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Thursday, July 20, 2006

Happy Birthday!

Járn wants to wish his pappy a happy 40th--Volvo: Classic 144 is 40 years old

Very good article on the predecessor of the 2-series.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

You meet the nicest people...

...when you drive a Volvo.

I had taken Boy over to his Scout meeting last night and decided to swing back by the parts store on the way back up the hill just to look around a bit. Finished looking, came out, and saw a bearded fellow get out of a new Honda Accord. As he walked around the front of the car to go in the store, he stopped and asked me how many miles my Volvo had on it. "Uhh, let's see..." I opened the door so I could see the odometer, "Two twenty four, two ninety nine."

"I've had several--the last two I had, one had 265,000, and the other had 300 and something."

And thus began a most pleasant conversation that probably lasted twenty minutes as we mutually extolled the anchor-like reliability of the stolid Swede.

(Of course, I would have been even happier if he'd looked like a member of the Swedish Bikini Team, but I suspect that might be asking a bit much.)

Monday, July 17, 2006

More Junk!

I got to go junker diving Saturday, as I was looking for a newer upper timing belt cover. The original one had a crack in it caused by the water pump pulley, and I wanted it to be fixed completely. SO, off to Pull-A-Part, where I found out something I didn't know.

Seems there are different versions of the timing belt cover.

Oh, they all have the same part number, but as is common with such parts, running changes are sometimes made to the moldings by the supplier dring the production process to add reinforcement to weak areas of the part. I'm not sure of all the permutations, but there are at least three: the original one I had on my '86 had a single vertical stiffening rib molded to the inside surface, which ran from about the center bolt hole up to the top; the second type has a vee-shaped pair of ribs, running in about the same position as the single vertical; and the third type (which I wound up getting) has the vee-shaped reinforcement, as well as a semicircular rib around that middle bolt hole. I've seen several covers with this area around the bolt hole developing a crack, so if you have any choice in the matter, try to get the latest cover possible.

Got home, and found out it's MUCH more difficult to install than take the cover off. I thought I might be able to wedge it around without having to remove the fan and water pump pulley.

Errrrr, no.

Messed with the thing for nearly an hour before giving in and taking everything off and putting the cover on the right way. But it's on there now and looks just fine.

Next was to clean off some of the accumulation of grease and oil from the underside before I put the belly pan back on. Absolutely amazing how much stuff was on there, especially considering that I had already given it this treatment a couple of months ago. At least this time I was able to get underneath and really give it a good dousing.

Final step was to get the new pan installed. I had originally thought I would get one of the nice aluminum ones from IPD, but I just couldn't justify the expense. It went on fine, although two of the mounting bolts wouldn't stay in place. How they stayed in the first place I have no idea, but I had a couple of different ones from the spare parts bin that worked well enough.

All in all, a productive weekend. And still no leaks!

Friday, July 14, 2006

"Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's ALIIIIIVVE!"

Yes, Järn LIVES!

Got home yesterday and got on my greasemonkey duds and went outside to hopefully finish up my this round of repairs.

Wedged in the new fan shroud, bolted on the fan blade, tightened up the alternator and the A/C compressor. Next, I had to fix another little problem I've known about for a while--the fuel injection fuse. You Volvisti know that the 25 amp blade fuse is located in a peculiar place--right next to the left fender. Right where water can get on it and corrode it and cause the injection unit to give up. I had earlier gotten into a fix with this thing when I took the fuse out to clean the contacts, and the next morning had an awful time getting it cranked. Seems I should have just left it alone since it was working. Anyway, I decided to replace the holder with a new waterproof one. Good thing--in this past go-round of repairs, I found that the original plastic had deteriorated and cracked apart, and the interior wires had become exposed. How it kept working, I have no idea.

I got something simiar to this from the Advance Auto Parts down at the foot of the hill--it really would have been better if the one I got had 10 ga wire in lieu of 12, and as with all underhood electrical stuff, I should have soldered the new holder into place, but it's rated for 30 amps so I let it go, and instead of dragging out the extension cord and soldering iron, I made due with heavy duty crimp connectors. I also made sure to put some heat-shrink tubing around the connection to keep out any other stray moisture. That done and put away, it was time--hooked up the battery, filled up the crankcase with oil, and got ready for the fateful moment.

I put the key in the ignition switch and took a deep breath. Turned the key--bzzutt-zut-buruhhh-pudda-pudda-pudda-pudda-pudda-pudda.... IT WORKS! IT WORKS IT WORKS IT WORKS!!

There is very little in the world that gives you that nice warm feeling all over as when you've torn something up and put it back together again and it works right the first time. Especially when it's a car. Seemingly so simple--fuel, air, spark--but so fiendishly full of hidden evils that can come up and ruin everything. All that jimmying I had to do, all that moving and tightening and loosening and turning and twisting--for such a little bitty engine, there was a lot I could have messed up on. But didn't. It's like Churchill's quip about there being nothing in life as exhilarating as being shot at without result.

The only nervous moment was right after I cranked it and nearly a quart of water started spewing out the tailpipe. My first inclination was to have a heart attack and think I'd developed a cracked engine block, but apparently it was just water that had accumulated in the muffler as it sat. I took it for a slow drive around the neighborhood to see if anything cropped up. Not a thing, other than him feeling a bit more arthritic in his suspension than usual. Back home to the driveway, and clambered underneath to check for leaks.

Not a drop.

And not a drop this morning, either!

Before, he could be reliably counted upon to soil his parking spot with a nice circle of oil every time he was parked for any length of time, but it seems we've conquered that bit of ill manners, too.

It sure is good to have it running right again--I even stopped and bought him a bath this morning at the gas station.

I still have to put the new splash pan on, but I think I need to clean it a bit more underneath beforehand, and I also want to put on my lower subframe braces I bought a while back.

Another thing I did was to do away with the heat riser stove and tubing. Mine has been in tatters since I bought the car, and I really doubt any actual heated air ever made it to the filter box back during the winter, and it ran fine regardless. I have gotten a bit paranoid about the system, though, mainly because several sources have noted that the little thermostatically-controlled door in the filter box does eventually fail (the control unit, that is), and it fails in a position to let heated air continue into the air-mass unit unabated, which can cause THAT to fail from too much heat. And THAT air-mass deal is a VERY expensive part. Again, I don't think mine was in any danger of getting too much heat with all the leaks the tubing had, but it was still ugly looking and I didn't want that. So, off with the hose entirely. The sheetmetal stove was removed from the exhaust manifold, too, since it was now not needed, although I may put it back on later if it seems that everything nearby is getting too hot without the shielding it provided. The only thing left to do is to close the bottom hole in the filter box where the hose attached--this should be easy to do with a plastic lid of some sort that I'm sure I have around the house.

Anyway, it was a good afternoon, finally.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

A few more photos

I meant to post these the other day, but again, after the Great Bug Attack, they kinda fell by the wayside.

In all of the photos of the flame trap relocation, I never could get a very clear idea of the way the parts are supposed to go together. This also explains why it took me a while to figure out I needed to get the little rubber holder off of the breather box nipple. It helps to have no bones in your hand.

Anyway, after you manage to break all your fingers and get the 8 inch extension hose firmly in place, it should come up between the second and third intake runner, beside the manifold check valve--



Here's another look--



The premolded hose goes on top of that (big end over the trap, obviously) and then the small end hooks back onto the intake bellows.

The small vacuum line routes under the check valve and does a loop before plugging into the manifold nipple--



Not really a hard job, if you know what you're doing, but it wound up taking me twice as long as it should have due to not being able to see what I was aiming for, and not knowing exactly how it was supposed to go back on.

ANOTHER BIT OF CHEAP INSURANCE--I also purchased and installed the rear cam seal retainer plate from IPD. Goes on in about five minutes, and it's worth having in place if nothing else for peace of mind.

Now then, back to the I Am A Moron Project!

The following posts were previously posted on Possumblog, since this joint was all busted up. Since it's more of a general audience type blog, some of the more technical aspects of my travail are sort of glossed over, and some of the information below might seem a bit repetitive, so my apologies for that.

Let me say one thing, though--if you don't have the proper tools, it's best not to attempt the timing belt change. I know, I know--there are lots of people who do this and can do it backwards and forwards blindfolded, but if you've not done it before (like yours truly), not having the right tools makes a three hour job stretch out to an entire MONTH. Get a camshaft sprocket counterhold, if you can find one--Volvo part 9995034. If you can't find one of those, find one like I mention below. You'll be glad you did, and save yourself a lot of frustration. Also, although it might seem price, I would be sure and get the crankshaft counterhold tool as well. That nut's tough, and having the right tool made it very simple to remove.

ANYWAY, to begin:

Georgia dirt kicker and graphic technology guru Dave Helton sends a note mocking me for falling to #3 in the Google rankings for "moron project," having been usurped by some sort of garage band of the same name. In order to reestablish my bona fides, I will note that the tool I have been anxiously awaiting in order to hold the sprocket on the front of my engine arrived yesterday! It's a nice piece of work--sturdy, heavy, and well made. Got home with it, and found that the two cylindrical pegs on the end of it that are intended to fit in the holes in the sprocket are too big. Meaning I will have to get out my grinder and attempt to reduce their diameter. ::sigh::

HOWEVER, not to be outdone, I did go ahead and do some other necessary work on the ol' lump of iron yesterday, installing a small plate on the rear of the cylinder head to prevent the rear seal from popping out, and installing a flame trap relocation kit. I am going to do a more detailed post on this over on Revolvoblog (in order to keep you from slashing your wrists in despair from having to read about car repair) but the short version is that the flame trap is a little bit of plastic in the crankcase vent system. In the original version, this is located way down beside the starter, underneath the intake manifold, stuffed between three inaccessible metal objects, turned sideways, and guarded by a dwarf with a battle axe. Meaning it's nearly impossible to get to it, which is bad, because the thing can get plugged up with oil, and if that happens, it can cause the pressure inside the crankcase to get real high, and it can cause the engine seals to pop out and leak oil everywhere. Which is exactly what happened to me.

I wasn't sure it was a plugged up flame trap, though. But I figured I would go ahead and check it, and also install a kit to move the hateful thing up onto the topside of the engine where it will be easier to change out in the future.

After much wrestling and mild oaths, I did manage to get it free, and sure enough, the thing was nearly completely blocked. The photo below shows the old one on the left, and the new one on the right.



The old one used to be the color of the new one. This shows just how blocked up it was--I have a feeling it hadn't been changed in about 100,000 miles or so. And to be something that only costs about five bucks, it sure has wound up costing me a ton of money.

(Second post, as a follow-up to this one, and again, originally published over on Possumblog.)

I got home yesterday and set in to once and for all get the Volvo stuck back together. After changing out of my good clothes and into my evil ones, the first task was to modify my brand new sprocket-holding tool (in Swedish, kugghjulhållareverktyg) with the wrong thing to use for tool modification. As you may or may not recall, the thing I bought looks like this--

counterhold.jpg

The little pegs on the end fit into small holes on the web of the timing belt gears, so you can hold it still while you struggle mightily to break the bolt loose that holds everything together. One sprocketwheel I had managed to set free, but the other was stuck tight, and I couldn’t find anyplace on the engine to make the thing be still to turn the bolt, thus the need for this supposedly “universal” tool. As I mentioned Tuesday, however, upon receipt of the tool, I found that the little pegs were too big to go into the required holes.

Meaning I would have to somehow make them smaller.

Meaning an opportunity to let my skills in expedient engineering shine brightly!

Best thing to use would have been a small, handheld die grinder (think of a souped-up Dremel tool) of some sort. I don’t have one of those. Next best would have been a bench grinder. I don’t have one of those.

What I DO have is a big industrial handheld grinder that had belonged to my dad that he used for grinding welds. It’s powerful enough to make the whole house go dim whenever it’s turned on, and the torque builds up such a strong gyroscopic force that it’s very difficult to move into another plane (other than the allowing it to precess around its central axis) while you’re holding it. Which means it’s really not the thing for small, more delicate work. But when you have no choice…

I chucked the tool into my giant vise and set to work, and in only minutes of barely-controlled metal grinding and a shower of bright hot sparks, I had succeeded in gnawing the ends off the pegs enough that they would fit into the holes.

Yay.

Now then, on to the part that matters--I placed my pegs in the holes, held on tightly, got out my big socket wrench, heaved mightily on the bolt, and…

It came free! FREE AT LAST!

Finally, after a month of dawdling and looking at a non-functional automobile on the driveway, I might finally be on the way to getting the thing fixed!

Off with the gear, and in a bit of a surprise, the little seal on the shaft behind it simply fell out. Seals aren’t supposed to do that--you’re supposed to have to pry them out. This might be why it leaked so very much. (Duh.)

I pried out the other seal on the camshaft, cleaned everything with a Q-tip, lubed up the shafts, got my new seals, put some oil on them, and gently tapped them into place. Back on with the gears, and once again employed my marvelously mangled tool to hold them still while I gorilla’d the bolts tight with the torque wrench. Which began the process of making my whole upper body sorta achy today.

Now then--do I remember how the rest of it goes back together?

Sorta.

Let’s see--uhmm, the lower crankshaft gear has a couple of big washers….and they have to line up right on the timing mark. Hmm. That required some fixing and doing before I finally got it back to where it was supposed to be. Now then, to make sure everything ELSE is lined up!

timing belt.gif

The camshaft, the intermediate shaft, and the crankshaft are all supposed to be lined up exactly right, or else the car won’t run right after the timing belt is put on. This alignment is “aided” by a tiny dimple on the camshaft gear and on the intermediate gear that are supposed to be lined up with two invisible marks molded into the plastic camshaft cover. The top one is easy enough to see, but the middle one requires the use of a hand mirror to make absolutely sure it’s lined up right. The bottom cog on the crankshaft has a tiny divot notched into the washer, and THAT is supposed to align with a timing mark imperceptibly molded into the front of the engine. Believe it or not, I actually managed to get them all in line.

Of course, then there’s the issue of the belt itself.

See, it has little teeth on it, and they have to be threaded onto each of the teeth of the gears, WITHOUT MOVING THE GEARS OUT OF POSITION. Made all the more difficult by the fact that it’s not quite loose enough to do this without moving everything the wrong way. But with some great patience and even while being spoken to by my kind wife who’d just gotten home and wanted to fill me in on her day and her plans for supper as I was hunkered over the front of the radiator cutting off the circulation to my lower torso and sweating such copious amounts of sweat that I appeared to be a lawn sprinkler and was covered from fingertip to elbow in that blasted sticky black grime, I still managed to scootch the belt over the three gears successfully! All three gears lined up, marks on the belt lined up with the gears! Let loose the new idler pulley I’d installed earlier, and it was all nice and tight and just like new.

Next?

Uhhmmmm. Hmm. Oh, yeah, there’s the lower cover to put on--another grimy bit of black plastic that I had to scrape clean before putting back on. Next, I think would be…yes, it would be the big bottom pulley and dampener that had required the purchase of yet ANOTHER tool before I got it off in the first place.

Put the pulley on, connect the required tool, and with great and mighty exertions and grunts and squeals that sounded like a replay of the recent women’s tennis tournament at the All England Club, I managed to get the crankshaft nut torqued down to something close to the specified foot-poundage.

By golly, this thing is almost put back together!

And for some reason, all the muscles in my chest hurt!

On with the upper timing belt cover (and I’m missing the top screw, which probably rolled away a month ago) and now time for the accessory drive belts. Two for the alternator, and one for the A/C compressor.

Ah, yes--the hateful compressor.

Just as I had nearly not gotten the belt OFF of it when I was tearing things apart, I very nearly couldn’t get the new one ON it. And thus the greatest exhaustion and aches began, as I worked for nearly a half hour, grunting and heaving and pulling and pushing and tugging and jerking and crawling underneath and repeating the grunting-heaving procedure until FINALLY I got it loose enough to slide on the pulleys. The alternator belts came next, and they were a breeze, which is good, because by now I was full of weariness and frustration, and I was completely empty of sweat, having gotten rid of enough to fill a bathtub.

I left the belts loose on the alternator, and the mounting bolts loose on both it and the compressor and put all my tools away for the night. Next step is to finish tightening them up, installing the fan and fan shroud, hooking the battery back up, filling it with oil, and doing a test crank. That’s all for another day, though. By the time I got inside and got the majority of the grime off of my arms, it was nearly 9:00 o’clock, and I was so whupped I couldn’t bring myself to eat supper.

Luckily, lest I become Mr. Lazybones, there were other chores to be done--seems that there was cookies to be baked for something Ashley’s doing, so she and Mom were busily doing that, which left me to go get some laundry from upstairs, because there was a need for an emergency load to be washed and dried RIGHT THEN so it could be worn today by a certain teenager (who, as I mentioned, was quite involved with cookie-making) and then there was the nearly overwhelming chore of getting a certain Tiny Terror in the tub for her bath. Made all the more difficult by her seeming inability to keep from coming downstairs to see if any cookies were ready and to look out the door at the kitten.

By the time I finally got a shower and got in bed, my head was throbbing and my chestal muscles felt like hot cooked lasagna noodles.

As I said, thank goodness this morning’s meeting was short.

Tsk, tsk--those pesky Blogger bugs!

Well, I have finally managed to resolve my issue with the Revolvoblog template. It took some doing to get an answer, but one finally arrived this afternoon--

Hi Terry,

Thanks for writing in. We're afraid you've fallen victim to a bug in our system which occasionally loses template data. Your posts are still safe, but unfortunately we were not able to recover your template for you. The manner in which you retrieved your (partial) template is preventing new posts from publishing. To use one of our default templates, you can click the Pick New link on the Template tab. This will let you publish your blog again while you recreate your old template. We apologize for the inconvenience and we are working on getting this problem fixed. However, it is always a good idea to save your own copy of a template if you make extensive customizations.

Sincerely,
Danish
The Blogger Team

OOpsie-daisy!

Thank goodness for Google Cache is all I have to say, because again, since I didn't previously see the need for keeping a copy of my template, it was the only thing that kept my information together, even if it did mess up new posting when I pasted it back in. Seems as though it should be simple for Blogger to have a similiar feature as a backup, seeing as how they ARE owned by Google. And I really have to wonder why this particularly loathsome bug can't be eradicated.

IN any event, I have now fixed the thing as detailed above, pasted in my old links and such, copied the template and saved it to a safe place, and given Chet the E-mail Boy the key, and now all is once again right with the world.

More or less. I still have to fix the font. If I dare.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Testing again

Test test test.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Testing

This silly thing seems to be broken at the moment.

Grr.

I just finished my big "workin' on my Volvo" post with pictures and humor and such, clicked publish, and it said I was good to go. Yippee! For once it didn't mess up!

I clicked over to view it, and for some reason, the post didn't show up. Eh--no big deal--sometimes it takes a minute or two.

Jumped back to the edit screen and pulled up my template to add a couple of items to my line-item listing of repairs I've made (which is part of the template), saved, hit republish, and with great anticipation ran over to see what was going on.

Not only was the post not there, there was no more Revolvoblog!

I jumped back to edit--my just posted post was nowhere to be found. Jumped to the template--NOTHING THERE. I had a huge list of stuff on that template that took forever to format, and ALL OF IT WAS GONE!

Pfft!

Now, I KNOW I didn't erase the template, or overwrite everything when I did my template update. But by gum it was now irretrievably screwed up.

THANK GOODNESS FOR GOOGLE CACHE.

I thought maybe, just maybe, I could Google it, get a recent capture (it hasn't changed since June 20), and maybe use the View Source command to pick up the formatting.

Sure enough, the information was all there, so I copied it, pasted it back into the template, saved it, and now it's back in one piece. Sans my most recent post, of course.

Stupid Blogger.

And yes, by now I SHOULD know to save a copy before publishing--every time this happens, I am reminded by several people that I should have done this. Obviously, since I am a moron, you're just wasting your breath.

ANYWAY, maybe the NEXT post will work.