Hello, just bought a '89 740 GL

[Prufrock]

Green books are out of print, so it's fleabay or autojumbles. Alternatively buy the CD (you can always print a page off to use when actually working on the car).

Buy the CD through the club at the non member price - but still very good value.

My 745 goes in for MoT tomorrow, finger's crossed!

Jon.

[Laird Scooby]

Sadly i don't get to many (any!) autojumbles as it usually means walking so i daresay i'll either try fleabay or a CD through the club.

Good luck for tomorrow! Got about 4 months left on mine at the moment but that goes all too quickly! Know i need a back box and tail pipe but other than that, i think it's pretty much up together except maybe that oil leak!
Tyres should be ok, recently fitted a set of P6000s with at least 5mm of tread so shouldn't have any gremlins there!
Only other dodgy thing on mine is it sometimes runs rough, hopefully it'll behave on T-day!

[Prufrock]

Mine needs the exhaust section that runs over the back axle, and a new ball joint (got 'em both for my garage to fit).

It still has its winter tyres on Rigels (15x6 alloys with 195x65 Fuldas), summer tyres are going on some interesting wheels in the next month or so.

Then it's a sunny weekend (!) and I'll renew the headlining - fabric is sorted just waiting for the weather (I guess June or July; or if lucky one of the May Bank Holidays).

Jon.

[Laird Scooby]

I have the over axle pipe for my exhaust, not fitted it yet as waiting to get the back box and tail pipe then (except front pipe) it's had a complete new system in the past year after scraping through with a dog food tin and jubilee cllip

I also have 195/65/15s, think mine are Rigels too (the ones with slots round the edge and a stainless steel "dinner plate" centre cap). The tyres corrected the speedo somewhat although not 100% it's closer than it used to be!

The headlining is another job for me as well, maybe some time through summer if we get one!

[MTerry]

I always service my car religiously too. I fix something and pray nothing else goes wrong! Hasn't really worked recently. But then again my '89 has nearly 400,000 miles on it. Welcome! One detail about the interior: The tan plastic is even more prone to cracking and breaking than the other colours, so be careful with it. Other than that, keep up on the services, and it will take a truly monumental amount of abuse and still keep running. It's biggest problems will be electrical. The '89's supposedly didn't have the biodegradable wiring harness, but my early '89 seems to have at least part of it, which doesn't surprise me since Volvo has been known to use all existing surplus parts before switching to a different design.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by MTerry

One detail about the interior: The tan plastic is even more prone to cracking and breaking than the other colours, so be careful with it.

Now he tells me!!!

As for the other major quote : It's biggest problems will be electrical.
You're not wrong there! Only ever known French cars give more electrical troubles!

[minesa240x3]

Good luck with the mot jon,And rigels were fitted to the later 740gle's like mine.Are these them as earlier ones are ever so slightly different.
Regards Brian.
And just found an earlier type,small picture.

[Prufrock]

Originally Posted by minesa240x3

Good luck with the mot jon,And rigels were fitted to the later 740gle's like mine.Are these them as earlier ones are ever so slightly different.
Regards Brian.
And just found an earlier type,small picture.

Thanks Brian,

the wheel on the left is the 15 x 6 Rigel (like mine), the other wheel is called Dersus and is 14 x 5.5 (or 6). I'm sure the Dersus was standard GLE fit and the Rigel an option (not absolutely sure although the Rigel is more commonly seen) at least on earlier GLEs (in the UK all 1986 and earlier cars had steels as standard - apart from the 760).

Re exhausts Dave, my"u bend"came from FRF, my local dealer couldn't seem to find a part number, tried to kid me I needed a complete exhaust! I did replace the front pipe (from the manifold) with a genuine Volvo one about 2 years ago.

Jon.

[Laird Scooby]

Brian and Jon - as appropriate - i have the Rigels as per the smaller pic, my earliest 740 GLEa (E531 OMG) had the 14" version of the larger pic and my last 740 GLEa (F212 UFL -"Fluff") had the same. This is my first with 15" wheels.

Who are "FRF"? I sourced mine from Carpartssaver, the ebay outlet for Euro Car Parts. I've also found GSF's ebay shop and main website are pretty good on parts and prices too, not just for my Volvo but my other chariot too.

I cross-checked the part numbers using the Klarius Online Catalogue to make sure i got the right bits for my beast, considering some numpty had fitted a 1990-91 system on there somehow!! Wasn't pretty! Even though some parts are common, it didn't work very well and was noisy. Roughly speaking the whole system (excl. front pipe) will have cost me about £100 which by my reckoning is pretty cheap.

[minesa240x3]

I remember getting the rear bend done on my 940 limo and me and the workshop guy looked it up and made very sure we ordered the correct one.A real shame the rear silencer was not the correct one as he had to add a new flare to one of the bits.He brazed it on.Glad I didn't try to do it myself or I would be selling it.
He had to add even more to the VVeeerrryy long straight pipe as it wasn't long enough either.
Regards Brian.