Beater Volvo 240 and it's quest against the odds to visit all 50 states

[v6buicks]

I went camping with one of my old crews from high school. I've always wanted to take a 240 camping, so I loaded up with all sorts of gear and headed up to Shabbona.

Damn, is I-39 is boring!

Overall, the trip was great. It was nice to catch up with old friends, and relax outdoors. Moose, on the other hand, was not having the greatest time of his life. Cruise control was working intermittently and rapidly loosing speed. This was always a small issue, but it finally kicked the dust on this trip. Then I also noticed an extreme lack of power (even for an NA 240) when leaving from a stop. I hadn't thought much about the buzzing noise I was experiencing under load, but I think I've finally realized that the in-tank fuel pump is bad. If that's the case, then the buzzing is the main pump cavitating. Oh well. Time to get working and spending again!

Luckily, the cruise control issue was resolved very easily. The system was cobbled up when we bought the car, but I never really bothered to do anything about it. It seems that somebody didn't have the correct vacuum tees so they made do with what they had. Some lines were sized incorrectly not only for the cruise module, but for the adapters they were using as well. This caused a bad vacuum leak and a starved module. I wish I took the 5 minutes to fix it BEFORE my trip, but ?‍

Much better! Yes, I need to clean this engine.

 

[v6buicks]

This is going to suck major ass.

The pump itself may actually work just fine. What was clearly no good is the electrical connection. That thing came right off.

I'm a pessimist when it comes to stuff like this, but I see myself pulling a full tank of gas out of this car in the near future. For the time being, I have blown the crud out of my way, and started soaking this thing in PB blaster. Fingers are crossed over getting parts in time to drive this car to MI in the beginning of August. If I need a tank, it's game over!

 

[v6buicks]

The first miracle happened as soon as I came outside.

I am extremely happy that I didn't have to drop the tank.

Now I have to deal with new sender problems. The feed line is too long.

No worries. A dremel cutoff wheel does a pretty good job. Then I cleaned the rest up with a reaming tool and a mini file.

All set! I transferred the old float ball over as well since I heard the replacements are trash.

Yes, I drilled another hole in the trap door with my step bit. It's easier, and the new sender came with a grommet anyway. ?‍ Then the fun began.

Gross

Another miracle!

This was right where my luck ran dry. I'm not naming names, but a certain big US-based Volvo specialist sent fuel filter orings which were sized incorrectly. There was little to no chance of either side sealing, so I reused the old ones. Well...

That's not going to work either. Hopefully I can source some better washers.

 

[v6buicks]

After breaking 3rd gear in the Camaro, I decided it would be easier to just take today off of work instead of trying to roll Moose out of the way of the GN and hoping that nobody dings me in the parking lot. Besides, I'm coming down to the final days before Moose is supposed to make the big trip to Michigan, and I still have a decent amount of work to do if I want to get this done to my satisfaction.

Look at this mess! Would you be able to justify sending this fuel pump when it's this close to coming free? I can't. I don't even want to send it with all this nasty dissolved undercoating.

The bolts and nuts holding all the clamps to the brackets were rusted together with no hopes of coming loose. Time for persuasion.

Much to my surprise, these brackets are actually in great shape! With a bit of wire wheeling and rust converter these are going to look great. All that nasty undercoating must have actually been doing something before the brake octopus dumped its juices all over the underside of the car.

I did not order a new pump clamp because I could not find any. Luckily, this one will clean up nicely with new hardware.

Eastwood rust converter has to be my my favorite spray can. This stuff has worked wonders.

Now I'll head to Lowe's for some new nuts and bolts. All the new parts I ordered aren't coming until tomorrow. ? I really wish I could finish this today, but I guess I'll just have to wash the Buick or something instead.

 

[v6buicks]

After waiting way too long to get parts, I finally received my incomplete order. ? The company cancelled those items, but I'm going to be giving them an earful on Monday. I don't see how it takes four days to pack up and send my parts. I'm going to be cutting things close to my 7/31 deadline.

The parts I'm missing are a new fuel filter clamp and the rubber fuel pump mounts. The clamp is not a huge deal since I can clean up and reuse the old one. The rubber mounts are kind of critical though. If push comes to shove, I can mount the fuel pump bracket with some "custom" isolators and zip ties for the trip, but I'd obviously rather not. I found a seller on Amazon who offered expedited shipping for a reasonable price, so I'm hoping that they show up on the early side of their estimate.

Unfortunately, I was much too hot to think about taking a lot of pictures of today's progress. I managed to extract the busted bolt from the filter clamp and wire wheel it until it was fairly clean, but I ran out of rust converter. I had to run to Lowe's to get the hardware I needed, anyway but they did not have any of the spray can stuff. They did have naval jelly and Rustoleum though, so I figured I'd try that out. The first pic is showing the results of the first 5 minute treatment. After that, I was able to go back to the wire wheel and knock off what came loose, apply another 10 minute treatment of naval jelly, clean it up again, and give it some paint!

Between the filter and it's clamp is a rubber isolator. The one I removed was super dirty and impregnated with rust. I'm going to try to revive it. I have no idea what I'm doing, nor did I even bother to look anything up. I'm just winging it to see what happens.

First, I gave it a hot and soapy wash. There was a lot of undercoating on it, and I figured the heat would help expand the rubber enough to let go of most of the rust, and bring deep stuff to the surface. I was right! My soapy water turned very nasty. Then I dried the fairly clean rubber off and drenched it in tire shine. I'm not entirely sure what I thought this was going to do except suck the stuff in and make it slippery, but It actually helped make cleaning the little grit even easier. The little rust particles started coming off with my finger nail. I'm sure it will offer a little bit of protection when it held back on to the clamp too.

Perfect? Nah. Pretty good for the junk I had sitting around? Yeah. More work than this car deserves? YES. I guess this is just how I cope with waiting too long for parts.

 

[v6buicks]

Anybody still checking in? I'm sure reading about the half-assed restoration of an '89 Volvo must be RIVETING!

Oh well. I'm gonna keep talking anyway. Don't judge me based on what you're about to see. Everybody has to get to work somehow, and the Camaro is no longer an available option. This car is also taking us to Michigan on Friday, and the last part is scheduled to show up on Thursday. No thanks.

Cardboard and zipties will work as fuel pump mounts.

Then just slap it up there and cruise right? Nah. It's only 10AM at this point and I have the rest of the day for Volvo Satan to screw with me. I got everything together and leak free only to find out that I haven't fixed anything. The car is still terribly sluggish and won't rev out, so I have to jump the fuel pump fuses again. Still no in-tank pump operation! Here I go again.

Everything looks fine, so it's time to start using my brain and do some actual diag. I jumped the fuse and checked for power at the interior connector. 12V. Good! Then I checked down at the pump. 0V. Bad.

...so it's something between those two, which is honestly just a wire and a connector. Let's check all that. I unplugged and did a resistance check. As expected, no continuity from end to end.

...but it's good up until the connector. WOMP WOOOOOMMMMP

This connector is complicated for essentially being two ring terminals, but it's designed so that you can't hook the pump up with reversed polarity. I'll give the initial design a pass. However, the aftermarket struck Volvo hard here. This kind of quality is as good as it gets for our otherwise tank of a vehicle. It's too bad.

Taking matters into my own hands.

THEN the car finally came to life as intended. Acceleration is smooth, it revs higher, and cruise control actually works on the interstate. It took forever, but I've finally made the car work! That excites me, but I have to admit that this whole experience significantly hurt my enthusiasm for old Volvos.

Volvo no longer cares about providing quality parts for these, so all we have is cheap, ill-fitting, Chinese junk. As the cars get older they become full of these parts along with their issues, and the whole "Swedish tank" reputation gets canned. Not to mention that everything for this car comes from the coasts at a near snail's pace. I'm probably going to stick this one out for a while because I just know 240s so well. However, my dreams of a turbo conversion or 3800 swap are looking like more and more of a headache with every step I come closer to restoring this thing. Maybe one day I'll get over the slump and finally be on top of this one for a while. One can hope! For now, let's hope that Amazon doesn't let me down on the fuel pump mounts and that we can enjoy a fun and trouble-free trip to Michigan next week.

 

[ragingclue]

I am still checking in but TBH all the stuff you're struggling with is stuff I have to do too.... so it's nice seeing it get done (and thoroughly and properly), but in a way it also kicks me in the nuts. Took a gander at my fuel pump/filter tray the other day and noped my way right back into the house. I know for sure I'll have to do the lifter pump soon as starting when the tank is low can be a pain. I hope to God that ring comes out ok.

 

[v6buicks]

I am still checking in but TBH all the stuff you're struggling with is stuff I have to do too.... so it's nice seeing it get done (and thoroughly and properly), but in a way it also kicks me in the nuts. Took a gander at my fuel pump/filter tray the other day and noped my way right back into the house. I know for sure I'll have to do the lifter pump soon as starting when the tank is low can be a pain. I hope to God that ring comes out ok.

Thanks for the kind words. Believe me, it was like my brain was begging and pleading not to do any of what I just did especially since the car still ran and drove. My body just walked out there and started ripping stuff apart anyway. The worst part was the undercoating. That stuff is like dissolving tar due to the brake leak I had over the winter. If you thought anti-seize was a mess, imagine it being black and coating the whole under side of the car. Then I got super lucky with the in tank pump. I thought for sure I was going to be draining and dropping the tank. I still didn't get it done as nicely as I would have liked, but at least all that nasty undercoating is gone and all the electronics are new! As long as I leave everything better than I found it, I'm pleased.

If I have two bits of advise to give, it's to buy both pumps and everything that's attached to them beforehand. You'll be happy that you don't have to go in and do everything again. That is... if you don't install factory broken parts . You'll be very sorry when you need a part that you didn't buy and it takes a week for IPD or FCP to ship. Also, soak the crap out of the sender bung nut with PB for a couple days even if it looks hopeless! You might be surprised.

 

[v6buicks]

Break, fix, modify repeat. Right?

I found what I thought was a deal too good to pass up on this itty bitty Volvo tach! I for one, am a fan of the big clock inside the instrument cluster. Don't ask why. I just am! Most people remove it in favor of the big factory tach and then put the small factory clock off to the side. From my understanding, the small tach I have here is a dealer install option only, so it's kind of rare to see one in such great shape 30 years later. I love it. It's super quirkey just like a Volvo should be! I have the correct trim ring on it's way from Sweden, so I'll be sure to get some night shot once it's all put back together.

It's funny how us hot rodders can't leave anything alone. I just turned a $1 issue (broken trim square) into $75 solution.

 

[v6buicks]

I feel like my mind can finally be put at ease. Moose is finally back to being zip tie free, running like a champ, and road trip ready! The stupid little rubber feet that suspend the fuel pump/filter bracket over the... Other fuel pump/filter bracket arrived just one day before the big trip! Luckily these only take minutes to intstall.

Overall, I am very happy with how all this turned out. It's satisfying to see all this going from a non-functional, rusty, and dissolved undercoating mess to a clean and fully functional unit. Being a daily, I know this won't last long. I like to think that my efforts will ensure it to be slightly longer lasting than what most shops would provide though! Yeah, I should have prepared and coated where the bracket meets the floor, but I was out of time. It was time to quit worrying and put this sucker on the road! Although 24.8mpg is not earth shattering by any means, this is the best I have ever recorded in a 240.

After a stop in the Chicago burbs, we caravanned our way around the lake from 80/94, to RT 31, and eventually, Pentwater, MI. Moose was a very comfy and stylish ride the whole way.

Of course my my mom, driving the sub-100k mile CR-V with a brand new class-action lawsuit installed engine (still slaps pistons), fresh out of the dealer for a no-start, and no working AC had the audacity to ask if Moose was going to make it back to Indiana. Some people just don't get it. I kept my mouth shut.

And in case anybody needed to know why I've been like acting such broke dick lately....


I think after four years, I'm overdue for ringing up the woman who has not only put up with these vehicular shenanigans, but pushed me to work on them even harder.

 

[v6buicks]

 

[v6buicks]

I had to take just one more shot in Pentwater before we left. Perhaps I should fix that obnoxious tag light. lol

After one of the greatest trips of our lives, Allie and I are are in love with this car again. I wish that I snapped an odometer pic before we left. Including all the driving we did over the past week, we logged well over 1000 miles on Moose without a single hiccup. I admit, even just 20 extra horsepower would have been a massive help through the areas of Michigan with big hills and 75 mph limits. The constant shifting between OD, third, and sometimes even second is not only annoying, but slightly concerning. Since this trip only occurs once a year, the car's primary role is a flat 60 mph commute, and I have more important things to deal with, I'm shrugging it off. Besides, this car is champ! Why fix something that's working as intended?

As we pulled into the driveway, this is our total. Keep in mind that the odometer only works after warming up for a few miles in the morning. lol It's not a HUGE feat, but I'm pretty proud.

 

[PANDA]

Congrats.

Pentwater is very nice. Did you hit up the dunes at all?

 

[v6buicks]

Congrats.

Pentwater is very nice. Did you hit up the dunes at all?

Thanks! Yes it is. We stay on Bass Lake which has a little outlet to Lake Michigan and some private dunes. I didn't visit any of the parks dedicated to the dunes this year, but I have in the past.

 

[Yaj Yak]

this is awesome. your dedication & attention to detail on this car is amazing.



solid thread. congrats on the engagement.

 

[Yaj Yak]

added some pizzazz to your title also.

 

[v6buicks]

this is awesome. your dedication & attention to detail on this car is amazing.



solid thread. congrats on the engagement.

Thanks, man! I'm hoping for many more years of adventures in this car. Good thing B230s are like cockroaches. If that were to sling a rod, I'd love to swap to something a little more modern though.

 

[v6buicks]

added some pizzazz to your title also.

I dig it. Thanks!

 

[cap42]

Congrats or condolences on your engagement? j/k ....

Nice work on the car, don't get discouraged by lack of comments people are reading the updates. Your shaggin waggin may not be a pinnacle of hot rodding but it is still good stuff and if it keeps you engaged in the hobby then it's worth it!

 

[ragingclue]

Congrats! Spent plenty of summers at Bass and Stony (further south). Very nice out there.

A turbo would solve your shifting issues.

 

[v6buicks]

Congrats or condolences on your engagement? j/k ....

Nice work on the car, don't get discouraged by lack of comments people are reading the updates. Your shaggin waggin may not be a pinnacle of hot rodding but it is still good stuff and if it keeps you engaged in the hobby then it's worth it!

Lol thanks! I definitely have fun with it. I have had many different visions for this car over the past year including engine swaps and better handling, but it's hard to justify that when I still have problems with smaller stuff like the interior lighting, gauges, heated seats, creaks, rattles, ect. I think the ULTIMATE goal is just to have a 100% fixed car. That would be pretty impressive considering what I started with.

Congrats! Spent plenty of summers at Bass and Stony (further south). Very nice out there.

A turbo would solve your shifting issues.

Thanks! For sure. Believe me... The turbo idea is incredibly tempting just because of how easy it would be. The parts I have a hard time looking past are the 9mm rods and AW70. I suppose if we kept it on low boost, always used 93 octane, and didn't drive like maniacs then both should survive without much hassle. I would feel a lot better with external oil and trans coolers though.

 

[v6buicks]

More punishment. Remember that cool little tach I got? Notice how it's covered up with the blank square now? I'm not happy about either. I couldn't get it to work right. I made a little harness that connected it straight to the battery and coil, but still no dice. That sweet and rare gauge I bought is a dud. The seller was super cool about it and offered a full refund, but I don't think I'll find a nicer looking one for the same price. Besides, I'm gambling with any NOS 240 electronic part at this point, so I'd feel better just putting this burden on myself... That was probably just as odd to type as it was to read, but hey! I'm an odd Volvo restoring dude.

Prying this bezel off was super sketchy, and I'm still not happy that this is the only way to take the thing apart. There's no way it will ever get reinstalled as tight and flat as it was before, but at least I didn't break the lens.

It's pretty common for these ancient capacitors to dry up and go bad. I don't know for sure that this is my problem, but my understanding is that this is all that most VDO rebuilders are going to do anyway.

It's a little bigger, but it'll work.

With a tiny bit of persuasion, this updated capacitor just barely clears the frame and mechanism!

I dove into this as a pessimist, but I have pretty high hopes for this thing now. I'll be even more satisfied of the final install if it works now.

Fun fact: I've been working on this gauge without Allie's knowledge. She doesn't even know I have it. ? If I get it to work, shes just going to hop in and it will suddenly be there. I'm curious to find out if she'll be mad at me for spending money on dumb crap or excited to have another cool little feature.

 

[v6buicks]

I was too impatient to wait, so here's a little video of flawless tach operation as I rev my Volvo wagon in my work parking lot. ?

 

[v6buicks]

Just kidding. It broke again.

 

[v6buicks]

After a couple more drives I noticed that I could "revive" the tach by using the ol' dash slapping technique. This was good news to me.

I took the gauge out again, took it all apart again, and warmed up the soldering iron again. This time I re-flowed ALL the joints with new solder and repaired a sketchy looking wire. One of those 30 year old cold joints had to be cracked and causing a crappy connection. Even when the tach WAS working properly, it was kind of lazy and bouncy. I was once again in too much suspense to wait all day for my results, so I did the re installation over my lunch break. What do you know! The signal is more crisp than I've ever seen it!

I'm still in suspense though. The real test is whether it's going to STAY crisp for more than a day. If I haven't already jinxed myself I'm going to be way more proud of this useless little tach than any car enthusiast should be. I'm impressed that I was able to dig this deep into 30 year instrumentation and do more good than harm!