240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[Othen]

Readers may recall that I had an issue with the RB's anti-dieseling solenoid about a week ago. It responded quite well to being cleaned up with some carburettor cleaner spray, but I had noticed that there was considerable play in the stroke of the solenoid. I'm not sure whether these two photos demonstrate it well enough, but there was about 4mm of play between the full extent of the stroke and it encountering any resistance from the internal spring:



and fully extended:



Although the solenoid was working after I'd cleaned it, I was not convinced it was as good as it should be, so I set about looking for a replacement. I found that Skandix sold a replacement for 48 Euros, plus a hefty 60 Euros delivery - that is about £100, and I didn't think the issue needed fixing that much. I then reasoned (to myself) that Volvo would not have had these items manufactured specially back in 1980, so other manufacturers probably fitted them as well. Anything with a similar carburettor (Solex, Stromberg etc...) might work, so I started looking through VW lists and came up with part #049-129-412/C - a 12v fuel cut off valve for 1970s/80s air cooled Beatles and so on. The photo looked pretty well identical, and I found it available for only £18.25 here:

https://www.heritagepartscentre.com/...valve-12v.html

... being a tightwad, I quite liked solving this issue for £18.25 rather than £100, so I thought it worth a punt. The part arrived this morn (excellent service from Heritage Parts Centre) so I set about seeing if it was interchangeable with the old one. First I checked the impedance, and found it to be 27 Ohms (close enough to 30 Ohms as makes no difference in this context).

The Volvo and VW parts certainly seemed to be almost identical in the areas that mattered:



The only critical dimension would be the diameter of the fuel cut off:



... 8.89mm on the Volvo one, and:



... 8.86 mm on the VW one - within 0.03mm is good enough for government work - so I decided to give it a go.

The new part fitted perfectly:



I've just taken the RB for a 5ish mile run to get it up to temperature and found everything to be good. The tick-over is certainly much steadier than it was previously - so I'm confident the VW part is an exact match and saves more than £80 compared with using a Skandix supplied part.

I think the original valve had probably been fluttering a bit and so allowing the tick over to become erratic. I noticed that the tick over speed rose by about 200RPM (with the engine warm) with the new valve fitted, which I think means the old solenoid wasn't deploying fully.

This has been quite a find, the VW part 049-129-412/C is cheap and easily available - and is a direct replacement for the fuel solenoid on older B21a (and maybe other) Volvo motors. I hope this is useful.

:-) Alan

[john.wigley]

Originally Posted by Othen

... being a tightwad, I quite liked solving this issue for £18.25 rather than £100, so I thought it worth a punt.

:-) Alan

Ah, a man after my own heart, Alan!

Wasn't it A. M. Wellington who said that an engineer can do for a dollar what any fool can do for two? I believe that you have proved the wisdom of his words more than once with the R.B.

Regards, John.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by john.wigley

Ah, a man after my own heart, Alan!

Wasn't it A. M. Wellington who said that an engineer can do for a dollar what any fool can do for two? I believe that you have proved the wisdom of his words more than once with the R.B.

Regards, John.

Many thanks John,
I do so enjoy coming up with little solutions like this for the RB - it is just so satisfying.
Alan

[Laird Scooby]

A solution after my own heart Alan!

Similar example, the Lambda sensors on my Rover, NLA from Rover for fairly obvious reasons, Honda want £LIMBS for one (think it was £188 last time i checked) and so i did some research.

Discovered the exact same sensor is used by Suzuki, Daewoo and Vauxhall, the latter on 1990-95 8v Family II engines and has a generic replacement which is also sold as a universal Lambda sensor - all of them are single wire jobbies. The only difference is the plug on the end to connect to the cars loom - Vauxhall uses a strange pin arrangement, Rover/Honda use a single 6.35mm aka 1/4" Lucar connector in a bespoke housing to prevent erroneous connection to the A/C compressor clutch feed, not sure what Suzuki use but the sensors are all the same.

Now i can pick them up on fleabay for ~£20 for the pair if one fails.

Always very satisfying discovering the same parts sold much more cheaply elsewhere!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

A solution after my own heart Alan!

Similar example, the Lambda sensors on my Rover, NLA from Rover for fairly obvious reasons, Honda want £LIMBS for one (think it was £188 last time i checked) and so i did some research.

Discovered the exact same sensor is used by Suzuki, Daewoo and Vauxhall, the latter on 1990-95 8v Family II engines and has a generic replacement which is also sold as a universal Lambda sensor - all of them are single wire jobbies. The only difference is the plug on the end to connect to the cars loom - Vauxhall uses a strange pin arrangement, Rover/Honda use a single 6.35mm aka 1/4" Lucar connector in a bespoke housing to prevent erroneous connection to the A/C compressor clutch feed, not sure what Suzuki use but the sensors are all the same.

Now i can pick them up on fleabay for ~£20 for the pair if one fails.

Always very satisfying discovering the same parts sold much more cheaply elsewhere!

Exactly Dave - I'm sure you felt the same Eureka! sense of achievement when you solved the problem. I'm feeling quite smug with myself today.

I've just been out to the motorbike shed to fix the 1976 Suzuki B120's indicators, which I noticed had stopped working when I last started it (the lights only work with the engine running - scary at night!). Armed with a wiring diagram and my automatic multi-meter I was pleased to find: they had fixed themselves in the intervening period (6v electrics, 45 years old... it just happens sometimes).

I'm on a roll!

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

Exactly Dave - I'm sure you felt the same Eureka! sense of achievement when you solved the problem. I'm feeling quite smug with myself today.

I've just been out to the motorbike shed to fix the 1976 Suzuki B120's indicators, which I noticed had stopped working when I last started it (the lights only work with the engine running - scary at night!). Armed with a wiring diagram and my automatic multi-meter I was pleased to find: they had fixed themselves in the intervening period (6v electrics, 45 years old... it just happens sometimes).

I'm on a roll!

It was a Eureka moment Alan but tinged with slight trepidation as to whether it would work as it should on the first one.

THe B120 - that would be the Bloop + VAT?

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

It was a Eureka moment Alan but tinged with slight trepidation as to whether it would work as it should on the first one.

THe B120 - that would be the Bloop + VAT?

Yes indeed, and I do call it the Bloop :-)

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

Yes indeed, and I do call it the Bloop :-)

Ah, same bike then!?

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Ah, same bike then!?

B100P and B120P were the same apart from the size of the hole in the barrel. Bloop is easy to pronounce, so they are all called the same thing.



Mine has been great fun, bought for £200 from a bike breaker having not been used for 30 years . Now it runs and rides really well, but (deliberately) looks like someone stepped off it after a shift at the shoe factory in 1986, gave it a wipe over with an oily rag and never came back.

[Laird Scooby]

A 35 year time-warp Alan!