Running wires

This week, prior to doing the actual swapping of the rear end and transmission, I'll need to run some wires for the speedo signal. In the '86, these wires are part of a whole loom, and not easily separated from the rest of the group. So I figured that instead of ripping them out, I'd just run my own. While I'm running those I'll probably also run another for the rear fogs, since I have a switch from the '86 for them... But I digress. I tried finding a wiring diagram for the speedo online, but what I did find didn't look very helpful. The speedo plug has 3 wires - black, blue and red/black, while the sender only has the black and blue. So I figure the red/black is a power wire of some kind, but I've got to figure out if it's a 12v switched or stepped down somehow before I go splicing in and scorching electronics.

At the very least I can get the bare wires plumbed into the car and put into the approximate locations before anything else happens, anyway. I wonder if I should think about running some amp wire as well while I have the carpet pulled up and seat out for this... Hmm. I may have to do just that.

Oh and I'll have to rain-x as well because I HATE HATE HATE using my wipers. Bah humbug.

Time to make the swap

For the last month or so I've been planning to swap transmissions on Yeti. I think this week will be the week to actually do it. I got the rear end out of moomoo last week, all of my parts have arrived to do a little R&R on the engine, and I'll have a 4-day weekend so I should be able to get it all done with time to spare. At least, that's the plan!

Long Update

So I haven't updated in a while, mainly because of a LOT of life changes that I may or may not get around to posting over on Drunken Ramblings, but regardless I'm here updating now so be happy and stuff.

My last posts were about the 850 and the maroon project car (hereafter referred to as 'moomoo'), and possibly about Beige Betty. Well the 850 is gone, the project car is being torn apart, and Betty is pretty much the same as before, albeit now with an AW71 and a new rear main seal (and leak-free as a result!) My current DD is the Yellow Yeti, which has been referenced before as a Yellow Box. It has some fairly significant upgrades, one of which is a full 3" exhaust made by yours truly. However, at the moment it's got some issues, the biggest of which is the lack of reverse.

The transmission itself works fine - as in, it shifts in and out of gears without catching and going forward is fine. However, put it in reverse and it just sits there and spins. If you're on a FLAT (and I do mean _flat_) area, it'll start to think about going backwards, after a while. So I researched it and it turns out there's a cone clutch in the overdrive, and this is the cuprit in this situation. Oddly enough this same overdrive clutch completely failed in my first Volvo, a 1981 242, which necessitated replacing the transmission as well. So this weekend (well, my weekend, from wednesday to saturday) will be spent pulling the running gear from moomoo and transplanting it into Yeti.

This will include the transmission, flywheel, clutch, throwout bearing, pressure plate, driveline, rear end, and speedometer. Why the rear and and speedometer, you ask? Well because the '83 has a cable-driven speedo, and the '86 does not. I could swap out the tailshaft, but Yeti's rear end has a rumble that I think is bearing related, so I'll just do the whole thing. Plus I want to tap into the signal for the speedo for a HUD project, and having all of that in the car for testing will make it easier to actually do it.

And then there's the flywheel and clutch. When I bought moomoo I had to do the clutch, so it should still be in fairly good condition. We'll see though, and I'm hoping and praying (though research seems to suggest that they'll interchange) that the B230 flywheel will fit the B23, because the B230 flywheel is different and the clutch won't swap without it.

What else? Oh yeah, while I'm in there I'll replace the rear main. And probably pick then engine up a bit and pull the oil pan to replace that gasket as well, because it's leaking badly from *somewhere*, and while the pan is off I should probably drill the boss for a turbo oil return... And do the front seals too, maybe even drop in the B cam from the '86. And do the timing belt. You know, basic stuff. While completely replacing the majority of the drivetrain.

Yep, totally doable in a few days, right?

More Yellow Box

Yellow box got put back together today.  Harness was reinstalled, timing was set, and it still failed to start.  I traced it down to the ecu not seeing that the engine was cranking, and found that the ecu itself might be bad.  Probably my fault since it WAS working before I started fucking with the harness.  Looking for a replacement ecu now.

Then there are a few other issues that need attention, main one being a bad heater blower motor.  I REALLY should have asked/checked this before buying it, but I figured that it was a minor corrosion issue with the fuses and/or ground.  Son of a bitch.  Anyway, I suppose it's time for me to swap one out, since I haven't EVER had to do it in nearly 20 years of Volvo ownership.  After that it needs a few minor interior pieces and some speakers.

It's a good little car, I like it.

Fixing a Yellow Box

So Yellow Box had a small engine fire.  Not my car, but now my problem to fix because I caused it.  Posted on OVT about getting a new harness, and got a hit - but when I picked up the harness it wasn't the right one.  Looks like it was for a k-jet car, not LH.  However, the ignition harness that came with it was for a bosch distributor instead of the chrysler piece of crap, so I grabbed one of my spare distributors out of my stash and installed that.  Then I went about fixing the old harness, because I looked through the records that came with the car and the harness in the car was only about 5 years old - which for a 27 year old car was FABULOUS.

While the pic of the harness LOOKS bad, it was really only singed in a few places, and only one connector was unusable (which was on the ignition harness, which I swapped).  When I cut off the sheathing the wires underneath were absolutely perfect.  Some of the insulation was slightly bonded to the sheathing, but I was able to cut it all off and make it perfect.  And then I reinstalled it.

An upside to taking the intake manifold off to get to the harness was that it revealed that the car DID, IN FACT have a vacuum leak.  The intake manifold gasket at #1 was nastified and broken (nowhere near where the fire was worst, so that wasn't the cause).  The intake tube was also melted, but I'm pretty sure THAT was due to the fire...luckily I have a spare from my maroon 245.  I picked up the parts for that today, and I should have it back together and running this weekend.

THEN I can start on the other 3 cars I have to fix...  Betty needs a transmission mount, the 850 needs a valve replacement, and Roon needs to be finished.  Sheesh.

For Sale: Volvo, not on fire (at the moment)

Okay kidding, it's not for sale.  But it WAS on fire.  I was sussing out a possible vacuum leak with brake cleaner (it's flammable, so any vacuum leaks would suck fluid in and change the engine note) and pretty much coating the intake side of the engine bay of Yellow Box...  I must have sprayed down the distributor a LITTLE too much because just as I was deciding that there wasn't a vacuum leak the whole thing WOOFED up in a fireball.  I dropped the brake cleaner can and ran to the other garage for an extinguisher (I didn't realize there was one not 5 feet away) and got it out before it did too much damage.

No pics of the carnage though, I was too pissed at myself afterwards to even think of it.  I'll be doing the fixes I was planning beforehand regardless, and then making sure that the harness is still good.  I have a line on a replacement, so if it turns out that the harness needs replacing, I can get that done without much fuss.

The Yellow Box

Today I went and picked up a car for a friend.  It's a 1983 Volvo 245, sorta nicknamed 'Yellow Box.'  It had been sitting for a while and both the owners and the place they donated it to basically wanted it to go away, so the price was very right.  It definitely needs a bit of TLC before it'll be a good daily for her, but with my expertise on hand it shouldn't take much before it's ready for prime time.  I was a little worried today when driving it home, it started to have a couple of electrical issues, but about halfway home things cleared up so I'm going to attribute all of the problems it has to simply sitting too long.

Battery was nearly dead after sitting, jumping it with Betty

  I figure a good bath and an engine bay steam cleaning are in order, then I'll get it into the garage to poke around a little more invasively before providing her with a list of parts that need to be acquired before I'll feel comfortable turning over the keys.  She really wants a quirky yet reliable Volvo, and I think this fits the bill.  Apparently she fell in love (or at least a great like) with them back when we were dating, and my '79 - though she deemed it a 'scary' car - was the onus for such feelings.

It definitely needs some tailgate love, the fuse area requires a good cleansing, and I may have to get the rotors turned due to the rusticles that attached themselves to the car after sitting so long.  However the outside of the car is fairly straight, interior is somewhat rough but good in the areas that matter, and it drives pretty nicely.  Hopefully this will be the car that gives her the volvo 'bug', just like my 1981 242 did back in the day.

A big update.

I spent a couple of months basically not doing ANYTHING to either car.  I was simply driving Betty around, and my maroon 245 sat over at my parents place so long you can see it in the backyard in Google Maps.  Whoops.

The weather kindof turned bad, and I realized that if it was sitting outside I'd NEVER get around to working on it, so during a break in the weather a couple of weeks ago I cleaned out the garage a bit and pushed Roon (new name, what do you think?) inside so I could actually DO something eventually.

Since then, I've gotten quite a bit of work done, so at least my plan is coming together somewhat.  I finally started wiring up the MegaSquirt, and figured out a few things I did wrong with the alarm/keyless entry, cleaned up and painted a few odds and ends, and test-fitted a '93 850 front spoiler.  I'll include a few pics here, but for the rest hit up my flickr set for this project.

In other volvo-related news, Betty needs a tranny flush and a new speedo cable - and while I have the tranny fluid out due to the cable replacement, I might as well replace the pan gasket and do an accumulator mod...but honestly I don't know if I want to put that much work into the stupid automatic.  Maybe, but... I don't know.  I guess if I do this work it'll be easier to sell later, but I absolutely LOATHE automatics.  If it were a manual I'd have bought the parts and done the whole shebang by now.

In fact, I'm kindof keeping an eye out for an 850 wagon with a manual transmission.  Specifically, a '95 due to the fact that they weren't OBD compliant, so I can pull the computers and MegaSquirt/Turbo it without worrying about DEQ.  But that would be something to do AFTER I get Roon done and the GF's 850 fixed.  Which, will have to be soon since it has to do the DEQ thing before the end of the month and it still has a Cyl1 misfire (possibly burnt valve).  I may be able to clear the codes immediately prior to hitting DEQ so that I can fix it on my own timeline, but that may be iffy due to how quickly the code pops up after clearing.  We'll see if that's possible.

Hopefully I'll update more often now that I'm actually working on things. :D

Lots of stuff but...not.

I guess I didn't live up to my promise of being more wordy, did I?  Ah well.  I haven't really made much progress in the past week or so either, at least not on the maroon car, anyway.  I removed the intake manifold and did a little painting on the block (gold, of course).  Then we had a garage sale and most of the week was taken up by that, so no car stuff.  Until I needed to replace the heater hoses on Betty, anyway.  Then I replaced a motor mount on the 850, found a horribly ripped intercooler hose - after I'd already come home from iPd, of course - and replaced that a couple of days later...  The 850 runs MUCH better now, though we're still getting the misfire code, so a Seafoam/Chinese Water Torture is in order there.  Betty is doing well as my DD, and I'll get back under the hood of my maroon 245 shortly.  Ordered some exhaust and oil feed parts from Summit Racing the other day, so everything should be coming together nicely very shortly.

Spare 245 takes over DD status

A few things since the last time I updated.  Got a trip permit for the 85 (which I have since christened 'Beige Betty'), got it through DEQ, figured out the titling issues, installed different wheels, plugged the roof rack and antenna holes, got a couple of trim peices, and did some painting.  It's actually looking quite not bad now:

So as it sits it has taken over as my DD, while the issues with the maroon '86 (which I have not named as of yet) get sorted out.  Parental units have returned, but the motorhome has not blocked my access quite yet so I have some time to get the '86 worked on.  Father bought a welder, I brought out my collection of 3" pipe bends, cat and muffler, and found that I need very little if any cutting to happen to get a full 3" exhaust on the car.  So that shall be my project for the next week - learning how to weld (on a Lincoln 125), and then using that skill to weld up my first exhaust.  Fun!

What else?  Well not much until I get the exhaust done.  Perhaps a drive out to Milwaukee to get some parts off of another wagon (namely lock cylinders for the '85)?  Then the kids this weekend...  I wonder what the ex will think of this car now that I've reclaimed it and fixed it up a little?  At least I don't have to depend on her to find the title any longer.

Cars and Goals

So the current stable has a 1986 245 DL, a 1997 855 GLT, and a 1985 245 DL.  The '86 is my project DD, with coilovers and 17" wheels and a few engine and interior mods, and more stuff planned.  The '97 is the GF's daily, and other than stage 0 there really aren't that many plans for it.  The '85 currently has title issues, but I just might make it a DD while I turbo and megasquirt and otherwise wrench on the '86.

However, I'd really like something newer at some point.  So I'm thinking I might see about picking up a '95 855 Turbo.  Why not newer than '95?  Because of course I'm going to be fucking with it.  OBDII gets fairly invasive, and that starts in '96.  I want a manual car, probably megasquirted, and when you get past '96 it gets harder to make that kind of thing happen.  It's doable, but I'm on a budget and I don't mind getting my hands dirty.

Eventually I'd make the '86 a track bitch of some kind, DD my 850, sell the '85 and let the GF do whatever she wanted to the GLT.  That's what I'm thinking for now, anyway.  We'll see how this all pans out.  In the next week or two I'm hoping to get a couple of steps further with the '86 AND the '85, so expect some updates on that front in a few days.