Unverified Ownership 1989 Volvo 740GLE Estate - It's time to haul... Stuff.

I remember going to the local scrappie with my dad to get a resistor pack for his Rover 400 because those were crappy and burnt out. Unsurprisingly, the replacements didn't last long so we got some ceramic power resistors online.

See if those have a wattage on, that's important so you don't start a fire. Power resistors with similar or matching values should be easy enough to find new, I can't stress enough that the wattage rating is super important.

I wonder if that's how I damaged a Carver power amplifier used on a subwoofer for a venue I worked at years ago. The old cooling fan crapped out, Couldn't find a suitable replacement, so I got a generic one from Radio Shack and put a resistor on it so the fan saw the correct voltage. It worked for a couple of years with weekly use...
 
I wonder if that's how I damaged a Carver power amplifier used on a subwoofer for a venue I worked at years ago. The old cooling fan crapped out, Couldn't find a suitable replacement, so I got a generic one from Radio Shack and put a resistor on it so the fan saw the correct voltage. It worked for a couple of years with weekly use...
Possibly the new fan and the resistor together were drawing too much current, as in the wattage was over what the power supply in the amp was rated for. Maybe not.

Lifted from my last post because of a page change:

Edit: Or you could replace the speed control with a DC PWM speed controller, you just need to see how much current the fan pulls at full speed so you can get one rated for that current. Either that or do what the PO did with my Discovery and say bollocks to speed control, chuck the lot in the bin and fit a thermal circuit breaker on/off switch.
 
See if those have a wattage on, that's important so you don't start a fire. Power resistors with similar or matching values should be easy enough to find new, I can't stress enough that the wattage rating is super important.
Would I be correct in thinking I can work out the wattage by finding out the voltage (currently assuming 12v) and amp draw from the blower motor? Also in thinking that using resistors over specced for the task at hand would result in greater resistance than intended due to using thicker wire/more winds?

As it is the heater blower still works on max, because it bypasses the resistor pack entirely.
 
Would I be correct in thinking I can work out the wattage by finding out the voltage (currently assuming 12v) and amp draw from the blower motor? Also in thinking that using resistors over specced for the task at hand would result in greater resistance than intended due to using thicker wire/more winds?
Sadly it's not quite that simple as you need to know the wattage dissipated by the resistor as it drops whatever voltage it's dropping. For that you need to know the output voltage at each stage and the current.

This is a typical calculator

Good news is you can't over-spec the power resistor, having a 20W resistor only drop 5W isn't going to affect the performance of the fan and it'll run cooler than the smaller equivalent, it'll always remain at its correct resistance (well assuming it isn't a shit one from China). It'll just be bigger and more expensive than the smaller one. Looking at the Rover kits that people used, they tied two 7W resistors together, for this you'd need to halve the resistance of each of the two. It gets messy. 20W should be more than enough and you'd probably want to round to 0.5Ω, 1Ω and 2Ω because it isn't going to make any noticeable difference.

As it is the heater blower still works on max, because it bypasses the resistor pack entirely.

Of course and that's something at least, with Scottish weather surely it's full speed all the way? :p

Strangely the Smart blower worked fine apart from max speed, which didn't work at all.
 
This mess with transition years and things reminds me why I long since came to the conclusion that I don't care much for Volvos before the 850. :D

The RWD volvos are sometimes approaching French or British levels of pain-in-the-assery when it comes to finding parts.
 
Had to do the Crimbo run up to the parent's place, so the Volvo was made less miserable to be in with the reinstating of the interior/radio/heater blower.

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This is the motor, that was as much apart as I could get it. The central shaft was rusty and deformed so the press fit fan wouldn't slide off. As the parts are NLA 30 year old plastic I didn't fancy using excessive force.
I tried getting oil down the shaft to the bearings as best I could but obviously everything is a tight fit.

Reassembled and chucked it back in the car, it's still stiff but had at least stopped squealing. Even the Bosch motor is now NLA, so it's second hand or bust, and they all suffer the same sort of water ingress issues...

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Interior went back together, working in the dark at -3C was great fun but at least the radio is stereo again.

I also did this:

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Which didn't help at all, still leaks.

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I also replaced the thermostat as the car had stopped holding it's temperature properly, so assumed it was jammed open.

New part didn't quite match the old one, which was a good sign. Same diameter though so it was going in.

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Nuts came off with the studs pre-torqued, so convinient.

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My socket set looked like this, which was ideal.

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In.

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Woo!

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Convoyed up to my parent's place with a mate who was going the same way, took the scenic route over the Cairngorms, as usual.

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Got home and one of the front tyres looks like this:

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The other is going the same way. Will get it booked into the garage to check the alignment and stick some new rubber on it 'cause something 'aint right there.

Those rural roads are brutal...

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Chucked the brick at the garage for a "pre-MOT". Essentially doing the MOT checks without it going through the system, this gives me some time to fix shit before the actual MOT at the end of March.

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Considerably less than I expected.

The washers don't work as they're blocked, I need to pull the tank out as it's full of shit.
Driver's seat does move, it's just very stiff. Clean and lube.
O/S/R door doesn't unlock with the central locking, but does open otherwise.
Welding under the car is the front floors and chassis leg. Nothing I didn't know about.

I'm also going to re-earth all the lighting components in the front left corner of the car locally and see if it stops being senile. Evidently it didn't cause an issue during testing as they must have operated the headlights and indicators separately, it's only when operating the two simultaneously that the fun begins.

Current issues:

With headlights off/DRLs/side lights:
Everything is fine.

With headlights on:
Left side indicators flash too fast
Left front indicator/sidelight/headlight all pulse together with indicator
Turning headlights on and indicating left causes rear wiper to run. It only stops when the headlights are turned off and the wiper is flicked on/off.
Activating high beam causes windscreen wipers to run. They only stop if the headlights are turned off and the wipers are flicked on/off.
Some motor in the engine bay pulses with the left hand indicators, assume headlamps washer motor.
The sole functioning headlamp wiper also occasionally does a sweep. I forget why, something to do with headlights/highbeam/indicators...

I'm guessing an earth problem is feeding back through the system, and as the car has headlamp washers that tie the lighting and wiper circuits it's causing chaos. The infamous dim-dip relay that loves to cause weird problems is already missing...

Nature threw a tree at it as well, it didn't care.

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With petrol now over £1.50 a litre obviously it's time for improving the Volvo which I can't afford to run.

The task over the weekend was to apply some structural integrity to the floors and driver's side chassis rail.

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Luckily the rust was all very localised, namely around the front jacking point/outrigger/chassis leg/floor seams. The floorpans on these often blow out at the seam for the chassis rail around the jacking points, simply due to being a mud trap in the firing line of the front wheels, my car was no exception. My car also fills with water so the floors were rotten from the inside where water had been trapped under the sound deadening. The driver's side chassis rail was full of shit and the drain was blocked, it'd trapped water and rotted from the inside out. The passenger side was fine aside from along the floor seam.

The metal on these things is so thick it's untrue, chunky as fuck. Reckon 1.2mm for the floors, 1.6 or 2mm for the chassis rails.

Being jacked up on one side gave it some temporary #stance.

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It did disgrace itself by flattening the battery though, I had to jump it with the Tronda...

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Bloody hell, what are you feeding the birds up there to make them shit cement? Nice patches anyway, starting to look like the floors in the bobtail.
 
Christ knows, that's been glued to the side of the car for weeks...

Not my finest work on the welding front, mate has a new welder and has been complaining about it's performance on thinner steel for ages. I tried it for the first time and made a right arse of stuff.

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You can see where I was blowing holes in brand new steel. I gave up at the point and let my mate seam it up as he's been using the welder for a few months welding up a POS '07 Mustang and has a better hang of it.

Tried it on the chassis rails and it did a great job but a right pain on the thinner stuff...
 
With the floors welded up the remaining MOT fails needed addressing.

The driver's seat not moving was solved when I pulled the interior out to do the welding. Simply cleared a fuck ton of hair and chocolate bar wrappers out of the runners and applied some oil.

The O/S/R door not opening was solved by telling the MOT tester to unlock it from inside first rather than relying on the central locking. I don't know why the central locking on that door doesn't work, but it doesn't.

Then the blocked windscreen washers.

Pulled the airbox out to get at the washer bottle.

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Doesn't look too bad.

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Oh. It do be that bad tho.

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Sorted.

I also found the pressure relief valve between the nozzles was jammed open, ruining the pressure.

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This was replaced with a standard T piece from the headlamp washer system. Speaking of which...

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Controversial headlamp wiper delete for MAX AERO.

Actually because only one motor ran and both plastic clips that held the blades on were broken.

While I was down around the washer bottle I also found a random unconnected wire under it which seemed to be actual factor loom. Plugging this into the earth point resolved all the headlight/indicator/sidelight madness.

I also pulled the bonnet sound deadening out for a clean because something had made a nest in it...

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Then to the MOT station (after a jump start from the Acclaim...)

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That'll do. Still needs tracking and tyres, it also lets in a lot of water...



A high tech solution testing station was rigged up at a mate's house.

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Water getting in the sunroof, around the windscreen and through the A pillar fresh air vents.

Pulled off the windscreen trims to find:

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A trim clip substituted with screen boding shit. Nice.

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And it's trapped water and caused rust. NICE.

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Not in the mood for pulling the screen on the daily beater so it had the wire wheel, rust converter, zinc primer treatment.

Ran two beads of sealent around the screen. One between the old seal and the glass, another between the old seal and the surround. Should stop some water getting in? Probably not.

Still good to use though, despite the fuel prices and it doing 25mpg? Ah, no.



That water pump pulley is about to launch itself into a low earth orbit. So awaiting a new pump and seals arriving...

Also, somebody drove into it and took a chunk out of the bumper some how. Cunt.

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Update on the beater.

New water pump was fitted.
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I managed to get the sunroof open by winding it manually and lubricated up a bit so it now opens!

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It kept pissing water into the cabin. Eventually traced to the middle of the top of the windscreen, it was leaking in and then running down the plastic trim on the edge of the headlining to whatever side of the car was lowest, then down the A pillar and into the footwells. I emptied half a tube of Sikaflex into the windscreen surround to no avail.

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I then found a solution.

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So I fired the interior back in for the first time in forever..

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Meaning it didn't have to be stored in the boot which was getting pretty chaotic...

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A neighbour also bumped it and a bit of the incredibly faded rear light lens broke off. She gave me £20 and I fitted a new one.

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I then drove the car to North Wales for the annual meet up from the Autoshite forum, ShiteFest. It was also my accommodation at the campsite.

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The following weekend me and Girlfriend_70s set off for a week long holiday on the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border.

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Ending with Festival of the Unexceptional in Lincolnshire, a car show celebrating normal cars of yesteryear.
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Once the show was over I convoyed back with some friends from the Autoshite forum who stay in the Central Belt of Scotland.

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Over 1,400 trouble free miles in a fortnight in a car from 1989. Not bad going
 
Sitrep.

This old barge came in quite handy as I moved house this year.

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Battery started to die, and being an auto it couldn't be push started when it increasingly frequently wouldn't start after being unused for a few days...

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Then it shat itself at the least convenient moment possible.

Girlfriend_70s and I had gone into Glasgow to have a nosey at some second hand furniture shops, found an idea sideboard and started carrying it back to the car. A few streets from the shop she declared she couldn't feel her hands and couldn't carry it any further. No worries, we'd made it out of the pedestrianised bit of town, so I'd dash off and get the car, drive it over and load it up at the side of the road.

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Naturally it wouldn't start. Turned over but wouldn't fire, and with the tired battery it didn't take long before it wouldn't turn over either. Shit. Phoned up a friend who lived in town and he came over and helped carry the sideboard back.

Before we rigged up the jump leads I hopped in and turned the key, fired right up like nothing was wrong...

Drove home, parked in the driveway, shut the car off. Restarted it, no issue. Fine. Left it for 30 mins, went to start it and it was back to turning over but not firing. Pulled a plug out, had spark, got Girlfriend_70s to turn it over while I sprayed some easy start into the intake and it coughed a bit. So fuel delivery issue when the car is hot...

A mate living not too far away has a 240 with the same K Jet injection system and gave me some guidance on how it worked. Found out if the car was turned over and I jammed a hex key into the mix adjust screw on the air intake arm and jiggled it about the car would start and run fine. So you could work around the issue but required two people... We then tested the fuel pressure, which was fine when running but wouldn't hold when the car shut off.

To be fair I haven't spent any money on this thing aside from basic servicing and it's done a fair few trouble free miles now so I figured I'd put in some effort. I started by washing it:

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It has lichen growing in the paint which I can't get rid of. My best hope is that be repeatedly washing it with scotch brite (the only thing that'll shift it) after a few decades it'll be back to being metallic grey as it was when new...

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New battery was acquired, new wiper blades fitted and the rear wiper motor refitted. Then I cleaned up inside the air balancing flap bit on the injection system, I also re-centred the plate as it was sticking if it dropped down too far.

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The PCV system on these is adept at feeding oily gunk into the chamber...

I was certain this would fix the issue, the plate was sticking as it'd expand a bit when warm and ruin the mixture. Nope, made no difference.

So I set about getting at the plunger that lives in the metering head which controls the fuel mix, which could also be sticking.

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These weren't for moving so I wrestled the whole unit off the car:

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Cleaned everything and got everything moving freely again without actually taking the metering head apart. I've also ordered some new O rings for the primary pressure regulator from a place specialising in, of all things, DeLorean parts.

The fuel pressure dropping is either the failure of the fuel pump accumulator or the pump one-way valve. Hopefully the valve as the accumulators seem to be expensive. That shouldn't cause the car to completely not run though, it'd just require longer cranking to bring fuel up from the tank. That's not the cause of my issue (although it won't help), because we shorted out the pump to run constantly and it still wouldn't fire with the system pressurised.

I also have to fit a blower motor from a 940, as the original one is seized to the point it won't run and is too rusty to come apart, not ideal in winter... And having a beater with heated seats it is a bit silly it's not working when it's currently -3C...

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There's no post reaction that fits well enough to that. I've been looking at Rover V8s on and off and I've always fancied one with carbs, all the suggestions are to go EFI though. I'd actually rather have something I can adjust, clean and just straight up replace if I'm given the choice.

I'd say that your cars need solar panels but there's no excuse now you have power right there. If I can keep the batteries of 3 cars in good condition using cheap solar panels off Amazon you can damn well keep them charged when you have access to mains. :razz:
 
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