240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

What do you think of these manual tyre changers Dave:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Manual-Po...QAAOSwh1xe~vOx

They seem quite easy to use:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J_2SD-snd0

I'm not sure about using them on alloy wheels, but for steel I think they would be fine. For £50 it seems cheap enough to take a punt. I have a covered area with a concrete floor behind the garage that would be a good place to bolt this down (pretty permanently). For bike wheels I have some rim protectors that slide between the wheel and the iron - they might work with this for alloy wheels?

I have something similar for my bike wheels, which makes changing bike tyres quite straightforward.

What do you think?

That's what mine is Alan. You can buy tyre levers for alloy rims that protect the wheels. Also a large 2mm thick sheet of rubber and some spray carpet glue will be your friend.

Cover all the surfaces the wheel will touch with the rubber sheet and trim it to size, also make a large circular mat to sit between the wheel and spider. Reduces any gouge marks from the spider digging into the wheel.

The rim protectors for your bike probably won't work on your car wheels. Also you'll find for demounting and mounting the tyres, it's easier to rotate the tyre lever anticlockwise (as viewed from above) than clockwise as intuition tells you to do. The reason for this is the mounting head on the bar is modeled on machine mounting/demounting (duck heads) heads and the wheel rotates clockwise against a stationary arm/head so swap that round and the arm/head/tyre-lever must rotate anticlock round a stationary wheel.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

That's what mine is Alan. You can buy tyre levers for alloy rims that protect the wheels. Also a large 2mm thick sheet of rubber and some spray carpet glue will be your friend.

Cover all the surfaces the wheel will touch with the rubber sheet and trim it to size, also make a large circular mat to sit between the wheel and spider. Reduces any gouge marks from the spider digging into the wheel.

The rim protectors for your bike probably won't work on your car wheels. Also you'll find for demounting and mounting the tyres, it's easier to rotate the tyre lever anticlockwise (as viewed from above) than clockwise as intuition tells you to do. The reason for this is the mounting head on the bar is modeled on machine mounting/demounting (duck heads) heads and the wheel rotates clockwise against a stationary arm/head so swap that round and the arm/head/tyre-lever must rotate anticlock round a stationary wheel.

As usual Dave - really good first-hand advice. I'm tempted to get a manual tyre changer, and a static balance just so I'm independent of garages. For about £100 I could set up in the covered store area behind my garage.

I may have mentioned previously that Dan is keen on moving house to somewhere a bit bigger (not that we don't have quite a big house by most people's measures now) - in which case what I really need is a barn. That way I could have not only have a tyre changing bay, but a 2 post lift:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-POST-LI...cc4b1ae689d94d

Wow, just over a grand, how cool would that be :-)

[Othen]

I think I'd mentioned in Cosmicbike's thread that I was thinking of getting rid of the DAB adapter that didn't really look right in the RB's cabin (since removed) and adding a better hosting arrangement for a cell phone (so I could better access SATNAV).

The solution (and quite a neat one I think) has been this:



... a couple of magnetic strips (cost about a fiver from eBay):



... a spare, large (6") screen ruggedised cell phone - this is one I normally use for the CCM (green lane bike):



... it integrates quite neatly with the USB sockets I'd installed previously for charging:




... the SONY car radio has Bluetooth, and can be controlled via this (free) SONY app (Music Centre - actually probably spelled Music Center):



... which automatically integrated itself with Google Maps so I can have live SATNAV running in the background with the audio playing through the car radio. I could also make and receive cell phone calls hands free and control music from the tuner, CD player and USB stuck from the cell phone (I think I could do this all via voice control - but that is a step too far for an old man).

This is the complete solution I was looking for - and the only additional cost was a fiver for a couple of sticky magnets, the rest was all stuff I had anyway.

I'm really pleased with myself this morn - the whole set up took minutes (sticking the two magnets on was probably the most time consuming task) - the cell phone, SONY radio and the Royal Barge together did all the rest pretty well automatically.

Happy Alan :-)

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

As usual Dave - really good first-hand advice. I'm tempted to get a manual tyre changer, and a static balance just so I'm independent of garages. For about £100 I could set up in the covered store area behind my garage.

I may have mentioned previously that Dan is keen on moving house to somewhere a bit bigger (not that we don't have quite a big house by most people's measures now) - in which case what I really need is a barn. That way I could have not only have a tyre changing bay, but a 2 post lift:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-POST-LI...cc4b1ae689d94d

Wow, just over a grand, how cool would that be :-)

The other thing i forgot to mention is you can use the tyre bar supplied with the changer if you invest in some heatshrink tubing to cover the parts likely to contact the wheel. However at that size, it tends to be expensive and has a limited lifetime, cheaper in the long run to buy the ebay bar with the nylon parts already fitted with the wearing replacements available cheaply or modify like i did with a duck head.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07LD3DLNP

A few assorted bits of exhaust tubing (available on fleabay) and angle iron etc from "stock" to make the brackets, exhaust clamps forsecuring it and a couple of empty dog food tins to act as a shim bearing inside the tubing on the changer post, job done! I'm currently working on a bead breaker that involves a nylon wheel that gradually lowers while being rotated around the rim/tyre/bead area.

Nice idea on the ramp/lift as well. You could get a proper 4-post for not much more, secondhand 4-posts start considerably less and also mean you don't have to worry about getting the balance exactly right on the 2-post or dodgy jacking points. I've seen many near misses on 2-posts and remember an episode of Flippin' Bangers where they left the car on the 2-post lift overnight and the following morning the back end was still in the air but the front was on the deck because the jacking points had failed. It had been fine while they were working on it and when they left it, obviously the point loading overnight was enough to tear something away.

Like what you've done with the phone - much better!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

The other thing i forgot to mention is you can use the tyre bar supplied with the changer if you invest in some heatshrink tubing to cover the parts likely to contact the wheel. However at that size, it tends to be expensive and has a limited lifetime, cheaper in the long run to buy the ebay bar with the nylon parts already fitted with the wearing replacements available cheaply or modify like i did with a duck head.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07LD3DLNP

A few assorted bits of exhaust tubing (available on fleabay) and angle iron etc from "stock" to make the brackets, exhaust clamps forsecuring it and a couple of empty dog food tins to act as a shim bearing inside the tubing on the changer post, job done! I'm currently working on a bead breaker that involves a nylon wheel that gradually lowers while being rotated around the rim/tyre/bead area.

Nice idea on the ramp/lift as well. You could get a proper 4-post for not much more, secondhand 4-posts start considerably less and also mean you don't have to worry about getting the balance exactly right on the 2-post or dodgy jacking points. I've seen many near misses on 2-posts and remember an episode of Flippin' Bangers where they left the car on the 2-post lift overnight and the following morning the back end was still in the air but the front was on the deck because the jacking points had failed. It had been fine while they were working on it and when they left it, obviously the point loading overnight was enough to tear something away.

Like what you've done with the phone - much better!

Eeeek! A 4 post would be much better, but I suspect they may need a 3 phase supply (I have not checked, just a suspicion) - anyway, I need to buy that house with a barn first.

I have just checked the ignition timing on the RB (as one does on a Sunday morn) and found it to be a little too advanced (about 17 degrees). You may recall it was a little retarded when I bought the car and I managed to move the distributor (to 15 degrees) with great difficulty (iron and aluminium parts not moved in close proximity for 40 years).

I had not altered anything - but of course the head, pulleys and cam belt have been off in the meantime, so the couple of degrees is probably just down to tolerances (it is not enough for the auxiliary pulley to be a tooth out).

Try as I might I just can't get enough purchase on the distributor to move it back the other way (so clockwise looking from the top). I had an idea that one of these big plumber's spanners might just give me enough grip to give it a wack with something quite heavy:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12-68MM-A...96ecdce4cd614c

I don't really want the hassle of stripping the whole thing down, so I've sprayed on some DP90 and will have a go using the big spanner when the postie brings it next week. I think if I could get it moving a bit it would free off with a bit of jiggling around. Any ideas?

[Laird Scooby]

Silly but essential first question Alan - did you disconnect and plug the vacuum advance tube before checking the timing?

If so and it's still 2 deg advanced, the obvious conclusion is that when you changed the timing belt, you pulled the pulleys back into line where they should have been before the old timing belt had stretched and presumably the dizzy was originally fitted either at the same time or shortly after a timing belt change and set to the correct point.

As such, when you altered the dizzy setting (if memory serves it was 12-13deg before altering it) it was fine for the old belt but since you've changed the belt and got the cam timing where it should be, the dizzy is now advanced relative to what it was.

In other words, you now have to correct the correction you made before you corrected the timing belt.

Also bear in mind the carb settings have been altered since and could potentially be giving a slightly higher idle speed than before and/or presenting more vacuum at the take-off stub for the dizzy.

Alternatively you could just add a simple water injection set-up and enjoy those extra degrees of advancement!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Silly but essential first question Alan - did you disconnect and plug the vacuum advance tube before checking the timing?

If so and it's still 2 deg advanced, the obvious conclusion is that when you changed the timing belt, you pulled the pulleys back into line where they should have been before the old timing belt had stretched and presumably the dizzy was originally fitted either at the same time or shortly after a timing belt change and set to the correct point.

As such, when you altered the dizzy setting (if memory serves it was 12-13deg before altering it) it was fine for the old belt but since you've changed the belt and got the cam timing where it should be, the dizzy is now advanced relative to what it was.

In other words, you now have to correct the correction you made before you corrected the timing belt.

Also bear in mind the carb settings have been altered since and could potentially be giving a slightly higher idle speed than before and/or presenting more vacuum at the take-off stub for the dizzy.

Alternatively you could just add a simple water injection set-up and enjoy those extra degrees of advancement!

Great minds think alike (as they say, I'm not so sure mine is such a great mind!) - I had just concluded just as you wrote whilst out walking Bob. A few things have changed - the belt being the most significant (and I think you are right, I think it was about 5 years old and had probably stretched a bit) - plus the plastic belt cover to which the marks are fitted is bolted on properly now (one of the bolts was missing previously) and the pulleys have been off and on again. The result is - as you say - I have to correct my previous correction.

... oh yes, I had removed and plugged the vacuum hose.

I do need to sort out the distributor so it can be more easily adjusted - I'm hoping I'll get away with getting it moving with a big spanner - what I need seems to be about 2" jaws, so I might even have a go at cutting one out of a piece of (about) 4mm steel I found on my scrap box (make a cardboard template that fits and trace it onto the steel. I'll give it a spray around the base of the distributor with DP90 for a few days, then apply a bit of force. It is mainly an access issue, just not enough room to get a good enough grip.

I'd noticed this because of the new engine mounts - the old ones had the consistency of Madeira cake and so were not transmitting much - just allowing the engine to do its own thing - whereas the new ones I could feel a bit of lumpiness at tick-over, which disappeared at higher speeds (when I suppose the distributor ran out of advance).

Alan

PS. The newly powder coated wheels should be ready for collection Monday evening - so I should post some 'after' photos on Tuesday.

[Othen]

I've fixed the sticky distributor problem (well, for now anyway). Fortunately I found this Special Volvo B21a Distributor Adjuster in my box of bits:



... and managed to give it a 3 degree tweak - it is now at 14 degrees BTDC, which is good enough for government work.

Better running now :-)

I'll probably use the Special Volvo B21a Distributor Adjuster to free up the mechanism when I have a bit more time - but I'll let it have a few more doses of DP90 first.

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

I've fixed the sticky distributor problem (well, for now anyway). Fortunately I found this Special Volvo B21a Distributor Adjuster in my box of bits:



... and managed to give it a 3 degree tweak - it is now at 14 degrees BTDC, which is good enough for government work.

Better running now :-)

I'll probably use the Special Volvo B21a Distributor Adjuster to free up the mechanism when I have a bit more time - but I'll let it have a few more doses of DP90 first.

Alan

Funny looking bottle opener!

Nice work there Alan, glad you got it shifted, part of me is wondering if you should pull the dizzy out and renew the "O" ring on the body seal, cleaning the body and the orifice at the same time. Smear a little silicone grease on the body/"O" rin before reassembly then obviously recheck the timing.

You'll need to mark the relative position of the rotor arm to the body of the dizzy, preferably with the engine at a timed position and note that the shaft turns slightly as it moves in and out of the blcok.

Or you could just give it a dose or three of WMP, free it off and reset the timing and call it good.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Funny looking bottle opener!

Nice work there Alan, glad you got it shifted, part of me is wondering if you should pull the dizzy out and renew the "O" ring on the body seal, cleaning the body and the orifice at the same time. Smear a little silicone grease on the body/"O" rin before reassembly then obviously recheck the timing.

You'll need to mark the relative position of the rotor arm to the body of the dizzy, preferably with the engine at a timed position and note that the shaft turns slightly as it moves in and out of the blcok.

Or you could just give it a dose or three of WMP, free it off and reset the timing and call it good.

I'm planning on your option 2 Dave: mark the timing, continue with the WMP , get it moving too and fro, give it some more WMP, re-set the timing and call it perfectly good :-)