Cold Start Relay

For several weeks now I've noticed that It's been increasingly difficult to start the Volvo from a cold start. Warm starts are fine, but that first start of the day usually takes about 6 tries while keeping the throttle sightly open. Suspecting a faulty cold start relay, I performed a barrage of electrical tests on the unit to see if the terminals would open or close - nothing ... it was dead. Good thing, Bosch still makes new replacement relays! Unfortunately, they look too modern for the Volvo; black plastic and all. Fortunately, I was able to source a working, used, "old school" unit from iRoll Motors

Before:

After:

Above and below are some before-and-after shots of the replacement cold start relay after sanding and polishing. The car now starts on the first or second try, but I still have to keep my foot on the gas pedal to keep the throttle slightly open ... must be an old car thing.

Before:

After:

Fuel Pressure Regulator

I'll let the pictures tell the story this time ...

Before:

After:

Fuel pressure regulator shown below was restored using a polishing wheel attachment on the Dremel rotary tool and Mothers Billet Metal Polish.

Before:

After:

Mounting bracket for fuel pressure regulator:

Before:	During:
After:	Mothers Billet Metal Polish:

The following photos are of the engine bay when I first got the Volvo compared to what it looks like to date:

Before:	After:

Purring Like A Kitten!

I got the Volvo back from the shop earlier this week and it's purring like a kitten! Erratic idle - gone! Engine Stalling - gone! Running rich - not anymore! I took it to a shop in town called British Steel Restorations. Rick Rogers, the proprietor, and a former helicopter mechanic specializes in the restoration of classic British automobiles. I figured, if he can fix helicopters, he'll surely be able to fix the Volvo! I've known Rick for a couple of months prior to taking the Volvo in for work ... having sought him out, and set up a couple of meet-and-greets to tour his facility, evaluate his work, and more importantly, to lure him to the dark side by coercing him to temporarily abondon his staple of fine British classics to work on my Volvo as it surely has enough British components in it to qualify. It does - Smith gauges, Lucas electrical components, Laycock De Normanville overdrive is similar to the TR6 or 7 models, etc.

Are there any other places in town to take the Volvo to? Sure, but I'm extremely particular when it comes to people working on my car as I don't want it to be molested by any regular mechanic with a socket wrench. It has to be someone who is also a collector, who specializes in vintage vehicles, who will handle my Volvo like they would a radioactive fuel rod. Hence, the many months of research and interviews for just the "right" mechanic. There are Volvo dealerships that I could have taken it to, but I doubt that they still employ the guys that were around when the 1800s were still on the market. Plus, they usually don't let you "hang-out" and watch while they work on your car - where's the fun in that? Anyone who no speaka ingrish - is automatically disqualified. Shops that won't allow me to bring in my own parts were also disqualified (it's a sign that they'll mark-up the parts that they'll undoubtedly need to source from a third-party). Mechanics with a low teeth-to-tattoo ratio were also disqualified (different though if you need radiator work done - you'd want the biker guys with the low teeth-to-tattoo ratio, as they really know their shit!).

The main reason for the visit was to have the Volvo complete its tune-up with an oil change, valve adjustment, oil filter replacement, and have Rick verify with his instuments all my prior adjustments to the idle richness, timing, idle & throttle settings. The stuff that I messed with were all pretty close, but we (by "we", I mean "Rick") did it again with instruments this time to get them within factory specs. Turns out, all the valves needed adjusting - which is most likely the cause of the erratic idling and engine stalling. With everything dialed in to specs, the engine is running much quieter and better than its ever been since I've had the car!

Arrival at British Steel Restorations:

Chromed Valve Cover & Oil Cap:

Pictured above, on the right, is the chromed valve cover & oil filler cap that I stole off eBay about 8 months ago. I've been itching to get it on the engine ever since, and now the opportunity has presented itself with the removal of the old valve cover for the valve adjustments. Pictured below are the before-and-after photos of the engine bay with the old vs. chromed valve cover in place. Take a closer look at the chromed valve cover and you'll see the valve cover hold-down kit that I got from IPD. These valve covers are prone to distortion from overtightening the mounting screws. This leads to improper sealing and oil leaks. The hold-down kit spreads the clamping force over a larger area, allowing the gasket to better seal against the cylinder head.

Before:

After:

Another thing that I had done while the car was in the shop was the replacement of the rubber steering coupler. Mine had a few tears in it. It is a part that is often overlooked when purchasing a vintage vehicle, but is crucial as you will lose the ability to steer if it comes off! I also instructed Rick to take a good look at the entire vehicle to identify anything that might affect drivability or safety that needed replacing. He found one - the driver-side tie rod was "barely" hanging on and it was promptly replaced with a brand new one from IPD. Other than that, Rick's report was very encouraging - everything under the car looked solid, no rust on the floor pans or cross members. The car is mechanically and structurally sound. The rest is just appearance items or aged parts that currently do not affect the drivability or safety of the vehicle and can be swapped out at my leisure.

I also had Rick perform a compression check on the engine just for the heck of it, and the results for each of the 4 cylinders were well within the range for an engine of its age, and the variances across cylinders were within norm (I don't have the test result on hand right now, and it's all greek to me anyway - all I know is he says it's all good, so I'm driving it across the Atlantic). At one point Rick even had a scope down the fuel tank and was happy to report that it looked like it was in great shape and the outbound fuel was clean. Good news for me, as it's one less thing to restore!

Before:

After:

ZDDP - I read somewhere that it's good for flat tappet engines (here and here, I think!). Unfortunately modern engine oils no longer have it, but here's an additive that I bought from iRollMotors.com called ZDDPlus (picture below, left) that can be added to the engine at each oil change. I also found out later that Valvoline VR1 20W-50 motor oil still has the appropriate levels of the stuff, so that'll be the oil I'll be using in the future with no need to spend the extra $10 for the ZDDPlus additive.

ZDDP Additive:

Instrument Cluster:

Ever since I've had the Volvo, the following instruments on the dash were not working: Oil temperature gauge, fuel gauge, turn signal indicators on the dash would only flash once, and the emergency brake warning light on the dash would stay lit all the time the car was running. The gauges were in working condition, just the wiring (or in the case of the oil temperature gauge, the sensor) needed some attention. Well ... the oil temperature gauge was a simple fix. Installing a new oil temperature sender during the oil change solved that problem. As for everything else ... heck of a lot easier as it turns out! The brake warning light first of all has a dual purpose - It lights up when the the emergency brake is engaged when the engine is running, and it lights up when there is unequal pressure in the brakes as sensed by a switch in the engine bay. Neither of which applies in my case as I'm aware that the previous owner had some electrical work done by his mechanic which resulted in 2 things happening - the warning light being lit all the time, and the fuel gauge stopped working. This is where the giant colored wiring diagram I purchased a couple weeks ago proved useful. It seems that the previous mechanic got creative with one particular wire in the dash, and upon removing the "stray wire", everything on the dash started working! I mean everything ... the fuel gauge works perfectly now and it is accurate (we tested). The brake warning light works like it should. Even the turn signal indicators on the dash started behaving - they flash continuously until disengaged. Bonus! I'm crossing off a bunch of stuff from my to-do list with one pull of a wire!

Coil Not Getting Full 12V

When I installed the Pertronix Flame-Thrower ignition coil last weekend, I discovered that the coil was not receiving the full 12 volts required for optimum performance (I was reading only 10V on my volt-meter). The installation literature suggests that there is a resistor somewhere in the circuit that needs to be removed in order to get the full 12 volts. Well, first of all I don't even know what a resistor looks like, and a close inspection of the wiring schematic didn't reveal any resistors leading to the positive terminal of the coil. Here's a link to a nice wiring diagram in PDF format that you can zoom in on for a 1972 1800E (should be the same for a 1971 1800E ... I think?!!) Of course, me reading an electrical schematic is like a 3 year old reading the Wall Street Journal.

So, either there really is a resistor, or there's a voltage bleed somewhere somewhere in the circuit leading to the positive terminal of the coil. From what I can tell, the 2 brown wires feeding into the positive terminal of the coil are from the main fuel injection relay and from the horn relay via fuse #6 in the fusebox. In this 1st photo, the twin brown wires are shown connected to the positive (top) terminal of the coil. Red wire from negative terminal of coil goes to the tach. Figuring out the wire colors was a task all by itself since all my wires are black ... they're either spray-painted black by some previous owner or black from years of grease and dirt fusing to the wire jackets! Only with some 1-on-1 time with the rotary tool did I manage to coax the wires to reveal their "true colors".

Fuel Injection Relay - Before:

Fuel Injection Relay - After:

A volt-meter test on the battery showed a full 12 volts, so I decided to trace the source of the voltage drop by removing the main fuel injection relay, cleaning up all connections with the rotary tool and some electronic contact cleaner, reattaching all connections, and ensure proper grounding. The only thing missing is I need to get my hands on some anti-corrosive zinc paste that I read about in this excellent article about electrical connections in our old Volvos. This guy is almost fanatical about the stuff, needless to say, I found new religion. I also extended the session with the rotary tool to include the restoration of the relay housing pictured in the before-and-after photos above. First, a rotary paper sanding bit was used to remove surface impurities, followed by the stainless steel rotary brush to get that brushed steel finish.

Of course, after hooking everything back up and in my haste to test the voltage, I mistakenly set the multi-meter to test resistance and completely fried the unit! I probably just blew the fuse in it. In any case, I wouldn't know the results of my efforts until I have the fuse replaced and my multi-meter working again ... story of my life.

Hood Silencer Pad

The spark plugs are still not here, so I couldn't mess with the engine this weekend. The hood silencer pads finally got some attention instead. Weeks ago, one of the pieces had fallen off after losing its adhesiveness. While reattaching the piece with a fresh application of adhesive seemed like a simple enough task, the challenge was how to effectively "clamp" on the piece with adequate amount of pressure during the curing process. My mind toyed with removing the entire hood, placing it on a flat surface and applying something heavy on the hood pad while it cured - too complicated! Another possible solution was to fabricate some sort of cross-brace with nylon straps while leaving the hood in place - problem is although the staps might hold the hood pad in place, it might not form equal pressure on all areas of the pad. After a 10 minute stare-down with the thing, I said to myself in frustration - "C'mon man! I make a living solving problems in the corporate world, this can't be that complicated! What would McGyver do with the stuff he has at hand in the house?" So here's the McGyver solution: 1 pillow, 1 trash bag, and a spray can of 3M's Super Trim Adhesive. The adhesive has to be rated for high temperatures of course, and the only thing available in all the neighborhood auto supply stores was this expensive massive can of the 3M stuff that I had to fork out 20 clams for!!! Twenty bucks, when all I needed was a couple of squirts! Hey, 3M guys - if you're listening ...put the same stuff in smaller cans and sell them for $5.

Detached Hood Silencer Pad:

3M High Temp Adhesive:

Anyways, here's what I did: Place the pillow in the trash bag to protect it from engine dirt and grease. Place the pillow in the engine bay on top of everything (engine, radiator, hoses, etc.). Apply the adhesive onto the hood pad and hold it in place for a minute or two until it forms a temporary bond. And for the last step ... just close the hood. The pillow will wrap around the hood pad, and that along with the weight of the hood will form enough pressure to "clamp" it in place during the curing process. Beats standing around for an hour holding it in place by hand ... wife didn't even notice her pillow was missing!

Pillow in Trash Bag:

Reattached Hood Silencer Pad:

PerTronix Flame-Thrower & MSD Wires Installed!

Lots and lots of dielectric grease is what you'll need for building custom spark plug wire sets! The boots are almost impossible to thread through unless they're lubricated with a generous amount of dielectric grease. The spark plugs I ordered didn't show up for this weekend's party (they're on backorder), so I still can't tell if any of these replacements will solve the "no start" problem. The plugs that I currently have in the engine have the old school styled terminals which do not fit the plug terminals on the new wires. Besides, the old spark plugs looked pretty fouled, so I hope that's the extent of my problem. Here's the before-and-after photos of the wire upgrade. I'm still not sure how I feel about the new wire set. I like the look of the red wires, but at this point I much prefer the cleaner look of the stock boots on both the spark plug and the distributor end. The grey colored oversized MSD boots might take a while getting used to, however they are built that way to take a pounding from the engine heat and oils. BTW - These wires really do have low resistance! I checked them with a multi-meter and they really do only produce 40 - 50 ohms of resistance per foot, which translates to greater efficiency in the transfer of energy to the spark plugs.

Stock Spark Plug Wires:

MSD 8.5mm Super Conductors:

I also replaced the stock Bosch ignition coil with the PerTronix Flame-Thrower coil which adds another chrome element in the "looks" department of the engine bay. The photo below shows the new coil with new red coil wire that I built using the same MSD 8.5mm wire kit used to build the spark plug wires.

Stock Ignition Coil:

PerTronix Flame-Thrower Coil:

Heater Reinstalled

It's ALIVE!!! The rebuilt heater is back in the Volvo. I filled the cooling system with the first gallon of antifreeze and water, fired the engine up, and everything worked! The heater blower works ... on both speeds, high and low. The little green light in the heater control housing works! The car started up - which I'm extremely happy about ... although it's been idling rough. I might have let the fuel sit for a little too long without any fuel preservatives. It's either that or perhaps its idling rough because of a partially filled cooling system? I'm not sure if there is a "correct" method of replenishing coolant - I did what seemed logical to me. First, I set the heater temperature control to high (lever all the way down) to ensure that coolant gets into the heater core. Next, the initial fill was done via the radiator. Once the radiator was full, I then filled the coolant overflow bottle to the "Max" line, removed it from the mount and held it above the radiator to fill the hose connecting it to the radiator with coolant. The coolant overflow bottle was then reattached to its mount and recapped along with the radiator. Finally, the engine was started and the water pump did the rest. As the engine takes up coolant from the radiator, by some miracle of fluid dynamics and pressure, the radiator just sucks what it needs from the coolant overflow bottle. Subsequent refills are then done via the coolant overflow bottle as the the entire system gradually fills up on coolant.

Before:

After:

So far, I've completed 2 rounds of filling coolant, setting the heater temperature to high, and running the engine to normal operating temperature to flood the cooling system (radiator, engine, heater core) with coolant. By days end, I've used up 1.5 gallons of premixed antifreeze and water, but I'll give it another go tomorrow to see if it'll take more. The following are some before-and-after photos of the bottom half of the heater box from the interior of the car:

Before:	After:
Before:	After:

Here's a photo of the heater controls with the lights on. This light comes on when the parking or headlamps are on. They were not working before - in fact I didn't even know they existed! All I did was clean up the bulb housing and ensured that it was properly grounded. This bulb does not have a separate "ground wire". It only has a single "hot" lead. Grounding is done by ensuring proper contact with the heater control housing. From the research I've done, this green light only existed in the 1972 onwards ES models, which leads me to believe that some previous owner must have swapped out the heater control housing - bonus for me!

Heater Controls With Light:

All Pieces Back In Order:

Radiator Reinstalled

I was hoping to get all of the heating and cooling components back into the engine bay this weekend, fill the system with coolant and start the engine up, but ran out of time and daylight. What did get reinstalled was the radiator, radiator fan shroud, coolant overflow bottle and mount, and the heater control valve - all with brand new mounting hardware and new hose clamps. At one point, while I was contorting my 6 foot frame under the dash to reinstall the heater control valve, I got my head stuck between the steering wheel and the shifter, and took the opportunity to remove the heater control unit and cables to have them cleaned since they were at "eye level" ... and I was waiting for the fire department to bring the "jaws of life" to dislodge me.

To my surprise, I found that there's a little 5W light bulb that goes into the heater control housing ... bonus! I know it doesn't seem like anything to get excited about, but the only lights that work in the interior of my car are those from the instrumentation panel on the dash, and the dome lights in the rear which were designed to work manually, or automatically when the doors are opened. Well ... mine don't work when the doors are open (another future project). Manual control works, but I can count that out as it's impractical to reach over to the back seats and flip them on. Anyways, when working, this little bulb is supposed to emit green light (via a green plastic filter in the heater control housing) down on the heater controls, presumably when the headlights are on so you can see where they are in the dark. The bulb looked intact, so I just cleaned the electrical housing and electrical contacts and plugged it back in. I'm not going to get my hopes up as it obviously wasn't working before, and the problem is most likely electrical, but hey - at least I found another non-working light source to add to the collection! FYI - map light aka tiny light bulb under passenger-side dash does not work, interior dome lights don't work when doors are ajar, left & right turn signal dash indicators only blink once when engaged (is this normal?), are there any other interior lights that I don't know about?

Engine Bay - Red & Chrome!

I took it easy this weekend. No major overhaul, just slowly reinstalling components that have been worked on the weeks before back into the engine bay. In order to get the heater back into the car, everything else that I removed has to be reinstalled in reverse order, starting with the repainted radiator fan and the chromed fan-belt pulley. The newly polished water outlet pipe was also reattached to the engine block.

Radiator Fan + Pulley - Before:	Radiator Fan + Pulley - After:
Radiator Fan + Water Outlet Pipe - Before:	Radiator Fan + Water Outlet Pipe - After:

Here's the front view of the red radiator fan and a bird's eye view of the engine compartment showing the freshly painted battery support arm.

Repainted Radiator Fan:

Reinstalled Battery Support Arm: