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?

AND IT RUNS!

But I'm SUCH an idiot.  Turns out it wasn't the ECU after all.  There was a fuse that I had checked, and checked again, that wasn't fully connecting and so thus it wasn't giving the ECU a full 12v.  Thing is, when I checked the pin on the ECU that this fuse supplies, it WAS giving 12v.  The only time it wasn't, was when I was trying to start the damned car.  After I got that going I almost immediately pulled the car out of the garage and put it in the side yard so I can pressure wash the engine bay again.  But first - I needed to replace the transmission mount on Betty.  So I did that.  And DAMN did that make a difference in the way Betty drives.  I can't even begin to tell you how much better it is now.

Then I cleaned up the garage and folded up the ginormous tarp that I'd laid out on the floor to keep things from messing up my parents' garage, and headed out back to work on Roon a bit.  Now that the walbro is installed and the fuel fumes are gone, I could grind off the old wastegate arm on the turbo and reweld it to where I needed it to be.  So I did that.  I'll go back tomorrow and take some pics.  I DO need to pick up a circlip or some manner of restraining device for the gate though.  Bad thing is that my braided drain hose decided it didn't want to be married to the -AN ends any longer, so now I think I'll just find some high-temp hose that will work in that location.  Fitting braided lines together without the proper tools is a HUGE pain in the ass.

And that was it for my car work today.  Accomplished a fair amount, and that makes me happy.

Bah, humbug!

Figured out today that Yellow Box, does, in fact, need a new ECU.  Apparently the fuel circuit has a tendency to blow up, especially if you aren't extraordinarily careful how you unplug the ECU.  My bad.

So I posted about needing a new ECU, then went to go work on Roon.  I got the exhaust manifold bolted up, with new studs on the T3 flange, fixed a bent stud on the turbo wastegate, and at some point decided to swap in the walbro 255lph fuel pump.  That was probably the worst idea I'd had all day.  I got the old pump out of the tank okay, and attached the walbro to the brackets all nice, but the sock and isolator on the bottom of the pump weren't staying on very well.  Anyone who has done this job knows that it takes some contorting of the pump assembly to get it back into the car, so the fact that those were kinda loose needed to be rectified.  I attempted to glue the isolator down (it goes over the sock) but I was impatient and didn't let it set long enough, so my first attempt ended with both the sock and isolator in the bottom of the tank.  After fishing those out, I decided a zip-tie lengthwise around the pump would hold things together a little better.  Well, it did...but while pushing the assembly down into the tank the fuel level sender ball popped off into the tank.

I eventually got the ball back, and tried again.  THIS time the isolator and sock came off again, only the sock didn't fall into the swirl tank area, but rather decided to float (thank god for that) off into the recesses of the tank.  I FINALLY got the fuel swished around enough (after about a half-hour or so) to bring the sock back to where I could see it - and thus grab it with my improvised tongs.  At that point I decided the isolator was the root of all evil, and tossed it aside.  I got the resulting assembly into the tank without fuss and called it a night.

I tell you though, I was ->THIS<- close to lighting a flare and tossing it into the tank a couple of times.  Now I've got to delete the main pump, replace the filter and the fuel system will be done.  It's gonna be fun to get this car complete and tuned.  I'm hoping for an honest 300hp/tq, but I'll have to be careful in 3rd gear else I'll have a transmission swap to do (and I have a stronger spare in the garage!)

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.