240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Stephen Edwin

I wonder if David is thinking of colouring the door mirrors to match the body....

.

Sort of ................ more a case of removing the blackboard paint seemingly applied with a stipple-roller by the previous owner! They were body colour from the factory so that is Plan A but if it goes horribly wrong, i have a Plan B in the shape of some chrome film - need to develop and build a special vacuum tool to do that properly though.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

My wipers also park in an odd position Alan :

The wiper motors are handed (certainly on my 760) so it's the park switch that's out of adjustment almost certainly. If it's working, don't fix it!

If you had a piece of 3mm O/D nylon tube (such as used in pneumatic systems on machines) with the end plug, you could drill a 1mm hole with the Dremel in one side of the nylon hose, plug the end and make some sort of clipe to hold the plug to the wiper arm.

Spray the arm assembly and clips etc satin black or Halfords Steel Wheel silver/grey as that is pretty close to what they are now and it would be almost entirely hidden.

Lots of different ways of doing it, whichever works best for you so you can keep your headlights clean!

I'm pretty sure I have a right side wiper motor on the passenger side then Dave. Someone probably ordered the wrong part # by a couple of digits when it was changed 15 years ago and it has been like it ever since. Actually, I quite like it like that, parking (which it does) at the top of the lamp rather than at the bottom - evidence of an interesting journey over the past 4 decades, so it is staying as it is.

I've ordered the universal jets - for a couple of quid they are useful to have in the bits box. I may use them, but I really liked your idea of a piece of 3mm nylon tube with a jet drilled in it and the end blocked up, clipped onto the wiper so the jet points towards the light. That is what I'll do, a couple of hours of trial and error and it will be okay. I'll have to investigate why no water comes out of the headlamp washers at the mo, the PO probably blocked them off somewhere so they don't leak all the reservoir all ober the floor (or maybe the T junction, I had a Saab like that, an aftermarket one cost a few pounds and solved the leaky Saab).

I just took the Royal Barge out to get some gas, and to try out the new radio antenna I found in the boot (it works much better than the old one), and ended up doing about 15 miles. The Royal Barge has become a nice car to drive now that almost everything is working properly and it has the right tyres - I was just enjoying myself.

The Skoda SATNAV maps seem to work fine - I took the car out to the nearby newish Geddington bypass before it was light this morn, and was pleased to see the 4 lane highway is now on the map.

:-)

Alan

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Sounds very like they've "updated" the wheels to early 740 spec - have you got a link to the listing? I'm curious!

Other alloy wheels can look understated too, especially when treated to a non-standard colour and a "ghost" emblem in the centre cap...........

Did you mean a link to the eBay car Dave:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-244...53.m1438.l2649

It is a nice looking car, but 50% more than the Royal Barge.

[loki_the_glt]

Originally Posted by Othen

Gosh, we are up to post #174 already, doesn't time fly when one is having fun (actually it does, and the Royal Barge is fun).

I'm becoming a bit concerned about my headlamps. I think we have established that they are the originals (from the 1980 MY handbook), but it does seem to me that they were only used for one year - and not on all 240s in that year. This very nice DL (also from 1980) that I saw on eBay certainly has something different:



... and consequently the type on my car seem very rare indeed. My thought is that if the headlamps became damaged somehow the car would not be usable. I wonder, should I (in the fullness of time) be looking at replacing the lights with something more common from a later car (the lights on the 1981 and later cars seem to be almost ubiquitous in comparison)?

Any ideas what might fit?

Alan

The "W"plate you show has been retro-fitted with early style door mirrors; your's might have been factory-fitted or installed by a previous owner; I converted Olaf to the internally-adjustable type after one mirror seized. They shouuld be matt black, NOT body-coloured. To the best of my (limited) knowledge no 240 ever had body-coloured mirrors from the factory; Scotchcal film tape can be sprayed and applied onto the shell if you really want body-coloured ones.

As for

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by loki_the_glt

They shouuld be matt black, NOT body-coloured.

Mine should be body-coloured being a 760GLE, where the blackboard paint is flaking off, there is Silver-Green Metallic underneath as per original spec.

The earlier 240s should have matt balck though as you say.

[Othen]

This afternoon's job was to take the instrument cluster out with a view to fixing the non-working tacho and sort out the instrument back-lighting.

Getting the cluster out was much simpler than on any modern car, it really is a pleasure to work on the Royal Barge - there is so much room and everything is so simple... 20 minutes later the box was out and I could see what was going on:



The unit had those lovely old-fashioned connectors - no chance of getting anything mixed up there. The signal connection to the rev counter was a black wire (not the red/white one I'd been let to expect), I'd planned to just run a new wire to the coil, but thought I'd have a look around the engine compartment to see if the other end of a likely suspect could be found loitering. Not a foot from the coil I found a neatly wound up black wire, rigged up a test circuit and had continuity - this was our missing signal wire. Why it had been just lying there for several (perhaps many) years we will never know, but I crimped a connector on the end, attached it to the coil and... happiness is a working tacho:



I suspect it had not worked for years, and must have irritated the last two POs (accounting for the 10 years I know of) a great deal (as it did me).

The instrument back lighting was a slightly different matter, a PO had obviously had a problem in the past. As you may see, two of the three were missing, and the final one had no continuity. A PO had replaced the middle one with the rather ugly LED array.:



The bulbs are Plilips 12829, which seems to be an obsolete type, still available (but expensive):



I could get some (at about a tenner for 10, which is a bit pricey for incandescent bulbs, but I don't suppose they are made any more). One of the bulb holders is missing though, so I would have to replace it with something else, so I'm thinking I could change all three with some modern bulb holders and probably fit some LEDs that would never need any attention again. The three bulbs just have to hook into place and illuminate these 3 blue filters:



they need to be dimable as well so the rheostat works. Does anyone know of a suitable replacement (or I could just trawl through some online catalogues and find something suitable).

I'm in no rush to get this bit done, the current arrangement works (not very well at the edges of the panel) and I know what is there is safe. I don't think it is worth pulling it apart to change the two incandescent bulbs, I'll find 3 replacements first.

There is a convenient addendum: I had thought the tickover a bit fast - now I had a rev counter I could see it was set at 1500 RPM, which made for a bit of a jerky ride for the auto gearbox. I was able to adjust the carburettor down to a more sensible 900 RPM and everything is much less frantic now.

All in all a good hour or so's work, the Royal Barge continues to get nicer and nicer.

Alan

[Othen]

Originally Posted by loki_the_glt

The "W"plate you show has been retro-fitted with early style door mirrors; your's might have been factory-fitted or installed by a previous owner; I converted Olaf to the internally-adjustable type after one mirror seized. They shouuld be matt black, NOT body-coloured. To the best of my (limited) knowledge no 240 ever had body-coloured mirrors from the factory; Scotchcal film tape can be sprayed and applied onto the shell if you really want body-coloured ones.

As for

... you chaps know almost everything there is to know about Volvos :-)

Alan

[Othen]

... I'm thinking that a really simple solution to the instrument lighting problem might be something like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-12V-72...86cdaaf119a780

I don't suppose it would be dimmable (not with a rheostat anyway), but would that matter much? I could just stuck it to the bottom of the dash - just above where the three incandescent bulbs sit now.

What do people think?

Alan

[john.wigley]

There was once this chap, Alan by name,
Had a fancy to own a Volvo again,
For reasons sentimental, a 240 he sought,
Then one in green, from Brum he bought.

Pleased was he, with his new car,
Though from perfect, it was quite far,
But nothing major, about which to worry,
Or needed to be fixed in a hurry.

Little things, with which Alan could play,
Kept him busy, from day to day,
That 'orrible spoiler, it had to go,
Now Alan can get it ready to show.

Mirrors on the wing, Alan did not like,
They too, had to take a hike,
Into the bin, they were consigned,
Then removed, when he changed his mind.

The lights, they too required work,
Something that Alan could not shirk,
Repositioned they were, rewired too,
Alan liked the results, thought 'that'll do'.

The tyres, they were a little - well - tired,
But with time on his hands, now he's retired,
Change them all, he did,
And with the old ones, getting rid.

Bob (the dog), with poorly hoof,
Gave the car an appreciative woof,
But Dan (the son), clearly no fool,
Thinks Dad's car, is soo uncool.

And so it is, that great pride Alan has,
When he steps upon the gas,
A grin he has, so very large,
When he drives, The Royal Barge!

Regards, John.

[Othen]

Whilst making myself a nice cuppa I remembered that I'd seen a bag of electrical bits and pieces somewhere in the Royal Barge - so I checked the glove box and found these:



... would you believe it - a couple of new (well, maybe old, but unused) Philips 12829 bulb holders (unfortunately the two bulbs don't have any continuity).

This puts a different complexion on the problem. I'll order some bulbs tonight and when they arrive next week I'll pull the instruments out again and return everything back to the way Mr Volvo meant it to be 40 years ago.

Sorting out these problems with the Royal Barge is such fun.

Alan