Volvo 480 Club Europe

Not a lot managed this week - Did drop the some bits off for powder coating, but they've not managed to complete this week; Added to that it's the girlfriends birthday, mothers day and I've a huge presentation to practice for next week, so my time is a tad limited!

I did pop the headlamp covers off, as I know i've got a faulty adjuster. Didn't realise just HOW faulty...



It's not even the right plastic piece! Easy to sort though!

And because I'm a tad obsessive, I made sure that both adjusters were wound out, greased, wound all the way back in, that back out to roughly their starting point (I'll pop to the MOT station to get them setup once it's actually on the road). Also removed the remains of the beam bender...



If you've never used detailing clay, then you're missing out. I use it on the paintwork before waxing, but I save my used bits for things like glass and alloys. Its a soft clay, almost like blu-tack, that lifts of imperfections with only gentle rubbing.



Finally, I did a quick oil change. Just an oil change; The stuff that's in is going to be used as a flush, then I'll do both oil and filter. I'm also checking that there's no annoying leaks. First up, the drain plug!

PTFE tape wrapped around the threads is something I was taught many moons ago



And yes, I am re-using the washer, but again, it'll be replaced when I do the "proper" oil and filter change.

I think you are missing the little cups that the screw heads sit in to adjust the lights. Brinkie has found us BMW equivalents in this thread: http://www.volvo-480-europe.org/forum/v ... mw#p210237

Also, how are your gas struts? I foolishly forgot how many there were and ordered double so if you'd like two, they are here in Cambridge.

Will take you up on that James; not because they need replacing but just because I can replace them.
The current ones have probably lasted 20+ years, so changing them now should hopefully mean it'll be someone else's problem by the time they need doing again (yes, I'm THAT old...)

Oh and Robert has already added some headlamp cups to my dashboard repair costs.

No problem. I paid €25.89 each. You can have both for £25 if you like. Do you want them posted?

jamescarruthers wrote:I think you are missing the little cups that the screw heads sit in to adjust the lights. Brinkie has found us BMW equivalents in this thread: http://www.volvo-480-europe.org/forum/v ... mw#p210237

Also, how are your gas struts? I foolishly forgot how many there were and ordered double so if you'd like two, they are here in Cambridge.

They are currently showing no stock till May but have found this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E23-E24-E ... SwImRYmag4

eye of ra wrote:

jamescarruthers wrote:I think you are missing the little cups that the screw heads sit in to adjust the lights. Brinkie has found us BMW equivalents in this thread: http://www.volvo-480-europe.org/forum/v ... mw#p210237

Also, how are your gas struts? I foolishly forgot how many there were and ordered double so if you'd like two, they are here in Cambridge.

They are currently showing no stock till May but have found this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E23-E24-E ... SwImRYmag4

I have just had 6 arrive and can confirm they fit.

great news! I've added them to list of Skandix parts that no longer need sourcing!

My Gas struts arrived from James today too; Think they may be able to be sourced cheaper than Skandix Prices too!

You can theoretically get the originals recharged

Quick update - The bits are back from the powder coaters! Had a nice chat with them and it turns out they do a LOT of work for a well known Newport Pagnell based company, who's cars are VERY well known....

Anyhoo, they decided that rather than just powdercoat the bumper bar, they'd Zinc plate it first, THEN powdercoat it, to give it the absolute best chance of survival.

On with the pics I hear you cry!







Just to improve it's chances even further, Bilt Hamber S50 cavity wax is going into the seams and box sections - Thank heavens for the access holes half way as even the standard quite lengthy extension won't go halfway!



You can just about make out the s50 dripping out... but trust me, there's about half a can in there at the moment! And tomorrow, after round one has dried, the other half is going in!

So, the dashboard has arrived back from its holiday in the Netherlands! Here it is on the test bench:



And here it is, after being delivered by the wonderfully caring delivery firm Yodel.



This is no reflection on the packaging; It was bubble wrapped and foam packed, I figure Yodel have used it as a football or something similar. Thankfully a replacement cover is on its way to me.

So,I built the bumper back up and threw that back on.



And after replacing the aforementioned plastic headlamp cups, this happened....



Much on and offing of the lights did follow, but the OS motor had popped up for it's last time. After much prodding and testing of wiring, it was time to whip it out..



however, I managed to drop one of the spacers in here...



a completed sealed box section with limited access. That's going to be *fun* to fish out.

I can't even describe how much I hate Yodel. I think they have the contract with NL Post system. So our Dutch friends pay for decent track/trace system and get chimps on our end. When I got my new front clusters, they just dumped them outside my door in the rain.

Yep, PostNL hands the package over to Yodel which operate so cheap that they must drop all quality requirements and took that literally.
I could try DHL next time, but chances are you will end up with another cheap courier. And I will add another layer of bubble wrap...

Bad luck with the instrument panel - so many couriers just couldn't care less.

Overall, though, the car is coming on in leaps and bounds - and I am very jealous of your rear bumper beam!!

Look forward to seeing the car for real in May...?

David

Yup, hoping to be there in may! Don't get too excited, it's a mess on the outisde!

Fear not - I shall manage my expectations...

David

So.... I fell it's time for an update!

Firstly, the headlamp. Swapped over the new motor.

For around 5 minutes I had fun with one motor going up whilst the other when down, but a quick adjustment on spindle saw them both popping up together. There's something quite magical about pop up headlamps...

Next up, was a bit of a mini service - Nothing too exciting, had done the oil previously, so fuel filter, wipers, distributor cap, plugs and plug leads. Rotor arm will have to be another day as I've been supplied the wrong one. Oddly, the NGK plugs seemed ever so slightly longer than the bosch ones that came out.



Then next up was swapping the dashboard cover over and screwing the dashboard back in place. This time it survived the courier trip!



I then went round all the brakes, removing the calipers, applying fresh red rubber grease to the caliper guides and copper slipping the pads. The discs look buggered, so I'll have to add them to the shopping list too.

Hopefully the weather will stay fine and I can get a few miles under its tyres...

Managed to spend a few hours removing the worst of the Buytl tape/No more nails/Bathroom sealant from the sides of the car, here's how we're looking for the moment.





the white patches you see now are where it's pulled off the paint! I'm not worrying too much as the paint itself isn't worth saving

Another little teaser for you all....

On the left, a 480 window winder switch; the right is a 440 window switch



Any ideas why I'm looking to swap them?

How about if we open them both up?



More to come.....

You should have looked more closely when you were looking in mine - or perhaps you did!

Provided you adapt the 440 switch exactly to match the 480 one, add the extra pin in that the 480 does not have (although it appears yours does!) and cut the cross connection that does not exist on the 480 (leaving the LED connection in place, of course, which matches that on the 480) you can have illuminated switches without losing any functionality (including one-shot and closing all windows on holding the key).

Have fun!

David

Things you'll never hear an Auto-electrician say

"You've got too many earthing points"



Earthing points are a bit like spare cash; You can never have too many! Car electrics are relatively simple things - Give something a feed, give it an earth an boom, you've got a circuit. However, as things moved from simple circuits to more complicated ones, we've had "learning experiences" along the way; If you've a relatively newish car, you'd be amazed by the number of earths you've got. And for anyone of a "certain" age, I'm sure you know someone who owned a mini that shorted it's throttle cable out because the engine body earth strap snapped (after the top steady bar had usually worn away/snapped off).

So, to that end, I decided to add a few more earthing points. 480's main earthing points go from a big flat copper car from the battery to the inner wing, then down to the gearbox. It was probably adequate when the car was new, but 25 years on... well...

So first up, Alternator to engine. There's an earth post on the alternator, so I ran a nice 30amp piece of cable to the block.



Then I ran another 30 amp cable from the existing earth point on the engine hook, to the bracket on the inner wing.



Then for good measure, I ran a big chunky earth from one the bottom gearbox mounts to the front cross member



And finally, from the battery earth, directly to the gearbox



Ignore the dubious battery terminals, they'll be being replaced soon too! (along with re-terminating the cables at the battery ends).

So, with all the additional earthing, what are you going to notice? Well, probably nothing. But what's going to give me is one less thing to worry about. I can be confident that I've got sufficient earth paths for now (although I'll be putting an additional Battery to body one on when I'm doing the batter terminals!).

I've also got these to play with.



The right one is a classically unobtainum 480 top window seal. The left one is a second hand S40 one, which can, apparently, be trimmed to fit. Shall report in on how that goes, and if it's good, will keep fingers crossed that these are still available new from volvo so I can repeat the process on them.