Locking pliers can work as a steering wheel in a pinch.

Being pulled by the Kubota

And being pushed by the Kubota

Please Don't shoot the Monkey

Its resting place until it meets the crusher.

Shop sans 740

Ok, there are still 740 guts everywhere

Almost all the parts have been placed into storage and ready to be
sold, swapped, scrapped, scavenged, or reused

Well this should be one of the last updates that involve my beloved 1986 740. The past five years have been hard on it and an electrical issue along with the lack of time, money, and desire have kept me from diving deeply enough into the brick to find the issue. That has led me to decide to send the 740 off to Fólkvangr in hopes that it will on occasion glimpse Freyja and all her beauty

The upside to parting out the 740 will be that I will be pulling the B230FT and putting it in my 1984 242. It will only be a temporary install until I can get the B5244T3 from the 1997 850R mentioned in the previous post. There will also be lots of extra parts for when things break or to help other brick owners looking for parts.

I wish I would have gotten some shots before we had gotten so far into the stripping process.

Hooking it up to the engine hoist.

Parts on the floor.

And up against the wall.

And in the trunk.

Dash and electrical component removal.

Finally got the engine out.

The engine and trans are out.

We made an engine dolly with scrap lumber and casters from The Yard. It will get middle casters or structural reinforcement next time we are out working.

I think this is the whole reason the car stopped running. The insulation is cracked and the wire is corroded and frayed on the plug side. 

This end being broken didn't help matters much. This was part of the fuel system and I didn't find it until I was pulling the wiring harness.

I can't believe I haven't posted to this since September 28th of 2009 time has slipped away so quickly but then again it seems like it has been way longer since I have had the ability to do anything to my cars other than keep them running or watch them continue to rust along with my hope of ever turning them into anything close to my dreams. 

Lots of things have happened since I posted last. I've spent 23 months unemployed, gotten engaged, became a full time college student, and was given a 1983 242 tic as an engagement present from Monkey. More on the 242 and the sad fate of the 740 later.

Today's update is all about what I did to the R. I will start with the boring and work my way up to the less boring. Several months ago Kevin let D and I take his 1997 850R home to cannibalize it of any usable parts before it went to Fólkvangr. This gave us quite a stockpile of goodies for when D's 95 GLT, Kevin's 95 T-5, or my R needed something. Well as life tends to do, D needs to part with his GLT and get a more fuel efficient vehicle for his 100+ mile round trip to work each day.  Before doing so he offered to swap parts from his car to mine. 

We started with the wiper arms and blades from Kevin's R, then the brakes and trunk lift supports. It is not like any of these components are upgrades, they are just in much better shape than what was on my R. 

The less than broing parts are what I got from D's GLT. I acquired his lowering springs and Bilstein HD shocks and struts.

This gives a general idea of size difference between the stock R springs and the lowering springs for the rear of the car.

Stock

Bilstein HD

The GLT with the stock R springs and struts 

The R with the lowering springs and Bilsteins sits 3/4 of an inch lower in the front or from by best guess 1 1/2  inches lower than a stock 850.

Rear before.

Rear after is about 1/2 an inch lower.

I haven't had the time to give the R a solid test yet but it feels lower when stepping out of the caR and the ride is a little more hash at low speed but that harshness is not as noticeable at high speed. The body roll has been greatly reduced and if feels much tighter in turns. There isn't as much of window between turning and pushing as there was with the stock R suspension and tire pressure my also be more critical but I have yet to test that theory. I hope that with Anti-Sway Bars from ipd will get my R handling as well or better than my 96 850 estate. 

Oil and Belts

On Saturday Monkey and I started the Stage zero work on the R.
We started an oil change with Mobile 1.
While under the R I notice that I am also in need of a drivers side CV boot.




Once the engine cooled down to a non flesh searing temperature we started on the belts.
Because the B5234T5 "White Block" is an interference engine, getting the timing belt replaced was VERY HIGH on my list of things to get checked taken care of.



Moving the expansion tank helps access to the belts and tensioners.

When I ordered my timing belt from IPD I also got the Cam Locking Tool.
The tool was expensive for a rarely used item but cheap for insurance.





The next things on the list will be plugs, wires, distributor, coil, and not so much stage zero but a cold air kit.

On Sunday Kevin and I worked on the interior of my car. Kevin did most of the work on the interior because he has the skill and is anal enough to get it done correctly and I'm so damn ADD that I couldn't, ohh Zombie Land movie preview... Now what was I saying ? Oh, ya. Kevin did most of the work on the interior and I cleaned my wheels until broke the Black-Magic-Bullet that he bought. Mental note: If you are going to break a wheel cleaning tool, clean the owners wheels first.

Volvos New and Old

I dove up to Kansas City on the 11th to see Kevin and to go to the Heart of America Volvo Club group photo shoot at the Airline History Museum.

There were 16 Volvos there (only 14 pictured).

It was a VERY unique opportunity to be able to shoot my/our cars with a 1958 Lockheed Super G Constellation, model L-1049G .




After the shoot was finished the group went to Winslow's BBQ for some eats and general bullshitting. The club has a very broad range of members and they all seem to be really great people.

When the food was done and I tired of small talk with the club (I'm sure as I get to know them more it will be less trying to hang with them and it will be more like an outing with friends. It's just hard to follow conversations when you don't get the inside jokes, can't put names to faces in the stories, and so forth.) Kevin and I headed off to shot some pictures of our cars.

The first shoot quickly ended because an employee of the power station where we were shooting was sent down run us off by his boss. We were only about two feet into there property due to the fact that I was shooting the 70-200 2.8 and needed a little more room. I would have stood my ground stepped two feet forward and told the guy to "piss off" but I didn't like the location that much and didn't want to "shoot the messenger".

After that we found a neat spot to shoot Kevin's T-5 near the Broadway Bridge.




Then we headed to the Power and Light District and shot these images in a parking garage.





When we got to the garage we found the location where we shot the R by itself but the light was not good for two cars so we decided to move to the upper level. Access was blocked off to the upper level but they left enough room for a car to squeeze through and we did just that. After about 20 minutes security came to see what we were doing. I showed the guard the images we had already taken and he seemed totally cool with what we were doing and hung out with us for the next hour or so while we got the shots we wanted.

Those were the best four shots of the night and the garage was the last location we shot. We looked at Liberty Memorial and the Plaza but there were issues with both location and we were both dead tired.

I did learn one important thing that night. When you have been out with a friend all night, are driving in separate cars, and go through a DUI check point. Don't answer the officers questions with "WE" did this "WE" did that. The cop looked in backseat of the car, looked at me, leaned into the car looked into the empty passenger seat, looked back at me and asked "Who is WE"?
After reexplaining the whole car club photo shoot and pointing to Kevin's Volvo ahead of me and telling him that we, was me and the guy in the red Volvo ahead of me at the check point, the officer laughed and sent me on my way.

Dental Work

This afternoon I got in the dash and replaced the odometer/trip-meter gear.
Not much to say about it. It was Not a cheap fix (much cheaper than the dealer would have charged by around $500) but it is worth the price for the gear and the instructional DVD.

I used the IPD Repair kit that Kevin order for me when he placed his last order to the Oregon parts gods.

Boost gauge connection point

The broken tooth.