What I did today thread...

[stuart bowes]

I find it a lot easier to locate the balljoint first (with hub disconnected from strut) and then use a pry bar to lever the hub down against/into the strut bracket

I saw someone doing that on a 1a auto video and it works a treat

only thing is care and attention required not to damage driveshaft outer boot with the bottom of the strut as you go, or get fingers trapped anywhere

[Darlo 1]

Fitted a new battery after the 10+ year old one finally died this morning.

[TLPower]

I used an old trolley jack handle that I'd previously welded together and added some lugs/tubes to make a bead breaker for changing motorbike tyres.

I needed something that would allow me to sit on it to enable me to have both hands free for the gymnastics of sticking the whole lot back together.

As Stuart mentions it is much easier to drop the ball joint in the arm first.

Back to the tool.

I found a driveshaft bolt with the big washer attached, then found a nut with a matching thread. The jack handle had a "U" shaped bracket welded to it so I looked in vain for some suitable steel tube to weld the nut to. The only thing i found was an old 13mm 3/8" drive deep socket, so I cut that to length to fit inside the "U" bracket.

I welded the nut to the side of the socket.

The driveshaft bolt drops through the hole in the lower arm, the socket with the welded nut is then fastened on the end of the bolt and finally a cross bolt connects the socket to the jack handle. After bolting everything together I realised I needed a shorter drive shaft bolt so I cut the bolt down to just six threads showing.

With the "tool" all back together all I needed to do was sit on the jack handle, drop the ball joint pin into the lower arm, feed in the driveshaft, push through the bottom strut bolt and then the top strut bolt . All was achieved without any drama at all, I had plenty of room between the driveshaft boot and the bottom of the strut.

I do apologise for the long winded description.

[JohnHenley]

Originally Posted by Darlo 1

Fitted a new battery after the 10+ year old one finally died this morning.

Did mine yesterday as well. Old battery was a Halfords HCB096. Had been in there for 11 years 8 months. Replaced it with a Yuasa HSB096.

Old and the new;

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/attac...1&d=1717048783

[Nick6262]

Drove down a road where a lorry had shed a lot of gravel. Wife slowed down to 20mph but on coming traffic didn't.

Car took a beating.

Smashed the badge, peppered the front bumper with stone chips, and possible chipped one of the glass headlights.

Luckily it didn't chip the windscreen - saw a BMW pulled over with a completely smashed one.





Not happy - bumper respray wasn't a job that was on my to-do list. :-(

[stuart bowes]

that sucks, I might still have a front badge in the shed if you're looking for one, free if you want to come and get it

the diagonal bar and badge comes off as one piece and can be hot glued from the rear or some other adhesive

thats the grill with the vertical bars only though so I'm assuming it will work if not just carefully rescue the logo bit only I suppose

[Nick6262]

Originally Posted by stuart bowes

that sucks, I might still have a front badge in the shed if you're looking for one, free if you want to come and get it

the diagonal bar and badge comes off as one piece and can be hot glued from the rear or some other adhesive

thats the grill with the vertical bars only though so I'm assuming it will work if not just carefully rescue the logo bit only I suppose

Thanks - I have a feeling because it's an R grille the badge won't fit. I'll give it a proper look and measure at the weekend.

[Onewheel]

Installed some refurbished headlights to someone else’s V70