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1970 1800E Driver Restoration

Reassembly still progressing. Lots of stops and starts due to other work at the shop and me hunting down bits and pieces that are missing or bad. Here's how it looks as of this afternoon:

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Not much to see in this one except the exhaust and tail pipes. I ended up re-using the chromed pipes that were originally on the car. After soaking in Simple Green for a week with periodic brass wire brushing they cleaned up ok. Pitted if you look closely.

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Everything nice and clean. Already alerted shop to the absence of the VDO speedo angle drive gear.

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The beefy vintage IPD sway that I salvaged off my 73 ES parts car. Still has the remnants of the original paper label on it FWIW.

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Fuel pump and lines using the Hi Performance recommended (and sourced) alternative to the Bosch pump.

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M410 data plate

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Another exhaust shot. Also the VP-sourced replacement proportioning valves.

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Engine bay.

I've decided to refinish the original Fergat steel/alloy wheels that are so wildly popular (that is sarcasm, btw). Two of mine are structurally sound and maybe a third (it's being used on the car right now and has been holding air for a long time so hoping good). Have three more on the way. Going to use matte black wheel paint and matt clear coat. Plan to spray the entire wheel black and then use a finishing sander to get the bright alloy highlights. I used one of the bad wheels to do a test on and I think it will work ok.
 
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Oh man, I would be pulling all nighters if I were at this point of the reassembly. It's so nice, I bet you can't wait to drive it! You've really turned this car around.
 
Thanks! I'm pleased with the way it is coming along. I just looked at the bill of sale in anticipation of getting it registered; I've had this damned thing about a month shy of six years.

The next one will begin sometime next year and I plan to have it on the road within 12-18 months after the project starts.
 
Engine cranked for the first time since ~1982 this afternoon. Hopefully it will fire tomorrow. Spark plug wires will be sorted...just temporary.

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Thanks to all!

And special thanks today to Eric at Hi Performance for helping me/the shop with some trans-continental trouble shooting.

We now have confirmed functioning of ECU and TPS and are triggering all four injectors. Near close of business discovery: no fuel making its way to the FPR (doh!). There's also no fuel coming out the delivery end of the fuel pump (double doh!). Likely reversed polarity of fuel pump wiring, to be confirmed tomorrow morning. Then hopefully it will fire up. Or won't it? Stay tuned.....
 
It won't.....or at least not really. The latest:

-30 psi at fuel rail
-injectors are triggering in pairs when the engine is rotated manually
-cold start injector is firing and the engine will start and then immediately die.
-engine will run if you spray starter fluid into intake

Next step from 1970s Volvo FI troubleshooting pamphlet looks to be the air pressure sensor which will be checked on Monday when the shop opens.

-Ensure good connection on air pressure sensor
-Ohmeter to two outer pins (7 & 15) of air pressure sensor
—90 Ohms ok
—Less than 90 Ohms replace sensor
-Ohmeter to center pins of (8 & 10) of air pressure sensor
—350 Ohms ok
—less than 350 Ohms replace sensor
-Ohmeter to either pin 7 or 15 and sensor casing
—infinite: ok
—Not infinite: replace
-Ohmeter to either pin 8 or 10 and sensor casing
—infinite: ok
—Not infinite: replace

Questions:
-I have a spare air pressure sensor and all measures out ok except resistance between pin 8 & 10 is 9.5 ohms under spec (340.5). Given that the FI fault tracing guide was written in the days of analog volt meters is there a slop factor that might work in my favor? In other words is 340.5 measured precisely close enough to 350 ohms measured less precisely?
-What are the symptoms of a bad air pressure sensor at startup? If bad will the absence of a signal from it prevent the injectors from firing?
-Finally (and unrelated): how do you wire the stock tacho to a 123 distributor?
 
AAV working properly? On mine, because the AAV is broken, I have to start it while feathering the pedal to allow more air into the manifold, otherwise it will die. I have to keep it revved around 2K or higher. After ~20 seconds or so of doing this, the cylinder walls become hot enough that the amount of reactants can be reduced, and I can let off the throttle.

Check AAV, maybe see if you can blow air thru one hose and feel it come out the other with your hand? Just to verify nothing is lodged in the hose as well...
 
AAV working properly? On mine, because the AAV is broken, I have to start it while feathering the pedal to allow more air into the manifold, otherwise it will die. I have to keep it revved around 2K or higher. After ~20 seconds or so of doing this, the cylinder walls become hot enough that the amount of reactants can be reduced, and I can let off the throttle.

Check AAV, maybe see if you can blow air thru one hose and feel it come out the other with your hand? Just to verify nothing is lodged in the hose as well...

thanks; will check it out as well
 
It lives!

The latest and a recap (hopefully of some use to someone else in the future trying to revive a D-Jet vehicle):

The original MAP sensor ohmed out within specs and held a vacuum at 7 psi.

We had good signal from the distributor to the injectors; when the engine was manually turned you could feel alternating sets of 2 injectors clicking.

We knew the injectors were functioning properly because you could manipulate the throttle position switch and they would dump enough fuel into the intake manifold that the car would start, run for ~15 seconds, and then starve out.

Likewise, without fiddling with the TPS the car would start due to the cold start injector firing.

This left the shop thinking “bad ECU.” I brought in my spare ECU from 73 parts car and same symptoms which led shop to conclude “two bad ECUs.” Eric at Hi Performance (who has kindly answered endless questions and patiently helped me/the shop with troubleshooting throughout this process — many, many thanks again Eric!) shipped a known good ECU out on Monday and when it arrived at the shop on Tuesday, same result. Shop was leaning toward “three bad ECUs” which seemed a bit of a stretch but they had tested everything multiple times at this point and the black box was therefore easy to suspect.

After reading through the various Volvo FI injection trouble shooting pamphlets on volvo1800pictures.com they seemed to imply that the MAP sensor is critical to generating the injection pulse.

So as a last resort I pulled the spare MAP from my 73 parts car, ohmed it out (tested within specs) and brought it to the shop this afternoon. I really didn’t expect it to fire up and planned to have the car hauled home and troubleshoot it myself as I had time; lo and behold, the car fired right up and ran.

My big take way from this entire exercise: on D-Jet the system will not pulse the injectors with a bad MAP.
 
Now instead of hauling it home to figure out a problem, you get to drive it home to put your final touches on it!

Good stuff, this restoration has been great to follow .
 
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