to 195/65s, my 760 had 185/60s on so were a shorter tyre - more turns for a mile so would read higher on both the speedo and odo and did, the 195s corrected both to within 7-8% fast - the 12-13% fast as it had been gave similar readings to your V70, ~84mph at a GPS 70mph.

The two cars i have now, one is bang on at 30mph but reads ~74mph @ 70mph GPS, the other was reading 31 and 72mph at those speeds but i've just replaced the tyres with 205/65 (instead of the 205/60 that were on it) and is now bang on at both speeds.