The Morbidmobile Blog

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by TomSaintJames

Sounds like wonder fluid! I'll have a go then. Where does one get acetone?

Several options, one is ebay :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PURECHEM-...c/232723876163

Second is most chemists sell it under the name of "nail varnish remover" - it's not quite so chemically pure (additives to protect nails etc) but is easily available.

As for the ATF, i've used Carlube ATF-U, i know someone on here used Dexron II (mineral based) and it didn't work as well, same person then mixed a batch using ATF-U and found it was much better.

Make sure whatever tub/bottle you mix it in won't be melted by acetone and also that is can be sealed air tight to prevent the acetone evaporating.

[TomSaintJames]

Evening all,

Right, this evening was exhaust time! Finally all the bits I need are in the same place, after collecting all the required bits from the post office and neighbours etc I set to getting the system together.

With us being in the process of buying a house, a wedding to attend tomorrow, a funeral Monday and going on holiday to France on Thursday I just do not have the time to look at the downpipe at the minute, so that's been shelved probably until after we move house, much to my disappointment.

I loosened all the current clamps so it would all fit together in some sort of alignment - you are quite right Dave, cheap exhaust are buggers to get properly aligned! It's as good as it's going to get now without adjusting the angle/bending of the over-rear-axle pipe.

Pile of goodies, including washer reservoir caps and new washer nozzles.



New clamps and 1m of 54mm mild steel, that was duly cut to just over 700mm.



Front silencer on, interesting juggling act this as it is unsupported on this extended body 740. Made the mistake of tightening it just too much to wiggle and adjust to line up with the extensio0n pipe.



New extension pipe in, and slightly tightened at either end.











Ok, so I was really quite cross after all of it was fixed together as EVERY BLOODY joint was blowing to some degree or other. I used no sealant or paste, and after it got upto temperature I loosened and retightened the joints, all improved but the joint either side of the over axle pipe is blowing a bit, and the joint between the frotn silencer and extension pipe is blowing quite a lot.

Still it's a lot quieter than before, with a little paste/sealnt for the joints either side of the over axle pipe and I think i'll get the front silencer-extension joint welded - it'll be lovely and quiet.

Any recommendations for exhaust joint sealant chaps?

[Laird Scooby]

Good work there Tom! Bummer about the blowing though!

Did you tighten the sleeve nuts evenly? Literally just 1 or 2 turns at a time on each - sounds a pain but that's what i found with the ones i used which look very similar to what you've got there.

There is a sealant i can recommend, it's in a cartridge to be used in a skeleton gun (highly appropriate! ) and it remains flexible. I can't remember the name of it but i'll find out tomorrow and let you know.

Also when you come back to sort out all the blows, start with the clamps etc loose, run the engine and work front to back getting each joint gas-tight as you go.

Re the over-axle pipe, if you loosen the middle silencer and O/A pipe clamps and also the on on the back box where the O/A pipe joins it, give everything a good wiggle while running the engine and quite often they find their own gas-tight position - if/when it does (maybe with some encouragement from you wiggling it more) tighten the clamps working from front to back. With everything you have there, welding shouldn't be needed!

[baggy798]

I used this RTV red silicone gasket maker for my side exit, it's still fine 2 years later. I think it remains flexible unlike exhaust paste.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ABRO-RTV-...E/271799952280

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by TomSaintJames

Any recommendations for exhaust joint sealant chaps?

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

There is a sealant i can recommend, it's in a cartridge to be used in a skeleton gun (highly appropriate! ) and it remains flexible. I can't remember the name of it but i'll find out tomorrow and let you know.

Here you are Tom - as promised, the name of the sealant :

https://www.screwfix.com/p/mapei-map...ails_container

That's about the best price i can find as well, might be a cheaper price somewhere but where i don't know. Also fairly sure there's a Screwfix in or near Yeovil so no postage on top (think Screwfix give free postage over a tenner, i know Toolstation do) and not only has it sealed up blows on both of my current beasts but you've had it on a previous car, a certain green beastie with gold wheels so you already know it works!

[TomSaintJames]

Thanks for the advice chaps, in the end I got Holts firegum putty, as Volvo had some in their parts department when I picked up the door card fixings they ordered in for me.

So I slathered the putty around all the joints, the front silencer-extension pipe join I also got some stickyback metal tape, which I wound around the junction, smeared some putty on the blowing sode of the union and slipped the connecter sleeve over it all. Now, there is almost no blowing whatsoever, which I am quite cheefrul about. The engine is MUCH quieter and smoother now!

Also today I put the passenger door card back on, with the new clips. It now functions as a door and doesn't snag on the door seal!



I installed the new spray nozzles, one of the old ones snapped clean off before I applied hardly any pressure to remove it, so was on its way out anyway. However, as some of you quite rightly said, the connector valve is busted and spews water out all over everywhere, with no water actually reaching the nozzles. So i've ordere one of those.



My new winscreen washer reservoir caps also had arrived in the week too, so put these on.





I also picked up some new numberplates, went to Halfords as they were open, they were cheap, and not great quality either. I had to drill two new holes in the front bumper to screw into as the old screws were so rusty that the heads just sheared off!

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So there probably won't be much more progress now until towards the end of September as we're off to France on Thursday. The MOT is due when we're away, but it'll have to wait until we get back as it's not quite ready yet!

Cheers,
Tom

[TomSaintJames]

Hello everyone, so long time no post! Unfortunately the MOT ran out on the hearse at the start of September whilst we were away on France, and there's no point in getiing it a tocket until the rear lights are fixed. So i'm waiting on a replacement rear light cluster then all should hopefully be well.

The exhaust seems to be leak-free, and the car is SO much quieter now. Still have the ticking/tappety noise so suspect the manifold may be cracked, but that can be lived with easily! Unless it causes emissions problems at MOT time.

We are back into full house buying mode post holiday, with builders, heating engineers and asbestos specialists giving us all sorts of quotes to rectify issues in the hope that we can re-negotiate the price to a more applicable amount. It's all rather complicated! Our first house was a new build and bought through a first time buyers scheme, so was hardly any effort at all, very much not-so this time around.

Regarding the rear lights, I have been reading on here and came across an interesting post - my saloon clusters seem to have a mixture of twin filament and single filament bulbs, should they all be single filament as it's a saloon?

Thanks,
Tom.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by TomSaintJames

Regarding the rear lights, I have been reading on here and came across an interesting post - my saloon clusters seem to have a mixture of twin filament and single filament bulbs, should they all be single filament as it's a saloon?

Thanks,
Tom.

How do you rationalise that Tom?

Thing is, every car on the road must have certain "Obligatory Lighting". The functions they must have as a minimum are direction indicators, tail lights, stop lights and reflectors - one each side. There must also be a minimum of one each of reversing and rear fog lights. You should have a pair of each of those, if only one of each then the fog light is on the drivers side, reverse on the other side (you might find your BX is set up like this) to comply with the law.

Often the tail lights and stop lights are combined. In that case a twin filament (21/5W) bulb is used, the 21w filament is for the stop light and 5W for the tail light. The other bulbs will be single filament bulbs, indicator, reverse and rear fog all take 21W single filament bulbs.

A point to be aware of when renewing the stop/tail 21/5W twin filament bulbs is they have staggered height pins on the side to prevent fitting the wrong way round. Somehow some people still manage it!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RING-VEHI...D/163266338789

That's a box of 10, barely more than buying one bulb from the likes of Halfrauds! Worth having some spares as well, especially as there are 4 of them on your car - more of that in a minute!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-x-RW38...S/142857678740

Box of 10 382 bulbs, 21W single filament - again for not much more than one in a "high street chain store". You should have 8 of those on your car, 6 in the rear clusters (indicator, reverse and fog in the rear) and the other 2 are the front indicators.

That brings me neatly to why there are 4 21/5W bulbs on yours. On the front, you have Day Running Lights and combined sidelights. These use the 21/5W bulb as well.

Given you've got an MoT coming up and no idea how long the present bulbs have been in, it would be worth spending just over a fiver to get both those 10 packs and renewing them all. Keep any that still look bright and shiny as emergency spares, bin the rest of the old ones but if you fit all new then you are covering yourself for quite a while and shows the tester that you have at least performed some routine maintenance on your car. You'll also find the lights are that much brighter and easier to see.

Lastly, double check the rear light clusters, i'm fairly certain the saloon lights follow the same pattern as the estate and use a twin filament as the stop/tail light bulbs. Either way, you're likely to use those bulbs sooner or later so worth having as spares anyway.

On a slightly different subject, that of converting to a camper, i spotted this idea on Find it, Fix it, Flog it.



Using that idea to start with, you could build a box in the back which could be used for storage while you're driving but when you reach your campsite, fold out the lid as a worktop for preparing/cooking food then as a table to eat it at. Once folded back in, it could form the base of a bed, with maybe an inflatable mattress to further increase the space saving when not in use. In fact an inflatable mattress could be stowed in the box when not being used.

You might need to adapt the measurements and make a longer box (you've got at least a 6ft load deck, may as well make good use of it!) but it would give a lot of storage space, a bed, a table and a worktop - possibly more uses as well!

[AllHailKingVolvo]

Originally Posted by TomSaintJames

Thanks for the advice chaps, in the end I got Holts firegum putty, as Volvo had some in their parts department when I picked up the door card fixings they ordered in for me.

So I slathered the putty around all the joints, the front silencer-extension pipe join I also got some stickyback metal tape, which I wound around the junction, smeared some putty on the blowing sode of the union and slipped the connecter sleeve over it all. Now, there is almost no blowing whatsoever, which I am quite cheefrul about. The engine is MUCH quieter and smoother now!

Also today I put the passenger door card back on, with the new clips. It now functions as a door and doesn't snag on the door seal!



I installed the new spray nozzles, one of the old ones snapped clean off before I applied hardly any pressure to remove it, so was on its way out anyway. However, as some of you quite rightly said, the connector valve is busted and spews water out all over everywhere, with no water actually reaching the nozzles. So i've ordere one of those.



My new winscreen washer reservoir caps also had arrived in the week too, so put these on.





I also picked up some new numberplates, went to Halfords as they were open, they were cheap, and not great quality either. I had to drill two new holes in the front bumper to screw into as the old screws were so rusty that the heads just sheared off!

Old

New


Old

New


So there probably won't be much more progress now until towards the end of September as we're off to France on Thursday. The MOT is due when we're away, but it'll have to wait until we get back as it's not quite ready yet!

Cheers,
Tom

Great work Tom!! That reminds me, does anyone know what the little blue two-pin connector in the fourth pic down is for? I have one sitting there in my 740 in the same spot, not plugged into anything...would love to know what it does/was intended to do!

I also have a disconnected Male and female bullet connector that are mounted alongside the bulkhead on my car, attached to wiring that is yellow and stripey as I recall (excuse the vagueness!)...would love to know what that does too!

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by AllHailKingVolvo

Great work Tom!! That reminds me, does anyone know what the little blue two-pin connector in the fourth pic down is for? I have one sitting there in my 740 in the same spot, not plugged into anything...would love to know what it does/was intended to do!

I also have a disconnected Male and female bullet connector that are mounted alongside the bulkhead on my car, attached to wiring that is yellow and stripey as I recall (excuse the vagueness!)...would love to know what that does too!

The blue one i'm fairly sure is the rear washer pump Phil - Toms started out as a saloon so like yours, won't have a rear washer pump.

As for the one on the bulkhead, it sounds as if it may be part of the A/C loom - i'm assuming you don't have A/C on yours?