240 GLT saloon restoration project

[Moomoo]

Originally Posted by Juular

Isn't it weird how the 240 seems like such a small car these days?

I think that every time I see mine on a car park , particularly a rear view!👍

[Wagon Sailor]

And that tall black thing next to it is called a 'Mini'.

[Juular]

She's ticking over nicely.



I've had a few jobs to do - one of the front wheel bearings I replaced in February I must have over-tightened, as it became noisy again. I replaced both sides with new bearings and very gently tightened them by hand, after bedding them in place.

I also had an issue with the collars on the shock tubes unwinding themselves by a turn, causing an annoying clunk on broken road. I think I might need to get some threadlock on those, but tightening them down has fixed the problem for now.

I'd like to get the bottom of the inner door skins repaired, but I'm spending most of my time welding up the Amazon, or my better half's Triumph.

I'm looking at doing the doors and maybe a bit of cosmetic work in the spring time.

In the meantime, it's such a great winter car.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Juular

She's ticking over nicely.



I've had a few jobs to do - one of the front wheel bearings I replaced in February I must have over-tightened, as it became noisy again. I replaced both sides with new bearings and very gently tightened them by hand, after bedding them in place.

I also had an issue with the collars on the shock tubes unwinding themselves by a turn, causing an annoying clunk on broken road. I think I might need to get some threadlock on those, but tightening them down has fixed the problem for now.

I'd like to get the bottom of the inner door skins repaired, but I'm spending most of my time welding up the Amazon, or my better half's Triumph.

I'm looking at doing the doors and maybe a bit of cosmetic work in the spring time.

In the meantime, it's such a great winter car.

Excellent location and photography also.

:-)

[Juular]

Not having the best of luck with the 240 as of late.





I've had it out a few runs but I've never felt it was running quite 100%. It has always been a bit wobbly at idle but recently it seemed to get significantly worse.

I decided to replace the engine mount rubbers as they looked quite worn. The one under the oil filter had started to seperate, presumably because of the oil that gets collected down here from filter changes.





Unfortunately this made the wobble even more pronounced, making it clear that this was a misfire.

Did a compression test, noted that all cylinders were 170-175psi.

I've spent several months going over every component in the engine bay and ruling it out.

The wiring was found to be lacking in places, and bits like this I cut, soldered and heatshrink wrapped.



Stripped down the entire KJet system, cleaned, recalibrated and renewed O-rings and whatever else was needed.



The metering head injector line filters had seen better days so I replaced these.





Noticed the airflow plate was a smidge off centre, so fixed that.





Stripped down the distributor to check the advance weight springs in case they had snapped or detached. They were fine.



Also tested the hall sensor and associated wiring - all fine.

Did the valve clearances. All spot on.



Finally, did another compression test and noticed that #3 was slightly down. Not enough to say it's got a problem, but it's interesting that the result changed.



Focusing on cylinder 3, I noticed that unplugging #3 HT lead causes a regular running on 3 misfire beat. Leaving 3 in and unplugging any other causes a very random engine beat. Clearly there's an issue with #3.

I'm now down to it being two things. Either I have a valve problem on #3, or as I noticed while doing the compression test, the spark plug thread on #3 isn't the greatest and may be leaking slightly.

I'll try sealing up the spark plug thread somehow and seeing if this helps. If not, it's off with its head.

[Laird Scooby]

Good diagnostics there, what plugs are you running and does the fault move if you change the plug from #3 with say #1?

[Juular]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Good diagnostics there, what plugs are you running and does the fault move if you change the plug from #3 with say #1?

Genuine Volvo plugs.

It's a new set and the fault stayed on #3. So a deeper issue unfortunately

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Juular

Genuine Volvo plugs.

It's a new set and the fault stayed on #3. So a deeper issue unfortunately

What about the HT leads? Have you tried swapping #2 and #3 HT lead to see if the fault moved? I know on my 760 i had what felt like a misfire, pulling all the leads off one by one exacerbated the misfire but none confirmed which cylinder it was on. Replacing the leads (they were 30 years old by then) with a used set improved matters greatly then i was lucky enough to pick up a set of older, new but unused HT leads from a forum member and that restored full smoothness and power.

[Chris1Roll]

Since you have new leads, it may be possible on a cold engine to feel any leak from round the spark plugs with your hand.
I specify now you have new leads, as about 30 years ago my dad had just changed the plugs etc in his 82 245 and was doing that, one hand on the wing, the other behind each plug in turn when a spark jumped an inch or so from one of the leads to his hand. Ouch, he said...
I've refused to go near the HT leads other than with insulated grips on a running engine since.

There may be a better way with tissue paper or similar!

[Juular]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

What about the HT leads? Have you tried swapping #2 and #3 HT lead to see if the fault moved? I know on my 760 i had what felt like a misfire, pulling all the leads off one by one exacerbated the misfire but none confirmed which cylinder it was on. Replacing the leads (they were 30 years old by then) with a used set improved matters greatly then i was lucky enough to pick up a set of older, new but unused HT leads from a forum member and that restored full smoothness and power.

Yeah, new set of leads, plus tried another set from a working car just to be 100% sure.

I also swapped #3 and #4 injector pipes around to rule out any issue with fuelling to that cylinder and the issue stays on #3.

I'm not too bothered about taking the head off. On the scale of cars to do a head job on, this must be up there with one of the easiest.