'Zeb' - (Not a Classic) Bloggy!

[TerryG]

Spoil sport, i was thinking more along the lines of this:

now that's what i call agility

[JPB]

Ah! Canines. Cool. Phew.

[Paul240480]

lol sorry to have dissapointed you two

During summer of 09, some visitors bought over a few parts for me. Volvo OE dizzy-cap, rotor, spark plugs & oil filter along with a Nordic air filter. These were fitted, Zeb' had covered 9k since purchase so oil was very nearly at it's due time.

In September I received a cambelt & auxiliary belt from FRF Volvo in Swansea. I decided to replace only the belts, as there was no noise from any of the pulleys or water pump & no signs of any leakage. I took a gamble on being able to press the pin back in on the tensioner.......... Elaine was on summer leave so I had time if things went 'pear shaped' on me. It was going so well.............. the tensioner pin went back in. I gently pressed it in using my workmate bench with a little metal bar over the pin to stop it sinking into the bench rather than pressing back in. The trick here is slowly slowly. I spent about 20 mins over this.

Moving on to refitting the belt..........could I get the damn thing on Tried feeding it on from below, then by starting at the top. About an hour or so of trying I just could'nt figure out what I was doing wrong. Then get the old belt & marry them up:

Two different sizes of belt I'd been sent one for a 10v engine & Zeb's a 20v

A quick phone call & the correct belt was on its way. I needed to send the incorrect one back & my account was credited for £5 to cover postage. It was lucky for us the car wasn't needed in a rush.

A couple of days on & the correct belt was received & fitted. A quick spin of the engine by hand (plugs out) showed all was well. Plugs in, fire up & Zeb was purring & burbling once again

[Paul240480]

Not long after the cambelt change, that rear brake began to squeal again Didn't take long to sort though, out with the pads, clean up another smattering of copper-slip on the rear & all was, once more quiet. Only putting off the inevitable, of course

As Zeb was to be a doggy mobile, I needed a dog guard & a tailgate guard. Dog guard was easy, a call to Braydons in London & they sourced one from there yard. £75 delivered if I wanted......... well neared to £200 for a new one.. no brainer! For the tailgate Barjo are about the only makers - they wanted about £300 to deliver one. So it was time to buy some wood! After a bit of measuring & a few dys of work, I made this:


Not perfect, but it does the job. Also great at competitions as we can leave the dogs locked in the 'cage' safely with boot open for ventilation

Crimbo 09 was coming up & thoughts were with getting prezzies to our family. We decided to deliver them this year! Zeb was performing well. I decided another oil change would be prudent, we were now at 150k. We set off for the tunnel at Calais........... around 16/12/09. Not far into Normandy & snow began. One lane only open on the motorway. Oh 'eck, we were picking up, all be it very 'crackly' BBS Radio 2 & the forecast wasn't good About a mile or so into the snow, I saw, not 1 but 2 gritters coming down the slip. I let them in ahead of me & they positioned themselves, one in each lane. I gave them a good gap, but followed as they cleared the road for me

We made it to Calais, where we had booked a room in a b&b motel along with our 3 pooches, who slept in the room in their foldy up kennels

Next morning we nipped to the tunnel, booked the dogs in & boarded. All very easy. Once off in England at around 1000hrs, we were straight onto the motorway. What snow we thought........15 miles on & it was at a stand still. Jack-knifed lorries everywhere We nosed to tailed it all the way to the M25, round the M25 & most of the M1. A three or so hour journey to my folks in Derby................. we arrived at approx 1900hrs! The good news was that Zeb' never flinched . That night was the night that those poor souls were stuck in the tunnel

Next morning, I was off for some front tyres, making the most of the lower prices. A couple of Roadstone 'all seasons' tyres were fitted for £100.

The break soon continued in the way it had started. Elaine fell ill & the tunnel remained closed. They could not guarantee our return would be honoured, so I cancelled & got a refund. We booked ourselves onto a ferry from Portsmouth to Caen. . More snow was forecast, so we decided to cut & run. Elaine was due to return to work on the weds, so we set off on the mon' planning an overnight at my aunts in Basingstoke. Good ol' Aunt . Not long into the journey, the heavens opened & we found ourselves in a near 'white out'. We left at midday ish & at 2200hrs, after a Burger-King supper, we bedded down for the night in the car at Fleet Services The only saving grace was that Elaine had the foresight to pack our sleeping bags & with three radiators in the boot (dogs) we were toasty warm, whilst others had to run engines to stay warm.

[Paul240480]

Next morning, most of the snow had gone. We continued straight down to Pompey & gave the dogs a run on Portsdown Hill. Then stopped at Sainburys, Farlington for 'goodies' & onwards to the Ferry. Evening arrival in Caen, thick fog ! This stayed with us all the way home. Could anything else go pear-shaped during this 'week away'? Fortunately it did not. On the bright side, despite hours & hours of nose to tail, with many cars giving out on the hard shoulder, Zeb performed faultlessly

I had a few months of 'peace' before Elaine came in one evening to say that the handbrake had 'packed up'. It had completely failed, with the lever pulled tight I could easily push the car
I read up that a common fail on these models is that the friction parts of the handbrake shoes separate from the shoe itself! This was really a good 'kick up the bum' to get the rear brakes sorted. I, for a quick delivery ordered Bendix discs & handbrake shoes, along with Bosch pads from Mister Auto (a frenchy online shop). I went for the Bosch pads as they came with anti-squeal shims included. 48hr delivery was true to it's promise. Fitting went well. The friction parts of the shoes had indeed separated, in fact in one they had gone completely. Once fitted a quick adjustment of the handbrake & all was, once more well.

In May Zeb suffered a break down Only about 4 miles from home, he suffered complete 'shut down'. One minute rolling along happily, then engine died with, of course loss of 'power everything'. Not nice & I was glad I wasn't in the fast lane on the motorway!

I tried to get him going, but failed. I suspected fuel pump relay as I could not hear the fuel pump priming when ignition was switched on. This was really a guess going on my knowledge of 'Tank', my 240. This was a call out job, I thought about towing him home with 'Tank', but I have the 'cover' so why not use it?

40 mins or so later the truck arrived. I explained the symptoms. The mec' tried to start up & then asked if I wanted to go to the garage or home. I opted for home.

The next morning having looked on the forums, it sounded as if I was thinking in the right direction. I pulled the fuel pump relay & bridged terminals 15 & 87 with a 'modified' paper clip. If the car starts, the relay is dead........................ Zeb refused to start Bad news, that meant the in tank pump was dead

I called Volvo in Vannes for a quote (supply only), 528€ I called FRF Volvo in Wales £280 ish delivered Another option was Eurocarparts who could order a replacement pump to fit into the existing housing for £100 ish.......... getting better.

I decided to give the yards a try. I went to my 'usual' yard & there were about 5 or 6 850's present All 5 had the in tank pump taken I did find 2 relays & took them for 5€ though.

Then I recalled going to a small yard, not too far away that I'd tried some years back when hunting for 240 headlamps. I managed to find it. They told me that they had one Volvo. Not feeling too hopeful I went to look. It was an 850! Better still it had the pump still in place & the relay was there too. I thought I'd give it a go. I removed it completed with the housing & took the relay off too. In the office they said, "40€ please". If it worked this was a bargain!

I took it home & fitted it. Ignition on & I heard the satifsfying whirr of the pump priming the system. Fired up & Zeb burst into life. Phew!

[Paul240480]

So, another oil change was made at 157k. Then I decided to make one of those code readers from alarm wire, paper clips & an LED that I'd seen on the Voc forum. Quite easy to 'knock up'. On testing it I got a code 2-1-2. This related to a faulty Lambda. I cleared the code & waited. Sure enough a week or later 2-1-2 had re-appeared. I ordered a new Lambda & fitted it. Code after, was 1-1-1 Weird thing is that at no time did the Lambda light in the dash show? I'm wondering if a previous keeper had removed the bulb to hide the fault. I have a load of replacement dash bulbs - just need a smattering of courage to do the job. The clock/computer light has blown, making it not visible during night time driving...

Next was to fit a towbar & 12n electrics. I got this from A1 towbars in Nottingham. £115 delivered. Fitting took me about a day. The kit was supplied with 'scotchlocks' for the wiring. They were ditched in favour of soldering

Shortly after this I paid a visit to a mechanic who had set up over here, just so Zeb' could be given the 'once over'. Steve the mec' had already done some work on 'Tank' for me & I was very pleased with his service. He diagnosed:
1) Top engine mounting bush was 'fubared'
2) Anti Roll bar drop-links were 'dead' - this was the cause of an annoying 'clonking' at slow speeds on rough roads.
3) Front brake flexi hoses were begining to perish
4) Suggested that brake discs be re-newed at next pad change.
5) Exhaust - rusty & suspected that the baffles had collapsed inside the silencer - explaining it being a tad 'throaty' when revved.

So, all in all not too bad I thought.

[TerryG]

5) Exhaust - rusty & suspected that the baffles had collapsed inside the silencer - explaining it being a tad 'throaty' when revved.

Is that a bad thing?

[JPB]

5) Exhaust - rusty & suspected that the baffles had collapsed inside the silencer - explaining it being a tad 'throaty' when revved.

Is that a bad thing?

+1.

That IL five has a lovely note so, unless the baffles are actually rattling, perhaps it's best left alone?

[Paul240480]

indeed the engine note of these 'white blocks' is fab'. The exhaust is not leaking, so leave it be

I ordered a superflex poly-bush for top engine mount & some drop-links from GSF & got on with fitting them.

Poly bush was first:
Having got the bracket undone & lifted out of the way, I could clearly see that it was indeed erm.... worn slightly shall we say?

I passed my hack saw blade through the bush to cut out the liner, which on these is a very hard plastic. You just need to remember to stop once you hit metal

Once cut through the liner should come out, if not make a 2nd cut about a centimetre away from the 1st & push it out with a screwdriver:

Then a quick clean up to allow the two halves of the poly bush to slip in easily, one from either side:

Then the metal tube with some of the supplied lube:

Replace the bracket & nip up the nut & bolt that goes through the tube

And job done:


Another little jobby ticked off of list...................

[Luxobarge]

Thanks Paul - excellent pictures too!

Where did you get the Polybush from?

(you know what I'm thinking here.....)

Cheers