Beater Volvo 240 and it's quest against the odds to visit all 50 states
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The two blank squares really make the dash look basic and mundane. In a way, this lack of instumentation was calming in a "if you don't know, it's fine" sort of way, but still super boring.
I love the way this thing looks! Having a small OE VDO gauge like that reminds me of being in one of the sporty VWs or my uncle's Fiat X-19. I'm not saying this car is sporty by any means, but the this little add-on really gives me a vibe.
not to mention time consuming!
I love the way this thing looks! Having a small OE VDO gauge like that reminds me of being in one of the sporty VWs or my uncle's Fiat X-19. I'm not saying this car is sporty by any means, but the this little add-on really gives me a vibe.
not to mention time consuming!
Right?! I love the triple gauge pod. It looks great. Don't get me wrong, but having the radio behind the shifter would be so annoying! It's probably not as bad with a simple OE unit, but there's no way I'd be able to navigate an aftermarket head unit and keep my eyes on the road.Back in 85 it seems Volvo was all about gauges too....
View attachment 64914
Such a shit location for the radio
Yeah with the way things work with voice commands/apps/phone ui these days, I wonder if there's a way to rig this up with Carplay/AA and not steal that cubby which I've gotten used to using a lot. Maybe some of the glovebox could be sacrificed, or the center compartment that I always break to smithereens in no time, I don't know.
Or just throw the two ion pathfinders in the back and give no fucks. Seems like it'd be a pretty bricky thing to do.
EDIT also can you imagine it's an analog tuner back there in that spot where they used to put the head unit? Unbelievable what our ancestors overcame.
Or just throw the two ion pathfinders in the back and give no fucks. Seems like it'd be a pretty bricky thing to do.
EDIT also can you imagine it's an analog tuner back there in that spot where they used to put the head unit? Unbelievable what our ancestors overcame.
Lol! I went full TB on my first wagon. I liked that I could keep the dash all 80s and hide the modern stuff.
...But not for the typical Volvo mod. I was 100% TB in college. I got this sick Sunpro digital tach for $10 from one friend and this upper pocket from another friend for a polar pop.
We were doing some wedding planning today. When I heard that we were being offered complementary valet service at the fancy downtown hotel. I couldn't help but laugh my ass off when pulling up behind this murdered out Rolls and preparing to hand the old Volvo keys to the nicely dressed man at the doors.
All irony aside, that rolls was hot! I wish I could have snapped better pics.
Then this guy showed up. I don't speak Benz, but it looked pretty sharp.
I still wouldn't trade Moose for either one. He's like a loyal old dog. He's a slow and quiet good boy.
Okay... I might trade for that Rolls, but as soon as it needed maintenance I'd be selling it back to buy several 240s, 80s turbo GM junk, and Camaro parts. Damn, I'm a trashy SOB!
All irony aside, that rolls was hot! I wish I could have snapped better pics.
Then this guy showed up. I don't speak Benz, but it looked pretty sharp.
I still wouldn't trade Moose for either one. He's like a loyal old dog. He's a slow and quiet good boy.
Okay... I might trade for that Rolls, but as soon as it needed maintenance I'd be selling it back to buy several 240s, 80s turbo GM junk, and Camaro parts. Damn, I'm a trashy SOB!
Moose assisted in tucking Ginny into hibernation this weekend.
I also started diagnosing an issue that has always bothered me. The rear dome light doesn't work. It makes loading an unloading the rear a lot more difficult in the dark. The front dome light works just fine, but it's not strong enough to illuminate the whole car.
This got ultra frustrating pretty quickly. It didn't have power nor ground. Sweet. Two problems. I had replaced the old door switch a few months ago since the spring broke in it, but I figured I would check again. It turns out that the connector was bad. Sweet. I'll crimp on a new one.
I put it back together, checked for ground at the lamp while playing with the switch, and discovered no change. WTF
I wish I had a picture of it, but I took the new switch out again to find out that this one had broken. This POS is held together by a slightly mushroomed piece of plastic. If the mushroom lets go, the whole thing falls apart. These are unfortunately all built the same regardless of brand so instead of buying yet another junk switch I hot-rodded this one.
A couple well placed dabs of JB did the trick. Let's hope it lasts at least long enough for me to see this light work.
While this was drying, Allie complained that the rear dome light was on the whole time she was driving to work. That's odd! That night I went poking around again. I found that the light still works, but only with the key in the on position. That makes zero sense, especially since the front dome light is supposed to be on the same circuit. I then went under the dash, unplugged the only connector between the fuse block and the rear dome light, and noticed that the light remained on.
This wiring is MESSED UP. I'm going to throw the door switch back in as intended, but I'm probably not about to dig in much further. I'm thinking about splicing off the front dome light power and running a new wire to the back above the headliner. This will not make the lights work as designed, but they will work independently as needed.
I also started diagnosing an issue that has always bothered me. The rear dome light doesn't work. It makes loading an unloading the rear a lot more difficult in the dark. The front dome light works just fine, but it's not strong enough to illuminate the whole car.
This got ultra frustrating pretty quickly. It didn't have power nor ground. Sweet. Two problems. I had replaced the old door switch a few months ago since the spring broke in it, but I figured I would check again. It turns out that the connector was bad. Sweet. I'll crimp on a new one.
I put it back together, checked for ground at the lamp while playing with the switch, and discovered no change. WTF
I wish I had a picture of it, but I took the new switch out again to find out that this one had broken.
This POS is held together by a slightly mushroomed piece of plastic. If the mushroom lets go, the whole thing falls apart. These are unfortunately all built the same regardless of brand so instead of buying yet another junk switch I hot-rodded this one.A couple well placed dabs of JB did the trick. Let's hope it lasts at least long enough for me to see this light work.
While this was drying, Allie complained that the rear dome light was on the whole time she was driving to work.
That's odd! That night I went poking around again. I found that the light still works, but only with the key in the on position. That makes zero sense, especially since the front dome light is supposed to be on the same circuit. I then went under the dash, unplugged the only connector between the fuse block and the rear dome light, and noticed that the light remained on.This wiring is MESSED UP. I'm going to throw the door switch back in as intended, but I'm probably not about to dig in much further. I'm thinking about splicing off the front dome light power and running a new wire to the back above the headliner. This will not make the lights work as designed, but they will work independently as needed.
I gave up on the lighting issue. Once I realized that I dove into an issue much bigger than I anticipated, I started focusing on more important stuff.
Also, we went on another road trip! Moose visited his 6th state with us.
...and the 7th.
I think there was some sort of Bronco gathering going on while we were in the Smokies because I had never seen so many first gens in my life.
Massive centipede is big nope.
The new chairlift and glass sky bridge in Gatlinburg are pretty cool. I remember feeling scared on the old lift (pre-fire), but the new one is so smooth that you can't help but feel safe.
Helped a little friend cross the road.
And now we're home. What a champ! Does he do WELL in the mountains? No, but he gets where you need to go.
Also, we went on another road trip! Moose visited his 6th state with us.
...and the 7th.
I think there was some sort of Bronco gathering going on while we were in the Smokies because I had never seen so many first gens in my life.
Massive centipede is big nope.
The new chairlift and glass sky bridge in Gatlinburg are pretty cool. I remember feeling scared on the old lift (pre-fire), but the new one is so smooth that you can't help but feel safe.
Helped a little friend cross the road.
And now we're home. What a champ! Does he do WELL in the mountains? No, but he gets where you need to go.
In case you thought this car was not still consistently on-duty, I greet you from Cermak Plaza!
We hit another big milestone on the way up too. That's a lot of twos.
We hit another big milestone on the way up too. That's a lot of twos.
Haha Same here! It's making me sad that it stopped giving itself full credit though. The odometer was not counting any miles for the first hour of the trip home. I'm probably going to try replacing a capacitor again like I did with the tachometer. Considering that this only seems to happen at the beginning of trips when it's cold outside, I think that's a fairly solid diagnosis.
Remember all that trouble I went through trying to get that little tach to work? A similar but more drawn out quest has been attempting to fix the intermittent odometer function. I can't tell you how many times I've had the cluster out of the car to replace gears, inspect for debris, and reflow solder joints without any noticeable success. You can mark my words. Today is the last time!
I gained a theory while I was driving home from Lisle pouting about the lack of credit the car was giving itself for the trip. I had not seen this issue float to the surface since about March, and the trip from Lisle to Indy happened to be the coldest morning it had experienced since then. Why would an electric circuit board care about normal ambient temp swings? Here me out. Think about a battery. Batteries degrade in the heat, but don't need nearly as much grunt to function in those months as they do in the winter time. By the time the cold shows up, the damage is done. That's why we usually have to do replace batteries when we are the least inclined to do so! What do we use in circuit boards that are essentially the same as a battery? Capacitors!
I'm going to look for one on the odo board. To be honest, I don't even know for sure that it has one. However, after reflowing all the solder joints within the last year i can't imagine this issue being anything else.
My Temp Faker bypass is still holding up nicely. This is the second little modification I did to this car and highly recommended for any 240. I don't believe I ever covered this, so I'll talk about it really quickly while I'm here.
Temp Faker. I'm serious. Look at the print on top of the gauge! Volvo's VDO temp gauge in reality only has 5 positions. Cold, kinda cold, operating temp, overheating, and very hot are all you get. When everything is working right, it will appear to work like a normal gauge. The Temp Faker circuit board will make the needle move slow enough that it appears to move very fluidly. My understanding is that the reason they had to do this was so that every gauge would display at exactly 9 o clock when at operating temp. Not only was it an aesthetic thing, but they didn't want customers complaining about the car overheating or overcooling when the car was actually working fine.
That's all worthless today. After 30 years of these cars hitting bumps and jumping curbs, things are starting to rattle loose including the Temp Faker circuit board. The bad connection will cause the temp on the gauge to slowly rise up past operating temp and scare the crap out of you. You can be a dingus and solder it into place, but that's silly and difficult to diagnose inevitable issues in the future. The temp sensor provides a normal sweeping resistance for a typical temp gauge and the gauge itself in the cluster is actually normal as well. It just has that stupid board in between, so I removed it and soldered a wire between the two gauge pins. Viola!
Anyway, that's old news. Back to the odometer. Here she is! I don't miss being in here, but I am very pleased to have found something with my new knowledge. The circled part looks like it's totally out of focus, but it's actually pretty sharp. You should be able to read the specs on the top but you can't. It's totally blown out and leaking it's juices. Luckily I was able to find a clear picture of an odometer with a good cap in an online gear replacement demonstration. This cap is the same exact type that that I replaced in the tachometer. (47uF 16V) I have spares.
Remember that the uF spec has to match, but the voltage does not as long as the replacement is higher. Mine are 47uF and 35V.
De-soldered. I'm glad there's a "+" on the board. Otherwise, I might have had trouble. New caps are easy to ID though. The stripe on the body is the negative side and the long lead is positive.
Soldered and a poorly focused picture of the excess leads removed. Sorry about that.
And everything fits just fine this time despite having ta longer cap than stock.
Only time will tell if this was ticket. It was fairly chilly this morning when I took the car for a test drive, but the odometer started spinning the moment I started pulling out of the driveway! Let's hope we have many years of trouble-free mile clocking.
I gained a theory while I was driving home from Lisle pouting about the lack of credit the car was giving itself for the trip. I had not seen this issue float to the surface since about March, and the trip from Lisle to Indy happened to be the coldest morning it had experienced since then. Why would an electric circuit board care about normal ambient temp swings? Here me out. Think about a battery. Batteries degrade in the heat, but don't need nearly as much grunt to function in those months as they do in the winter time. By the time the cold shows up, the damage is done. That's why we usually have to do replace batteries when we are the least inclined to do so! What do we use in circuit boards that are essentially the same as a battery? Capacitors!
I'm going to look for one on the odo board. To be honest, I don't even know for sure that it has one. However, after reflowing all the solder joints within the last year i can't imagine this issue being anything else.
My Temp Faker bypass is still holding up nicely.
This is the second little modification I did to this car and highly recommended for any 240. I don't believe I ever covered this, so I'll talk about it really quickly while I'm here.Temp Faker. I'm serious. Look at the print on top of the gauge! Volvo's VDO temp gauge in reality only has 5 positions. Cold, kinda cold, operating temp, overheating, and very hot are all you get. When everything is working right, it will appear to work like a normal gauge. The Temp Faker circuit board will make the needle move slow enough that it appears to move very fluidly. My understanding is that the reason they had to do this was so that every gauge would display at exactly 9 o clock when at operating temp. Not only was it an aesthetic thing, but they didn't want customers complaining about the car overheating or overcooling when the car was actually working fine.
That's all worthless today. After 30 years of these cars hitting bumps and jumping curbs, things are starting to rattle loose including the Temp Faker circuit board. The bad connection will cause the temp on the gauge to slowly rise up past operating temp and scare the crap out of you. You can be a dingus and solder it into place, but that's silly and difficult to diagnose inevitable issues in the future. The temp sensor provides a normal sweeping resistance for a typical temp gauge and the gauge itself in the cluster is actually normal as well. It just has that stupid board in between, so I removed it and soldered a wire between the two gauge pins. Viola!
Anyway, that's old news. Back to the odometer. Here she is! I don't miss being in here, but I am very pleased to have found something with my new knowledge. The circled part looks like it's totally out of focus, but it's actually pretty sharp. You should be able to read the specs on the top but you can't. It's totally blown out and leaking it's juices. Luckily I was able to find a clear picture of an odometer with a good cap in an online gear replacement demonstration. This cap is the same exact type that that I replaced in the tachometer. (47uF 16V)
I have spares.Remember that the uF spec has to match, but the voltage does not as long as the replacement is higher. Mine are 47uF and 35V.
De-soldered. I'm glad there's a "+" on the board. Otherwise, I might have had trouble. New caps are easy to ID though. The stripe on the body is the negative side and the long lead is positive.
Soldered and a poorly focused picture of the excess leads removed. Sorry about that.
And everything fits just fine this time despite having ta longer cap than stock.
Only time will tell if this was ticket. It was fairly chilly this morning when I took the car for a test drive, but the odometer started spinning the moment I started pulling out of the driveway!
Let's hope we have many years of trouble-free mile clocking.
In not so great news for me, but great news for the car....
We aren't going to let this thing return to the earth. As much as I've been dreading this day, I have to get that rust spot patched. It doesn't look too bad in post #113, but the metal is supposed to go well below that plastic trim. It doesn't. ?
When I did the other side almost a year ago, we were not big fans of this car. I had been working on it more than either of us had driven it, and we did not trust it to make it through the winter. While doing some brake line replacements, I noticed a gaping hole in this same spot on the driver side. Considering how nice the interior was, I didn't want it to get moldy and salty, so I got to work. The other side was worse in reality, but the previous owner slathered some RTV inside to keep it water tight. Sure it sucked, but I was good enough to get the POS out of my garage for the remainder of the winter.
As you can see, that RTV has all since fallen out. The cardboard interior panel gets soaked after driving in the rain, and I love this car now. It's been too much fun to let it disintegrate. I think I can do a better job this time. ? Stay tuned for body work to resume in the next month or two.
We aren't going to let this thing return to the earth. As much as I've been dreading this day, I have to get that rust spot patched. It doesn't look too bad in post #113, but the metal is supposed to go well below that plastic trim. It doesn't. ?
When I did the other side almost a year ago, we were not big fans of this car. I had been working on it more than either of us had driven it, and we did not trust it to make it through the winter. While doing some brake line replacements, I noticed a gaping hole in this same spot on the driver side. Considering how nice the interior was, I didn't want it to get moldy and salty, so I got to work. The other side was worse in reality, but the previous owner slathered some RTV inside to keep it water tight.
Sure it sucked, but I was good enough to get the POS out of my garage for the remainder of the winter.As you can see, that RTV has all since fallen out. The cardboard interior panel gets soaked after driving in the rain, and I love this car now. It's been too much fun to let it disintegrate. I think I can do a better job this time. ? Stay tuned for body work to resume in the next month or two.
I'm going to keep working. Another thing we noticed this summer is that the front carpet of this car seemed to be eternally soaked. Seriously, you could splash around in it if you removed the plastic liners. This is usually caused by a clogged HVAC drain. If it rains and this sucker backs up, all the water coming into the cowl ends up on your floor.
Well, it wasn't clogged, but it also can't clog if it's not connected on either side. Judging by the position of everything, I'm guessing the previous owner messed this up when he was installing the heater valve. That should have been all it was! I like easy fixes.
After vacuuming a bunch of leaves and water, I decided to crack the windows, remove the trays and let the car air out. Hopefully it dries and doesn't get wet again. I love how simple this car is.
Well, it wasn't clogged, but it also can't clog if it's not connected on either side.
Judging by the position of everything, I'm guessing the previous owner messed this up when he was installing the heater valve. That should have been all it was! I like easy fixes.After vacuuming a bunch of leaves and water, I decided to crack the windows, remove the trays and let the car air out. Hopefully it dries and doesn't get wet again. I love how simple this car is.
I'm going to make one more long overdue repair before finally changing the oil. I never hooked up the 1991 brake failure switch. As mentioned in the beginning of this thread, the -'89 brake junctions with integrated failure switches are usually the CAUSE for brake failure. Oh the irony. I just never got around to wiring up the new one. I'm n ot happy with the appearance, but I feel much better knowing that my fiancé will see a big red light on the dash before she runs out of brake fluid.
Re: dash heat there's a good chance there's a cold solder joint or possibly a crappy pin or two in the contact.
In terms of the rust mitigation I'd love an old car like this to daily up here but the oxidation gods aren't about that. As you said, something simple and easy to work on. Then again these days I'm older and less patient about a lot of that shit. If my Volvo would have been like this to work on I'd probably still have it.
In terms of the rust mitigation I'd love an old car like this to daily up here but the oxidation gods aren't about that. As you said, something simple and easy to work on. Then again these days I'm older and less patient about a lot of that shit. If my Volvo would have been like this to work on I'd probably still have it.
I reflowed all of those joints about a year ago. I shouldn't have that issue.
I hear ya on the rust though. I'm not looking forward to this work, but I want this car to last a lot longer too. We're certainly going to have to get better about washing it. Luckily the salt isn't thrown down nearly as often down here. I think after I do this next repair I'm going to wish it stayed in the garage all winter. My patience for stuff falling apart for bad reasons is getting thin.
KJ mentioned it earlier but this is a great thread and your attention to detail makes mundane things like wiring very interesting. Love the 240
Thanks! I love it too, but it doesn't always seem to WANT love. Have you ever had a car that just wants to rust in peace? Maybe it just wants to provide you more wiring content. lol
Apparently we've been blind to oil pressure. I confirmed that the bulb doesn't come on during bulb check either. I'll have to figure this out later because the connector is no longer available. Maybe the bulb burned out? It should definitely be on.
Oh well. Drive time.
Apparently we've been blind to oil pressure. I confirmed that the bulb doesn't come on during bulb check either. I'll have to figure this out later because the connector is no longer available. Maybe the bulb burned out? It should definitely be on.
Oh well. Drive time.
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