240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

The Smith & Allen stuff seems okay and is good value at about £20/5l. Diluted 50:50 with water so 5l is more than enough for a coolant change (the RB takes about 6l).

:-)

Worth double checking you've got the protection you think you have Alan using a hydrometer.That was how i learned and discovered the method i've used for 30+ years of flushing, draining then adding the right amount of concentrated antifreeze before topping with water.

Premixing the antifreeze before adding can give false results in as much as you might add what you think is enough antifreeze but because it's already diluted and you can never know exactly how much water is lurking in the system already (or even old coolant) i prefer to get the old stuff so it's just water, drain as much as possible then add the right amount of concentrated before topping up.

[Othen]

I had not used the RB much this summer; whilst putting it up on some ramps to replace the under car tray yesterday I noticed a mouse had moved into the rear suspension. I had a quick look and the squeak seemed to be coming from the driver's side - the prime suspect at the mo would be the panhard rod bushes.

I'll jack up the rear of the motor car and have a better look later today. The rod seems to be easy enough to access; I'll have a look at the BofH and see how hard a job that is likely to be.

There is always something else with a 41 year old motor car!

:-)

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

I had not used the RB much this summer; whilst putting it up on some ramps to replace the under car tray yesterday I noticed a mouse had moved into the rear suspension. I had a quick look and the squeak seemed to be coming from the driver's side - the prime suspect at the mo would be the panhard rod bushes.

I'll jack up the rear of the motor car and have a better look later today. The rod seems to be easy enough to access; I'll have a look at the BofH and see how hard a job that is likely to be.

There is always something else with a 41 year old motor car!

:-)

Aaaaaahhh, the Volvo Mouse! Spray the bushes/bolts through them with some lubricant and take it for a drive, job done!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Aaaaaahhh, the Volvo Mouse! Spray the bushes/bolts through them with some lubricant and take it for a drive, job done!

Thant was this morn's job Dave, a bit of silicone spray and try again :-)

[loki_the_glt]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Aaaaaahhh, the Volvo Mouse! Spray the bushes/bolts through them with some lubricant and take it for a drive, job done!

If the RB had a cat you wouldn't have that problem...

[Othen]

Originally Posted by loki_the_glt

If the RB had a cat you wouldn't have that problem...

I think Millicent is getting a bit lazy in her dotage :-)

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

I had not used the RB much this summer; whilst putting it up on some ramps to replace the under car tray yesterday I noticed a mouse had moved into the rear suspension. I had a quick look and the squeak seemed to be coming from the driver's side - the prime suspect at the mo would be the panhard rod bushes.

I'll jack up the rear of the motor car and have a better look later today. The rod seems to be easy enough to access; I'll have a look at the BofH and see how hard a job that is likely to be.

There is always something else with a 41 year old motor car!

:-)

... so that is what I did this morn, and it turned out to be an hour well spent. The good news is there is no appreciable play in any of the rear suspension bushes, I gave all of then a good heave with the pry bar once it was jacked up nice and high. I gave everything a good spray with some heavy duty silicone grease and turned my attention to the panhard rod, that being the prime suspect.

I decided to take the rod off and have a look. Mr Volvo almost caught me out by using imperial (3/4") fasteners both ends, but once I'd worked that out it was a 5 minute job. That revealed the source of the squeak, the right hand side bush has started to get a bit crusty:



The bush is still complete but will need changing in the fullness of time, so I'll order one and swap in out before the winter. The bush at the other end is in rude health, in fact I'd say it has probably been changed some time (in the past 40 years):



I decided that for today everything would be fine, and so gave the rod a clean up and spray with some Plastikote for environmental protection, letting it dry whilst I had a cuppa. I put the rod back with a bit of copper grease on both the fixed pin and the bolt and took the RB for a test run...

I'm pleased to report that we are back to the magic carpet ride. I suspect giving all the joints a spray with some silicone would have helped, but the copper grease on the panhard rod mounting did the trick. It looks pretty easy to change: just cut out the old one with the recip saw then push the new one in with the vice by the look of it.

The RB is so satisfying to work on; almost everything is easy to access and very simple... an hour well spent :-)

[Othen]

I thought I might as well order a new bush for the axle end of the RB's panhard rod, and looked online. I was really surprised to find exactly the right part (a Febi Bilstein item to replace Volvo part 1330427) on Amazon, better than that the cost was just £2.92 and Amazon Prime will have it here for me tomorrow (Saturday).

We do indeed live in the best of all possible worlds!

Alan :-)

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

I thought I might as well order a new bush for the axle end of the RB's panhard rod, and looked online. I was really surprised to find exactly the right part (a Febi Bilstein item to replace Volvo part 1330427) on Amazon, better than that the cost was just £2.92 and Amazon Prime will have it here for me tomorrow (Saturday).

We do indeed live in the best of all possible worlds!

Alan :-)

Surprised you didn't order both bushes Alan? Even if the other looks good at the moment, it will be on borrowed time once you've renewed the deceased one and will collapse soon after, causing excess wear on the new one to happen. Chances are you can find the other one on Amazon too and have that landing via prime tomorrow as well.

An M10 or M12 long bolt/studding and some nuts plus a couple of suitably sized sockets will creat a bush puller/replacer tool for you save you having to burn out the rubber inside the bush then cut a slit in the outer shell of it and chisel it out as i think you were planning.

[classicswede]

would make sense to do both bushes while the rod is off and the tools are out