Today I did something to my car (volume 2)

Volvo is absolutely flying, but a few things to address on it... Suspension and steering is one of them. Original bushes meant the car was flopping all over the road!


So a new set of wishbone bushes and ball joints acquired, with drop links and trackrods



A simple task...I won't go into too much detail. Standard press me out/in bushes



Strip off the disc and back plate to make removing the balljoints much easier (car is supported on 2 wheels out of shot in case you're wondering)



Simple isn't it? The offside gave me trouble putting in the balljoint, however it eventually went my way. But I knew something wasn't right. When I went for a test drive, there was a horrible racket from the front right. Then I lost all drive, blocked the road and all!



This is the part where I don't have photos. Towed the car back (2 houses down where it happened), stripped the driveshaft in question. It had been cobbled together with jubilee clips and insulation tape by some moron, looked to have regular moly grease instead of CV grease and... Drumroll.. 4 out of 6 ball bearings :rolleyes: how was the car driving at all I'll never know, especially with the output it has...



This happened around 8pm, needing the car for the next day leaving it was not an option! I cleaned up the original shaft to see was it serviceable. The cage had hairline cracks and wasn't going to last much longer. The inner race had been gouged in places, presumably from where the moron who cobbled it together beat it in place. The inter shaft was fine. I ended up rebuilding a passenger shaft from a D5 I had lying about (shout out to kilianmanning for supplying a lot of Volvo spares!) with bits of a drivers shaft to put back on the inter shaft. The CV joint to rebuild was... Tedious (I hate rebuilding joints btw as they're always messy). But I got it all back together (with 6 balls), back on the car (approx 5 mins to remove/refit, they are genuinely that handy). Now I could test the car properly, there was a faint slop on acceleration beforehand, now gone. The car now tracks fairly straight on hard acceleration and no ambiguity on the twisty roads. I'll get the rods and links fitted another day



Naturally, being covered in all sorts of grease and oil I couldn't take pictures, but I'll try to next time I'm at the garage and if I remember



Happy with the result, the car drives much better now. It's also very sad to know the fellas who owned the car before me (we know the previous 3 owners personally since the car was bought in 2002) would have paid top dollar in good faith to have the car kept tip top, and this is how it was treated when at the garage. Not the first serious mess up either, when I first got the car the brake fluid had turned into a grey paste, I couldn't rebuild the cylinder it was that bad, yet it had new discs and pads you'd think the so called "mechanic" working on it would have copped how awful the brake fluid was on visual inspection, let alone the silly brake travel it had with that fluid if you could call it that. Shameful

Edit: I found a video of my thoughts of the shaft. I'm genuinely being quite polite in the video, compared to off camera, but the language is a bit... Well...

Oh yes! I like those.
What's in the Prelude, H22A?

Ain't that always the story. Life gets in the way of a good project.
They're a lovely engine, the black sheep of the Honda family but seriously drivable.

After getting the hump waiting for a bonnet strut kit to arrive from AliExpress (ordered 27th January and should have arrived by March 4th) I went on Amazon last week and ordered the struts and ball bolts which arrived in less than a week. Fitted today which was easy as pie. Should have had an M10 spline bit for the screws in the bonnet but chanced an m8 Allen key which worked perfect. 4 screws out, 4 bolts in, click the struts in place, done







Still somewhat surprised they're not fitted from factory on what is probably near top spec of the range - especially given that the original support is perfectly positioned to obstruct the screen wash filter cap when in use :rolleyes:

Truckermal wrote: »

Think I met you in Rathduff yesterday.

This time it very likely was me

Cass wrote: »

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Would you believe the kit got delivered this morning?! :pac:

Still at this Picasso, somehow... Failed it's test on brakes and light alignment (I did think it was fairly off on the way down alright)


Brakes changed, front and rear, discs and pads, you don't want to see me do that (and you won't anyway, it's fairly straightforward and was done in a flash, no photos taken), so here's how to change the pollen filter


(yes, I know I said B pillar instead of A pillar... Was thinking B for my back is b*lloxed )



Later that day I decided to put the turbos on my Z. However I only got one done as putting on bigger turbos means space issues... I had to modify the RHS engine mount to clear and use a seat bolt from a Mercedes as it's own bolt would not clear I've no other photos as it was pelting hailstones and was generally fairly sh*te to have bare hands out trying to operate a condensation infested screen.



Pointless fact: the turbos are held on with 13mm nuts due to the Garrett turbos. Everything else on this car is usual Jap spec (8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21, 22, 24, 27 etc) except for the recent addition of the E12 Mercedes bolt!





A few days before that, I got around to tidying up the front of my Volvo. I had experimented with an FMIC, one I butchered on from an E300 TD with very custom/ghetto pipework, so I purchased one from some online place. Opposed outlets, originally meant for a VR6 I think. Shoehorned to fit and I got to put on it's original bumper back on. I put the rub strips/headlamp wipers etc back on yesterday. The FMIC is slightly crooked in the pic below, it was straightened the next day with an aluminum bracket from a TV stand



And yes, me house in the background got some work done too. Thankfully, apart from rewiring the phone socket/repositioning the dish I had f*ck all to do with that!

Top Dog wrote: »

After getting the hump waiting for a bonnet strut kit to arrive from AliExpress (ordered 27th January and should have arrived by March 4th) I went on Amazon last week and ordered the struts and ball bolts which arrived in less than a week. Fitted today which was easy as pie. Should have had an M10 spline bit for the screws in the bonnet but chanced an m8 Allen key which worked perfect. 4 screws out, 4 bolts in, click the struts in place, done

Still somewhat surprised they're not fitted from factory on what is probably near top spec of the range - especially given that the original support is perfectly positioned to obstruct the screen wash filter cap when in use :rolleyes:

Can you send me a link to the ones you bought please?

I've been chasing brake judder issues so I've done a few bits on the front end. This week I've replaced the front wheel bearings, discs and pads/wear sensor and last month I replaced the Thrust Arms. The wheel bearings were a real mission to replace, no problem if I had air tools handy but manually they required some arm time :pac:

2 x Lemforder Thrust Arms
2 x FAG Wheel Bearings
2 x ATE Discs and Pads.













How she is now:









Few small bits to sort now like the Tilt on the Sunroof, rocker gasket leak (have the parts, just need to fit).

Looks fantastic to me, fair play!

Top Dog wrote: »

AliExpress or Amazon?

Ali arrived 5 days after I fitted the amazon bits :rolleyes::pac:

PM me, I’m buying, you’re selling

My "sons" RC car started giving trouble yesterday and symptoms of a slipping clutch. Took the thing apart and plenty or material etc left on the clutch so had to take the transmission apart. A tiny little pin had broken and was allowing one of the gears to spin on its shaft. Bit of DIY using a snipped safety pin got it back in action...

Going all out scumbag spec

I only got this one to try it. Colour blue isn’t an exact match so I’m gonna swap out for black on black.

Good work. I don't see an axle stand there, hope there was one out of shot? BTW, we have the same torch