The Joy Of 240's, with issues...

[CosmicBike]

Originally Posted by Stephen Edwin

Adharas. Like this?

https://i.imgur.com/Gaz2pi3.jpg?1

Should be easy to clean.

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Thats the ones, nice and simple. Also available at sensible money.

[Stephen Edwin]

That sounds good.

And being simple they shouldn't distract attention from the car itself.

Best of luck to you finding the wheels.

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My call I feel comfortable with wheels shall we say commensurate with the car. For a GLT those horrible Virgo lumps of metal. Or there is a more refined version. For a Tors either Scorpius or a 15" equivalent. For the SE I chose Omegas, 15". The last word in 240 wheels. For anything pre black window edgings, steel wheels. If an early car, steel with stainless nave plates and embelishers.

I am not a purist. ...


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I gave away a set of early wheels for someone's project. I hope that project is going well.


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[CosmicBike]

Not sure why there is a fascination with Virgos, not the prettiest and now people want silly money, a set on ebay local to me up for £300!!
I like the Galaxies, but they'd be worth more than the car. Lots of the mid to late 90's Volvo alloys are nice, but would mean spacers, which just means more money.

[CosmicBike]

I think Grace is on this earth to test me...
Simple job today, change the N/S front lower suspension arm (why its the lower one is beyond me as there is only the one....).
I prepared for this a couple of weeks ago, giving all the various nuts and bolts a good soaking with WD40. Oh how I celebrated as all of them came undone with ease, and before long I had the arm out.
The rear bushing inner stayed attached to the arm, whilst the rest just rattled and fell off. The front one is in one piece, but since I'm fitting a new arm I didn't need to worry about getting it out anyway.
Onwards, thinking I'll be done by lunchtime, ha, ha, ha......
New front bushing into new lower arm, now whilst I expected a snug fit that would need some persuasion with a vice to press in, I didn't expect it to go absolutely solid about 1/3 of the way in. And I mean solid. To the point that making it go further in, or come back out, even with heat and some big hammers, was a non-starter. So I put it to one side, and moved on to fitting the new rear bushing. Wise from the front, I measure size of hole vs size of bushing, finding a 0.5mm difference. Out with the Dremel and some gentle removal of material from the mount. Still needed a good wallop to get in, but at least that's.
The front? Angle grinder, jigsaw, hammer and the new bushing is out. New one on the way, the vernier is coming out before I try and fit the next one.
Poor old Grace will have to stay with her nose in the air for a few days.
Frustrating, but I do enjoy playing with spanners so all good fun.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by CosmicBike

I think Grace is on this earth to test me...
Simple job today, change the N/S front lower suspension arm (why its the lower one is beyond me as there is only the one....).
I prepared for this a couple of weeks ago, giving all the various nuts and bolts a good soaking with WD40. Oh how I celebrated as all of them came undone with ease, and before long I had the arm out.
The rear bushing inner stayed attached to the arm, whilst the rest just rattled and fell off. The front one is in one piece, but since I'm fitting a new arm I didn't need to worry about getting it out anyway.
Onwards, thinking I'll be done by lunchtime, ha, ha, ha......
New front bushing into new lower arm, now whilst I expected a snug fit that would need some persuasion with a vice to press in, I didn't expect it to go absolutely solid about 1/3 of the way in. And I mean solid. To the point that making it go further in, or come back out, even with heat and some big hammers, was a non-starter. So I put it to one side, and moved on to fitting the new rear bushing. Wise from the front, I measure size of hole vs size of bushing, finding a 0.5mm difference. Out with the Dremel and some gentle removal of material from the mount. Still needed a good wallop to get in, but at least that's.
The front? Angle grinder, jigsaw, hammer and the new bushing is out. New one on the way, the vernier is coming out before I try and fit the next one.
Poor old Grace will have to stay with her nose in the air for a few days.
Frustrating, but I do enjoy playing with spanners so all good fun.

Excellent piece: our old Volvos are frustrating sometimes, but that is one of the reasons we like them so much :-).

[CosmicBike]

New bushing arrived at lunchtime, so into the garage, calipers out. The bushing, 35mm diameter, the opening in the arm, 34.2mm. Now I don't need to get my Zeus book out to know that's not an interference fit!
In the old days I'd have taken both to work and jumped on the lathe for 10 minutes, but I'm off the tools now, so some time with the dremel again. After a bit of work it's very close, so the bushing is in the freezer overnight.
Spent some time cleaning up the lower edges of the front arches, some minor rusting cleaned up and a coat of treatment applied, top coat in the morning.
Just as well I tend to pedal everywhere....

[CosmicBike]

All sorted. The freezer trick nearly worked, I reckon we we maybe 0.05 mm out. Tiny bit of extra material removed and we got a decent thump it in with a big socket type fit. Re-fitting was easy once I'd sussed out getting the drop links back into place, then Grace was back on her wheels to roll off the driveway and back on again, before a bit of bouncing and torquing up the bushing bolts.
Test drive, silence when hitting pot holes and drain covers, so another job sorted.
Next, boot hinges and sorting the wiring. Previous owner has had a 'fix' done with a couple of wires outside of the hinges, so I plan to refresh all the wiring looms with silicone cable and fit new hinges as the ones on are rather sloppy.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by CosmicBike

All sorted. The freezer trick nearly worked, I reckon we we maybe 0.05 mm out. Tiny bit of extra material removed and we got a decent thump it in with a big socket type fit. Re-fitting was easy once I'd sussed out getting the drop links back into place, then Grace was back on her wheels to roll off the driveway and back on again, before a bit of bouncing and torquing up the bushing bolts.
Test drive, silence when hitting pot holes and drain covers, so another job sorted.
Next, boot hinges and sorting the wiring. Previous owner has had a 'fix' done with a couple of wires outside of the hinges, so I plan to refresh all the wiring looms with silicone cable and fit new hinges as the ones on are rather sloppy.

Well done.

If you had some photos of this job to post that might be helpful, I can imagine this is a job that many owners of older Volvos might need to do one day.

I had to replace the wiring loom in the engine compartment of the RB - the quality of the insulation Volvo used back in the day was very poor. It is quite an easy task and a good long term fix.

Alan

[CosmicBike]

Originally Posted by Othen

Well done.

If you had some photos of this job to post that might be helpful, I can imagine this is a job that many owners of older Volvos might need to do one day.

I had to replace the wiring loom in the engine compartment of the RB - the quality of the insulation Volvo used back in the day was very poor. It is quite an easy task and a good long term fix.

Alan

I referred to the Mike Brace article on here which has a few decent pictures. His gearbox/clutch guide was handy too.

[Clifford Pope]

I once had exactly the opposite problem - the rear bush was reasonably tight, but not tight enough, and the bush started turning in the arm on bumps.

There was a few years ago a long thread on Brickboard about this problem, and it was felt that it was partly the fault of the Volvo fitment of handed bushes for a period. The rubber on one side was harder than the other, allegedly to compensate for the natural road camber.
There followed a long conversation on the lines that the harder bush surely ought to go on the side nearer the kerb, or curb in US, whereas Volvo fitting guidance made no distinction.
In the end the modification was deleted, and I think bushes are now identical.

The trouble was accerbated by previous replacement of a bush, especially by a harder one, which expanded the hole in the arm. It was argued that it was better always to fit a replacement arm as well as a bush - or else to put a few spot welds around the metal flange of the bush to lock it in place.