Any Advice, Part 2!

[Bugjam1999]

Just a general comment on welding- yes a mig welder is what you want. It’s easy to get started on the less visible/critical bits after completing a course or having someone show you how. It’s definitely a skill that takes time so just get stuck in and you’ll get better at it.

If you randomly spot a mig welder for sale make sure it’s a gas mig (gasless welding is a splattery mess on thin metal) and make sure the welder goes down low enough- you want 30amps min for car bodywork as it’s thin, some cheap welders will only go down to 40amps which will just lead to you blowing holes in the bodywork and a lot of frustration. R-tech and others (Portamig as well I think) have a mid-priced mig with a 25amp min which would be ideal.

Cheers

Edit:
https://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/mig-...tech-i-mig180/

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Bugjam1999

Just a general comment on welding- yes a mig welder is what you want. It’s easy to get started on the less visible/critical bits after completing a course or having someone show you how. It’s definitely a skill that takes time so just get stuck in and you’ll get better at it.

If you randomly spot a mig welder for sale make sure it’s a gas mig (gasless welding is a splattery mess on thin metal) and make sure the welder goes down low enough- you want 30amps min for car bodywork as it’s thin, some cheap welders will only go down to 40amps which will just lead to you blowing holes in the bodywork and a lot of frustration. R-tech and others (Portamig as well I think) have a mid-priced mig with a 25amp min which would be ideal.

Cheers

Edit:
https://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/mig-...tech-i-mig180/

... Good point, I forgot to mention about it being an inert gas MIG welder - rather than the flux core type (okay for fence posts, but not car bodies.

Agreed about low current. Mine is a Seeley Supermig 130 (cost under £200) - for sheet steel 30A is enough.

Alan

[Chris152]

Thanks Alan, I think there does come a point where you have to just take a chance, hopefully this won't turn out to have been a bad one! Apart from doing the belt, one of the first tasks will be getting it up on a lift - a friend deals in lovely classic sports cars and he's going to get someone to look at it with us. Hopefully that'll provide a plan for sorting any nasties underneath, and hopefully they won't be too expensive. And Dave suggested doing all the prep work we can for the welding, too, which we'll be doing. But at some point we'll get a MIG and some tuition, I'm interested to learn for a completely different purpose anyway.

I've been fretting all day trying to coordinate delivery of the car, which is apparently arriving later tonight. One thing I hadn't mentioned because it seems like it is just another thing we need to sort is the alarm - it just goes off arbitrarily and did so as we were viewing. It looks like the one in this thread:
https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showt...t=alarm&page=2
We discovered then that removing lead no 2 stopped it, and that that was the earth lead. I know nothing about electrics, so this will be a challenge, but is it safe to leave overnight without the earth connected, or should I disconnect the negative on the battery? Not looking to annoy the neighbours with it on the first night it's here!

Thanks. C eta - I mean safe as in, not a fire hazard - not safe as in, nobody will steal it!

[Chris152]

Quick update, in case anyone's expending energy on that question: the problem was superseded by another - the bloke supposed to deliver the car had clearly over-booked his time and in the end was going to deliver about 2am - without apology - so I told him to forget it. Which means we're back to square one and probably paying more for delivery.

[Chris152]

Finally!

The photo looks better than reality, hopefully going up on a lift tomorrow to plan for welding.
We were hoping to get on with the timing belt today but looking at the drive belts it's clear they need replacing, too. And I don't have those here. Am I right in thinking that while the belt driving the power steering lifts off easily, the other two need the fan removing to lift off/ replace? Haynes doesn't say so but I can't see how you could do it without?! In which case maybe it's best to wait to do the timing belt, and do it all at once?

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Chris152

Finally!

The photo looks better than reality, hopefully going up on a lift tomorrow to plan for welding.
We were hoping to get on with the timing belt today but looking at the drive belts it's clear they need replacing, too. And I don't have those here. Am I right in thinking that while the belt driving the power steering lifts off easily, the other two need the fan removing to lift off/ replace? Haynes doesn't say so but I can't see how you could do it without?! In which case maybe it's best to wait to do the timing belt, and do it all at once?

The car looks very good from a distance Chris - is it less so close up?

Changing the drive belts is pretty simple and can be done later, so it would be fine to get on with the cam belt now. The PAS certainly lifts off with no problem, the alternator (probably two of them) should be easy enough as well. I'm pretty sure I remember that you can do it without removing the fan (I don't have a fan - I fitted an electric one), but if not the fixed fan is only held on by 4 bolts that just take a few minutes to remove.

If you fit the cam belt today you might want to leave the fan cowl off until you get the alternator and PAS belts - it won't make any difference to the running of the engine and will have to come off again for access (here is an old photo of before I replaced the RB's fan with the electric one that shows the access issue):



I'd say get the job started - change that cam belt today - which will give you a chance to have a look around the engine bay and find quite a few other things that are wrong (inevitably).

Have fun,

Alan

PS. Having just thought about it: you may have to remove the fan to get the cowling off - in that case unbolt it (4 10mm bolts I think) and leave it off for the time being (it won't make much difference until you run the motor for perhaps 10 minutes, which you won't be doing for a while) and also leave the cowl off until the new ancillary belts arrive. The cowl has to come off anyway, so that will save you a bit of time later. You could leave the ancillary belts off for the time being when you put the car back together. It will be fine to run the motor with no alternator or PAS to check out the new cam belt.That will give you better access to lock the crank and remove the cam cover.

[Chris152]

Thanks for your continued patience, Alan. We'll get there, but it's going to be slower than I imagined. At the moment, we're trying to identify what everything is, let alone if it all works ok!

The first stumbling block is/ was the loosening of the alternator and power steering before trying to get the belts off - I'd not seen that kind of adjuster and Haynes wasn't clear that you have to loosen the pivot bolt and then loosen two on the adjuster, which I picked up by looking at youtube videos.

So progress is going to be slow and we won't get it done today...
I think we're taking it on a 30-mile round trip tomorrow which has me wondering about the timing belt but it seems from the above that ours is non-interference, in case it breaks - the engine is B230E, head number 1000 530 (if I've got the right number). No mention of any Herons :-)

The downside on closer inspection is indeed the rust in the front outriggers, tho the rest looks solid to me. I lifted the edge of the front carpet, didn't realise there's a galvanised plate underneath before the exterior floor so thought I'd put it back til someone who knows more has a look. But I'll pull all that out before any welding starts.

The door locks can drop to lock when the doors are closed a few times which bothers me - not the ideal scenario if your in an accident and need to get out.

The alarm hasn't gone off yet, tho it did frequently with the pervious owner - I've checked all the connectors are in properly and we're going to have to wait and see if it plays up.

On the other hand, we took it for a little spin and it drives really well, and sounds lovely! I'm used to driving a VW Transporter so that took some adjustment, but I soon got used to it. The steering feels heavy, not sure if that's just the way they were or if the PS isn't doing its job well.

I think the key's going to be taking it slowly, learning a much as possible along the way. To be completely honest, I'm surprised by how alien everything under the bonnet feels to me, but it's starting to become a little less overwhelming already.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Chris152

Thanks for your continued patience, Alan. We'll get there, but it's going to be slower than I imagined. At the moment, we're trying to identify what everything is, let alone if it all works ok!

The first stumbling block is/ was the loosening of the alternator and power steering before trying to get the belts off - I'd not seen that kind of adjuster and Haynes wasn't clear that you have to loosen the pivot bolt and then loosen two on the adjuster, which I picked up by looking at youtube videos.

So progress is going to be slow and we won't get it done today...
I think we're taking it on a 30-mile round trip tomorrow which has me wondering about the timing belt but it seems from the above that ours is non-interference, in case it breaks - the engine is B230E, head number 1000 530 (if I've got the right number). No mention of any Herons :-)

The downside on closer inspection is indeed the rust in the front outriggers, tho the rest looks solid to me. I lifted the edge of the front carpet, didn't realise there's a galvanised plate underneath before the exterior floor so thought I'd put it back til someone who knows more has a look. But I'll pull all that out before any welding starts.

The door locks can drop to lock when the doors are closed a few times which bothers me - not the ideal scenario if your in an accident and need to get out.

The alarm hasn't gone off yet, tho it did frequently with the pervious owner - I've checked all the connectors are in properly and we're going to have to wait and see if it plays up.

On the other hand, we took it for a little spin and it drives really well, and sounds lovely! I'm used to driving a VW Transporter so that took some adjustment, but I soon got used to it. The steering feels heavy, not sure if that's just the way they were or if the PS isn't doing its job well.

I think the key's going to be taking it slowly, learning a much as possible along the way. To be completely honest, I'm surprised by how alien everything under the bonnet feels to me, but it's starting to become a little less overwhelming already.

I think you said the motor car had not been used for a while - in that case you will find lots of things wrong here and there. Don't worry, it will be an adventure.

If it hasn't been used for a while I wouldn't advise going for a 30 mile run until you check it over. Not just the cam belt, but brakes, steering, tyres... be patient - it won't take long to find out about things, which will be better than waking up in a tree surrounded by blue lights.

The galvanised plate is a bit of a worry, it will not have been put there by Mr Volvo, so what is it hiding. It can't be welded in (unless the zinc has been burned off) so it must be bolted, riveted or glued down. I think you need to see what is under there (I hope there is some floor, if not there is a bit more welding to do).

The steering should be pretty light (for a big car). It might improve with some use, or with a couple of partial fluid changes.

Good fortune,

Alan

[loki_the_glt]

Originally Posted by Chris152

Thanks for your continued patience, Alan. We'll get there, but it's going to be slower than I imagined. At the moment, we're trying to identify what everything is, let alone if it all works ok!

The first stumbling block is/ was the loosening of the alternator and power steering before trying to get the belts off - I'd not seen that kind of adjuster and Haynes wasn't clear that you have to loosen the pivot bolt and then loosen two on the adjuster, which I picked up by looking at youtube videos.

So progress is going to be slow and we won't get it done today...
I think we're taking it on a 30-mile round trip tomorrow which has me wondering about the timing belt but it seems from the above that ours is non-interference, in case it breaks - the engine is B230E, head number 1000 530 (if I've got the right number). No mention of any Herons :-)

The downside on closer inspection is indeed the rust in the front outriggers, tho the rest looks solid to me. I lifted the edge of the front carpet, didn't realise there's a galvanised plate underneath before the exterior floor so thought I'd put it back til someone who knows more has a look. But I'll pull all that out before any welding starts.

The door locks can drop to lock when the doors are closed a few times which bothers me - not the ideal scenario if your in an accident and need to get out.

The alarm hasn't gone off yet, tho it did frequently with the pervious owner - I've checked all the connectors are in properly and we're going to have to wait and see if it plays up.

On the other hand, we took it for a little spin and it drives really well, and sounds lovely! I'm used to driving a VW Transporter so that took some adjustment, but I soon got used to it. The steering feels heavy, not sure if that's just the way they were or if the PS isn't doing its job well.

I think the key's going to be taking it slowly, learning a much as possible along the way. To be completely honest, I'm surprised by how alien everything under the bonnet feels to me, but it's starting to become a little less overwhelming already.

B230Es are non-interference unless the head's been skimmed twice; one skim usually won't take off enough metal to make it an interference engine. Heron head (B230K) engines were all carburettored and have a lot of emissions plumbing lying around them.

The PAS should be nice and sharp - check the tyre pressures as a soft tyre can make it feel heavy and the belt tension too.

If you unbolt the fan from the housing, then unbolt the shroud and push it towards the engine you should be able to draw the fan out in the gap then remove the shroud.

Put plenty of Laird Scooby's magic potions (ATF and acetone) on the adjuster bolt threads as well.

I think the galvanised plate was factory-fitted; if there's one on the passenger side as well that would confirm my suspicions.

[Chris152]

It has been driven but low mileage for several years, about 1500/ year I guess. But point taken - I just ordered new belts from Brookhouse, hopefully arriving Wednesday, so I'll delay the visit to the welder til the end of the week and keep searching around until then.

The galvanised sections look pretty purpose made and fitted (to me!) - pic attached. The carpet was still stuck down with rubber stuff and the plate seems to be held in place with mastic that looks to have the original paint on, and the same-shape plate on each side is level with the rest of the floor, and covering a recess with cables in it. That said, any problem with rusted floors will be under that plate! What do you think?