240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

I'll keep an eye on the eBay auction - but it has a while to run and so might go for quite a bit more than £20.

I have a 6' aluminium pole (a spare section from my flagpole) that I was thinking of re-purposing with a couple of lengths of threaded rod to make a gauge. One end would have to be adjustable within a small range. I'll think about it tomorrow.

The PO had set the camber to its maximum angle with the strut top mounts, I think in order to accentuate the look he wanted with the low profile tyres. I've set both sides at the mid-position dot, but either need to get F1 to check it for me or buy a tool to do it myself. I think like you, I always prefer to do things myself if I can (and so avoid getting Charlie Chaplin's shoes back from the YTS boy operating the alignment machine) - but I might give F1 a go this time, the manager is very enthusiastic about the Royal Barge.

The steering is very neutral now, and the wheel points dead ahead when I try it hands free on a surface with no camber (i.e. Morrison's car park at 06:00), also there is no scrubbing on the new tyres, so I must have it about right.

I'll have a chat with F1 tomorrow, and maybe ask the manager if he would check the CO level at the same time to see if my carburettor adjustment by eye (and ear) is correct - I'd like to be there at the time of the test though (I'm not sure I'd trust the YTS boy to adjust it) but I don't know whether the company's H&S or Coronavirus policies would allow that.

Many thanks for the tips on centering the steering.

Stay safe,

Alan

PS. I've just ordered one of these - if it works it will be pretty cool and it only cost €11:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KFZ-Auto-...53.m2749.l2649

The way i viewed the Trackace, even buying it new for £70 (it was slightly cheaper then) is that there is front and rear alignment adjustment on the Rover (i had 2 Rovers at the time, the other was an 827 Coupe) plus the Volvo (only adjustable on the front) so that was 5 potential charges for wheel alignment @ £36 per alignment. That's £180 by my maths! I've used it on the Coupe (that i no longer have) twice, the Sterling 3 times (soon to be 4) and the 760 several times to get their mistakes corrected. I reckon it paid for itself very quickly!

If memory serves your CO should be 2% +1.5%/-1% or is it 2.5% +/-1%, somewhere aronud one of those two parameters, i think i'd just get it checked before adjusting it. If it's within limits and reasonably close to the 2-2.5% point, i think i'd leave well alone if it's running nicely and starting easily.

Das ist sehr gut, nicht war!?! The one thing not mentioned in the listing is it needs to be checked with the normal weight of the car on the hub. If you can pop out the dust cap from the hub nut on the front, refit the wheel (clean the outer edge of the hub where the dust cap goes in) and then put the camber gauge in, you can do it with the wheels on the ground. As the suspension moves up and down from the normal position, the actual camber angle alters.

You're not the only one perusing foreign online auction sites, a friend in Sweden sent me a link to the correct engine oil cooler for mine, just trying to organise the ebst way to buy it now. I don't speak Swedish so i've asked him to find out from the seller about postage here, also not much point me registering for one items purchase!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

The way i viewed the Trackace, even buying it new for £70 (it was slightly cheaper then) is that there is front and rear alignment adjustment on the Rover (i had 2 Rovers at the time, the other was an 827 Coupe) plus the Volvo (only adjustable on the front) so that was 5 potential charges for wheel alignment @ £36 per alignment. That's £180 by my maths! I've used it on the Coupe (that i no longer have) twice, the Sterling 3 times (soon to be 4) and the 760 several times to get their mistakes corrected. I reckon it paid for itself very quickly!

If memory serves your CO should be 2% +1.5%/-1% or is it 2.5% +/-1%, somewhere aronud one of those two parameters, i think i'd just get it checked before adjusting it. If it's within limits and reasonably close to the 2-2.5% point, i think i'd leave well alone if it's running nicely and starting easily.

Das ist sehr gut, nicht war!?! The one thing not mentioned in the listing is it needs to be checked with the normal weight of the car on the hub. If you can pop out the dust cap from the hub nut on the front, refit the wheel (clean the outer edge of the hub where the dust cap goes in) and then put the camber gauge in, you can do it with the wheels on the ground. As the suspension moves up and down from the normal position, the actual camber angle alters.

You're not the only one perusing foreign online auction sites, a friend in Sweden sent me a link to the correct engine oil cooler for mine, just trying to organise the ebst way to buy it now. I don't speak Swedish so i've asked him to find out from the seller about postage here, also not much point me registering for one items purchase!

I see your point about the cost of alignment Dave. F1 will check it for free, then charge £25 (for the front wheels) to adjust. It would not take long to make the money back - and use it on the Skoda as well, plus a few mates' cars. I'll keep an eye on that second hand one. As you know, I like getting gadgets for the garage.

The camber gauge looks like it might fit on to one of the discs through a gap in the wheel:



... if that idea works I could also calibrate it against one of the back ones. At the price it is well worth having (and I'm thinking I might find a lot of other uses for a tool like that - sort of digital plumb line that might come in handy in all sorts of places.

You are of course right about the camber angle varying with deflection: it is a triangle where the length of one of the sides changes, so of course the angles will all change as well. I think the best position would be with the wheel on the ground so the suspension is at a fairly normal position for driving. Camber will always be a bit of an approximation in a strut type suspension system; I'm not getting uneven wear across the tyres and the car sits right, so I think the mid point dot has been a really good guess (and probably the reason Mr Volvo put it there in the first place).

I'm rather hoping the manager at F1 might just check the CO content for free because they were fascinated by the RB when I got the tyres changed there. I'm pretty sure I have it just about right, it starts easily and runs well - the plug colour is just about right. It would be nice to have confirmation, it is probably a once only adjustment (the way it was designed to be out of the factory). The CO content (from the Volvo green book) is 1.5-3%.

I find foreign auction and sales sites work fine - I've never had a problem - it is no different from buying something from Autodoc in Berlin. In fact I'd say I have had less problems than with some UK suppliers.

Dan and I took the Skoda out for a run to Lincolnshire and back yesterday, it had not been used for a while. As I was reversing back onto the drive the parking sensors gave an error. I know what the problem is: the plastic holder for one of the sensors has failed - it did it about 6 months ago and at the time I took the rear diffuser off and fixed it with some contact adhesive. I was wondering how long that bodge would work before the sensor came loose again. Fortunately I'd ordered some of the plastic holders some time ago in anticipation and they are sitting on my desk (they just glue on with a 3M patch. That will be today's job - dropping the diffuser down to get enough access shouldn't take long (famous last words...).

Stay safe,

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

I see your point about the cost of alignment Dave. F1 will check it for free, then charge £25 (for the front wheels) to adjust. It would not take long to make the money back - and use it on the Skoda as well, plus a few mates' cars. I'll keep an eye on that second hand one. As you know, I like getting gadgets for the garage.

The camber gauge looks like it might fit on to one of the discs through a gap in the wheel:



... if that idea works I could also calibrate it against one of the back ones. At the price it is well worth having (and I'm thinking I might find a lot of other uses for a tool like that - sort of digital plumb line that might come in handy in all sorts of places.

You are of course right about the camber angle varying with deflection: it is a triangle where the length of one of the sides changes, so of course the angles will all change as well. I think the best position would be with the wheel on the ground so the suspension is at a fairly normal position for driving. Camber will always be a bit of an approximation in a strut type suspension system; I'm not getting uneven wear across the tyres and the car sits right, so I think the mid point dot has been a really good guess (and probably the reason Mr Volvo put it there in the first place).

I'm rather hoping the manager at F1 might just check the CO content for free because they were fascinated by the RB when I got the tyres changed there. I'm pretty sure I have it just about right, it starts easily and runs well - the plug colour is just about right. It would be nice to have confirmation, it is probably a once only adjustment (the way it was designed to be out of the factory). The CO content (from the Volvo green book) is 1.5-3%.

I find foreign auction and sales sites work fine - I've never had a problem - it is no different from buying something from Autodoc in Berlin. In fact I'd say I have had less problems than with some UK suppliers.

Dan and I took the Skoda out for a run to Lincolnshire and back yesterday, it had not been used for a while. As I was reversing back onto the drive the parking sensors gave an error. I know what the problem is: the plastic holder for one of the sensors has failed - it did it about 6 months ago and at the time I took the rear diffuser off and fixed it with some contact adhesive. I was wondering how long that bodge would work before the sensor came loose again. Fortunately I'd ordered some of the plastic holders some time ago in anticipation and they are sitting on my desk (they just glue on with a 3M patch. That will be today's job - dropping the diffuser down to get enough access shouldn't take long (famous last words...).

Stay safe,

Alan

My line of thought is i can check the tracking any time i like Alan, saving me petrol actually going somewhere that can check/adjust it.

It also eliminates the errors caused by the muppets in places like that not knowing what the car is!

After checking my tyre pressures and setting them correctly to 32psi before taking it for a tracking check, the congenital half-wits (that's over-generous as well, 1/8 wits is more like it!) increased the tyre pressure to 34psi - only used by the model with 17" wheels!
They weren't impressed when i told them they were wrong and not only had they set the tyre pressures wrong but by looking at the wrong model, had used the incorrect wheel alignment data!

On the Volvo, they wrote on the paperwork it was a 940! There's a big clue on the tailgate that says "760GLE" as well!

You've probably gathered i have a deep mistrust of them!

Calibrate the camber gauge against the back wheels? That's fine if you know what the camber angle is on the rear wheels and it is correct.

The CO should be checked/adjusted at least once a year, i believe the original spec was every 6 months/6000 miles for yours because it's a carb engine. Fuel injected engines are less susceptible to temperature and pressure changes in the atmosphere and those with Lambda control don't need to be adjusted routinely, usually just checked to ensure they are still within spec.
Given those figures of 1.5-3.0%, i'd aim for 2% if it needs adjusting but if it's within spec, leave it be.

Transaction completed on foreign auction site!

My friend in Sweden had been in touch with the seller who is happy to take payment from him and send direct to me so i've sent some English money to be converted into Swedish money via Paypal to him and the oil cooler is on its way to me or will be very soon.

Good luck with your ultrasonic sensors, not a job i'd fancy doing in this wind and temperature today!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

My line of thought is i can check the tracking any time i like Alan, saving me petrol actually going somewhere that can check/adjust it.

It also eliminates the errors caused by the muppets in places like that not knowing what the car is!

After checking my tyre pressures and setting them correctly to 32psi before taking it for a tracking check, the congenital half-wits (that's over-generous as well, 1/8 wits is more like it!) increased the tyre pressure to 34psi - only used by the model with 17" wheels!
They weren't impressed when i told them they were wrong and not only had they set the tyre pressures wrong but by looking at the wrong model, had used the incorrect wheel alignment data!

On the Volvo, they wrote on the paperwork it was a 940! There's a big clue on the tailgate that says "760GLE" as well!

You've probably gathered i have a deep mistrust of them!

Calibrate the camber gauge against the back wheels? That's fine if you know what the camber angle is on the rear wheels and it is correct.

The CO should be checked/adjusted at least once a year, i believe the original spec was every 6 months/6000 miles for yours because it's a carb engine. Fuel injected engines are less susceptible to temperature and pressure changes in the atmosphere and those with Lambda control don't need to be adjusted routinely, usually just checked to ensure they are still within spec.
Given those figures of 1.5-3.0%, i'd aim for 2% if it needs adjusting but if it's within spec, leave it be.

Transaction completed on foreign auction site!

My friend in Sweden had been in touch with the seller who is happy to take payment from him and send direct to me so i've sent some English money to be converted into Swedish money via Paypal to him and the oil cooler is on its way to me or will be very soon.

Good luck with your ultrasonic sensors, not a job i'd fancy doing in this wind and temperature today!

Alignment and emissions all checked by F1 - that was £30 well spent.

My SWAG at the camber turned out to be spot on, and the toe-in is adjusted. Everything is spot on front and back now.

I was pretty close with the emissions as well, just on 3% CO, which would be an easy MoT pass, and the hydrocarbons are right down at 445 ppm. I have tweaked the adjuster down another 1/4 turn and everything seems to have settled down nicely.

Good news about your Swedish purchase.

Now time to walk get Dan started on his school work, walk Bob and get the parking sensors fixed on the Skoda.

:-)

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

Alignment and emissions all checked by F1 - that was £30 well spent.

My SWAG at the camber turned out to be spot on, and the toe-in is adjusted. Everything is spot on front and back now.

I was pretty close with the emissions as well, just on 3% CO, which would be an easy MoT pass, and the hydrocarbons are right down at 445 ppm. I have tweaked the adjuster down another 1/4 turn and everything seems to have settled down nicely.

Good news about your Swedish purchase.

Now time to walk get Dan started on his school work, walk Bob and get the parking sensors fixed on the Skoda.

:-)

Good news on the alignment etc Alan! Likewise the CO although the HC seems a bit high to me.

Thanks, i'm pleased about the purchase, been without the oil cooler for 4+ years and i wonder if that's part of why it tends to use oil a bit, because it's getting too hot/thin and leaking or being burned off although not noticeably. Time will tell, i'll fit it when i do my pre-winter oil/filter change and change the antifreeze or when i add the LPG reducer, whichever comes sooner.

Hope the parking sensors went well!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Good news on the alignment etc Alan! Likewise the CO although the HC seems a bit high to me.

Thanks, i'm pleased about the purchase, been without the oil cooler for 4+ years and i wonder if that's part of why it tends to use oil a bit, because it's getting too hot/thin and leaking or being burned off although not noticeably. Time will tell, i'll fit it when i do my pre-winter oil/filter change and change the antifreeze or when i add the LPG reducer, whichever comes sooner.

Hope the parking sensors went well!

HC a bit high? The limit is 1200, so I was thinking 445 was quite good for a 40 year old - why do you think it too high? The MoT tester that checked it was really impressed for an older car.

The oil cooler is a good idea, did you change to 20W50? That may help as well.

The parking sensors are fixed, it was just a glue problem: the sensor holders are just stuck onto the back of the diffuser (it comes that way from the factory), the easiest way to fix it was just to peel off the old one, clean it up with acetone and re-glue it back on with contact adhesive. It is all back together and works fine, but I'll leave the car for 24 hours for the adhesive to dry.

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

HC a bit high? The limit is 1200, so I was thinking 445 was quite good for a 40 year old - why do you think it too high? The MoT tester that checked it was really impressed for an older car.

The oil cooler is a good idea, did you change to 20W50? That may help as well.

The parking sensors are fixed, it was just a glue problem: the sensor holders are just stuck onto the back of the diffuser (it comes that way from the factory), the easiest way to fix it was just to peel off the old one, clean it up with acetone and re-glue it back on with contact adhesive. It is all back together and works fine, but I'll leave the car for 24 hours for the adhesive to dry.

Alan

I just checked the printout from last years MoT Alan for the emissions of my 760 - 0.47% CO and 69ppm HC - by rights it should have been nearer 1% CO but we've already done the bit about the sticky needle on the Gastester. If memory serves, the previous year it was 1% CO and 82ppm so it might be an idea to clean your PCV system again and also check the air filter isn't dirty.

I know you've previously cleaned the PCV and i can't remember what state you said it was in but seem to recall it was fairly bad. It's been shown that awith a dirty PCV on a red block, it often needs another clean soon after and sometimes another one soon after that until you can settle down into an annual clean of the PCV system.

To put it into perspective, my 760 now has 227k on the clock and was about 225k for the last MoT and is also 32 years old.

The oil cooler was OE factory fit, the previous owner removed it which i wasn't happy about, ditto the air-con evaporator. I've replaced that but still haven't got the A/C up and running yet.
I haven't yet changed to 20W50, still got mixed feelings about it as to the best of my knowledge, this car has always had 10W40. I'll perhaps try a known (to me) brand of 10W40 for the next oil/filter change and see how that goes with a dose of ATF-U in with the engine oil as normal.

Good news on the sensor too!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

I just checked the printout from last years MoT Alan for the emissions of my 760 - 0.47% CO and 69ppm HC - by rights it should have been nearer 1% CO but we've already done the bit about the sticky needle on the Gastester. If memory serves, the previous year it was 1% CO and 82ppm so it might be an idea to clean your PCV system again and also check the air filter isn't dirty.

I know you've previously cleaned the PCV and i can't remember what state you said it was in but seem to recall it was fairly bad. It's been shown that awith a dirty PCV on a red block, it often needs another clean soon after and sometimes another one soon after that until you can settle down into an annual clean of the PCV system.

To put it into perspective, my 760 now has 227k on the clock and was about 225k for the last MoT and is also 32 years old.

The oil cooler was OE factory fit, the previous owner removed it which i wasn't happy about, ditto the air-con evaporator. I've replaced that but still haven't got the A/C up and running yet.
I haven't yet changed to 20W50, still got mixed feelings about it as to the best of my knowledge, this car has always had 10W40. I'll perhaps try a known (to me) brand of 10W40 for the next oil/filter change and see how that goes with a dose of ATF-U in with the engine oil as normal.

Good news on the sensor too!

I think the HC count has nothing whatsoever to do with any fault with the RB, and absolutely everything to do with the young chap operating the emissions tester having never seen a car with a carburettor previously (yes, really).

:-)

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

I think the HC count has nothing whatsoever to do with any fault with the RB, and absolutely everything to do with the young chap operating the emissions tester having never seen a car with a carburettor previously (yes, really).

:-)

It doesn't work that way Alan, the machine senses the unburned HydroCarbons and displays the quantity as a figure.

Usual causes of high HC readings are :

Failed/failing spark plug(s) (or incorrectly gapped),

Dirty/choked air filter,

Dirty/blocked PCV system,

Incorrectly adjusted ignition/fuel system settings,

Excessive valve clearances,

Insufficient Valve Clearances,

Worn cylinders/pistons/rings (can also be sticky piston rings),

Worn valve guides and/or seals

Inlet manifold air leaks,

Worn, out of balance (on multiple installations) or Constant Depression carburettors.

This list isn't exhaustive, just the common things that can cause it. Most of it can be discounted as i'm sure you'll agree, the three areas i'd look at are firstly the PCV system possibly needs cleaning again, secondly it would pay to check tighten the inlet manifold nits, the carb may not be capable of actually feeding fuel in without causing a high HC reading (i know of some BL models that will happily pass the CO test but will fail the HC at idle because it's a constant depression carb, SU in the case of the Marinas, Minors and similar A-series engines hung on the wet end of the SU) and these get an MoT dispensation to have the HC checked at higher rpm than idle.

One of the things i'm sure has contributed to my low HC readings is substiting 0.5-1.0L of engine oil for ATF-U at oil/filter changes. On the Rover, as it's a 4.5L total capacity i put 0.5L of ATF-U in first then 4L of my usual 10W40 - in my 760 it's a 6L capacity so i put 1L of ATF-U in then 5L of 10W40.

This helps keep the rings free and improves compression so performance and economy is improved, engine internal cleanliness is improved, oil leaks reduced and so on. On the Rover it has the added benefit of keeping the hydraulic tappets operating as they should without the usual "tick-tick-tick" a few minutes after start up that usually plagues the C27 engine.

[Clifford Pope]

Originally Posted by Othen

I'm not getting uneven wear across the tyres and the car sits right, so I think the mid point dot has been a really good guess (and probably the reason Mr Volvo put it there in the first place).

I've had satisfactory results just by monitoring the tyre wear across treads over quite a short period.
When when replacing tyres the fitter commented that the camber seemed a bit out on the front LH wheel, so I marked the top of the turret with a dab of paint so I knew where I was starting from, and swung the turret in the appropriate direction by about 1/2" and kept notes on the tread depths over time.
The tyre wore absolutely evenly over its lifetime. That's surely the fundamental point of adjusting the camber - there doesn't seem much point in adjusting to a specific figure unless it maximises tyre life?