Volvo 480 Club Europe

Hi all,
You may recall bei g bombarded with numerous posts from me all relating to clutch cables. It would seem that the RHD cable is absolutely unavailable and as such I am in the process of procuring some raw materials to make up my own new cable. I have ordered enough materials to make around three cables and can readily get more.

If anyone would be interested in a new (and somewhat better) cable then let me know. They're not made yet, I'm still finalising the design and doing some strength and repeatability trials on methods for attaching fittings to the cable. Obviously the ideal scenario is that the fitting stays put and the cable snaps elsewhere. A combination of soldering and crimping seems like the way to go. I am in the toolmaking profession and so have made some crimping dies etc so I can achieve a truly high quality product.
Not sure as regards cost per comlpete cable yet but it won't be astronomical.

I have also made a rather nice new clevis for the pedal, not sure how to post pics but just pm me an email address if anyone wants a pic.

Would be able to reproduce these for not too much money either.

Yes, I'm interested. Count me in.

jim remember there are 2 types of clutch cable and differ in length.

Good point there Jim. It did cross my mind that there might be variants. Any idea on the differences and what was fitted to what?

I'll be basing mine on a 1990
Turbo setup.

Is it a different actuation length or is the throw the same but the whole thing longer/shorter?

It may be possible to design one to fit all depending on what's different about them.

I bet you've got a few lying around Jim, you'd be a massive help to the cause if you could shed any light on this and possibly post up some dimensions. Or anyone else for that matter.

At present my cable is shorter than it ought to be anyway as I've had to disassemble it, cut the conduit down and the cable respectively (to where the last strand broke) and reassemble and finally silver solder a new end on that I turned up on the old myford. (Counterbored and end of cable splayed into said counterbore before potting with solder). This shorter length has been ok but I've had to route it a little differently. There are a number of routing options that avoid sharp bend radii in the conduit though.

Also, the conduit I have ordered (should be here tomorrow ) is a high quality Teflon lined affair and is apparently capable of quite sharp bend radii (minimum rad. 70ish mm).
If you picture that, it's quite a sharp turn for a control cable with a 3mm core. This will allow even more flexibility (pun intended!) when fitting.

Incidentally, the original cable is also 3mm so the gauge will be the same.

The ferrules at the ends (OE is obviously injection moulded plastic for mass production) will be turned in aluminium (I could use nylon but I thought ally would be a bit bling, and ultimately ever so slightly less compressible) and have grommets/o-rings to ensure nice fitting and cable ends will be made in alloy steel (en24 or the like)/high tensile m6 studding. Sure you can guess which end the studding is for!

Dimensions is what I need...........

Thanks all.

From memory the difference was length about 2to3cm. I have a spare late model one in shed so I will measure that it should give you and idea of what you need . I will also photograph and measure the engine end of cable as the pedal end is the same.

"dimensions is what i need.." typical engineer

Thanks Jim, your a diamond mate. The bits arrived today and I spent my lunch break in the m/c shop making some fittings and some tooling. Gonna assemble the first prototype tonight. I'm going to reuse the ferrules from the LHD one that I mistakenly ordered off eBay. I'd love to post up a picture if someone could just tell me how!

Found a great method for attaching ends too, there's a company called venhill engineering who make custom cables and they have a YouTube video showing the use of a tool to 'birdcage' the end of the wire before soldering into a counterbore. I've replicated the tooling and tried out the joint that it produces. I think the term 'brick s#ithouse' sums up the strength quite well! Should give many tens of thousands of miles service. I couldn't get the wire to pull out of the fitting even before soldering! Excellent!

Incidentally, the conduit is thinner and far more flexible than the OE stuff so it will be possible to be quite creative with routing, therefore the length won't be critical. Just the difference between cable and conduit length to get spot on then........

I'm intrigued as to the difference at the gearbox end. I think I might have to create some proper drawings of these variants......

First prototype assembled and will be fitted today!

Jim,
I've emailed you a couple of pics if you wanted to post them up.....

I'll post up some feedback, assuming it fits.

Additionally I made up a short test piece with a fitting on either end and rigged it up between top and bottom of a big land rover scissor jack. There was a SCARY amount of tension in the cable before the fitting came off. Unfortunate that the cable didn't give before the fitting but there was a LOT of tension before anything happened. The jack started to creak and bend before it gave way. Based on how difficult it was to wind the jack I reckon there was at least a ton of force on it.

Had to stand well back.....