• Hello Guest, welcome to the initial stages of our new platform!
    You can find some additional information about where we are in the process of migrating the board and setting up our new software here

    Thank you for being a part of our community!

1984 242 TIC Texas

You don't waste much time! The car looks fairly clean and rust free for one that has sat so long.

You can treat the inside of your frame rails and the inside of most panels with Eastwood Internal Frame Coating. It just buys you peace of mind.
 
You don't waste much time! The car looks fairly clean and rust free for one that has sat so long.

You can treat the inside of your frame rails and the inside of most panels with Eastwood Internal Frame Coating. It just buys you peace of mind.

I used to use waxoyl on my cars back home in Ireland and this will be having all the cavities filled with rust preventative. I've waited for one of these since I was a young lad.

We just bought our first house so I'm half killed getting that up to spec in tandem with the car. Tiling, decking, door and garage framing, gardening and painting. It's fun in truth but it's diverted some of the funds and the virus has only me working at present which is fun, lucky compared to most !

In truth I'm trying to figure out my next move. The wiring harness is utterly shagged around the turbo and firewall and I'm trying to strategize a bit.

Do I repair the wires and see if the engine is in any sort of running condition? 178,000 miles on it, clean oil, zero coolant, sludge in the tank and found an empty coolant bottle in the trunk.

Do I go megasquirt like I'd eventually want to with an unknown engine ?

Do I just throw a t5 engine in there like I had in my old 850 ?

Either way it'll be whatever's cheapest so figuring out what I've got on my hands and repairing the loom /throwing in a good used one is probably prudent.

That and my skills set is limited, I've only ever worked on old vw stuff and basic servicing stuff. I can learn anything , half the reason I got this car, a great opportunity!
 
On the kjet harness, I wouldn't recommend trying to mend it. It will be crumbly where you can't see. Finding a second hand one is really the best option. I personally would buy the dave barton harness. Its not very much money. I bet the engine/trans is in good working order. At this point the engine would need seals & gaskets but that's easy. Kjet can run pretty well once its sorted. I was going to restore my kjet setup but there was too many missing parts to make it financially feasible so I will be going LH 2.4.
 
Microsquirt it or LH EFI it, unless you just must have originality.
LH 2.2/EZK harness from Barton would be money better spent IMO than replacing Kjet harness. All of the rest of the stuff you need is junkyardable.
 
So a bit more dirty work today!

I cleaned out the expansion tank and realized that the nice clean coolant is actually in the system, there was just a gunky residue in the tank itself - coolant was grand in the pipes beneath it - I've to make up a bracket to hold the tank but should be grand!

I had a closer look at the wiring and ended up cutting out the bad bits to get started on repairing what's there. There's not too much wrong with the harness except where it seemed to be sitting an inch from the turbo - don't know who thought that was a good idea but we'll get it sorted.

20200517_172837 by V G, Flickr에서

These were the crispy bits!

and the connector from behind the dash to the engine bay was fubarred!

20200517_172901 by V G, Flickr에서

20200517_204057 by V G, Flickr에서

I chased it back throught he dash and snipped it off once I found good wire.

One side of the connector is grand, the other is in pieces - I think I'll replace the lot with a junkyard 8 pin waterpoof connector or just buy new 8 pin connector and put it all together properly.

20200517_174215 by V G, Flickr에서

I also found this thing lounging around in free space in the engine bay - looks like it's vacuum related? either way, it's not doing much with all the holes in it right now - essential or can I delete it ? - I may recreate it using a can of tomatoes from the pantry :D


20200513_184347 by V G, Flickr에서

Also I couldn't help myself - need to get some 5x108 to 5x5/127mm (not the5x112 as I'd thought) adapters to make it work but should look nice !
 
Last edited:
20200523_215840 by V G, Flickr에서

So this is going to turn into a harness that connects the dash to the engine :D

20200523_215835 by V G, Flickr에서

Went with a molex connector for simplicity as I wanted something better than the original volvo stuff, went with 18awg tinned copper wire silicone so very easy to work with and good for 200 degrees - hopefully It's up to the job as the last harness was melted by the turbo - really odd location !

20200523_232014 by V G, Flickr에서

it took an age !

Old Vs new!
20200523_232319 by V G, Flickr에서

oh and picked up a ridiculously huge roof box for the truck !

20200520_214656 by V G, Flickr에서

20200521_180939 by V G, Flickr에서

New bits and bobs - had to use the hair dryer to make the rubber grommet soft enough to push through the bulkhead!
20200521_185604 by V G, Flickr에서

These shrink wrap connectors are a great idea !

20200521_191605 by V G, Flickr에서

20200524_150915 by V G, Flickr에서

In the cabin went with regular connectors.

20200524_150943 by V G, Flickr에서

20200524_162120 by V G, Flickr에서

Wrapped in conduit - I've yet to figure out how to mount it up and away from the turbo but that's the plan!

Rooting around in the passenger footwellI found this connector

20200524_152319 by V G, Flickr에서

Really clean and had a galvanised bracket on the bulkhead - obviously missing a module for something - I'm hoping it's cruise control??

The ecu is still there at least !

20200524_152335 by V G, Flickr에서

So that's where it stands for a while, I'm not hearing any clicking or fuel pump engaging when I turn the key, so have yet to dig out the relay and test that. It's sat for a while and broke down where it was left so maybe a fuel pump / pair of them is in order.


The new house is saking up a lot of time so it may be a while before I can get anything else done on it !
 
yes, the white connector is for cruise control (a black ~6"x6"x1" box, from Dana Corp.), and the crusty can is a vacuum reservoir for the cruise control.

If you don't have one already, get a copy of the Bentley Volvo 240 Service Manual - it does a nice job going through all the k-jet systems and diagnostics.
 
I think I have a digital copy knocking around alright, must charge up the Kindle !

Thanks for the info !

yes, the white connector is for cruise control (a black ~6"x6"x1" box, from Dana Corp.), and the crusty can is a vacuum reservoir for the cruise control.

If you don't have one already, get a copy of the Bentley Volvo 240 Service Manual - it does a nice job going through all the k-jet systems and diagnostics.
 
So, trying to keep the costs down on this as the new house has stolen my wallet - focusing on repairs replacement of as much as possible!

The grille was falling apart so had a go at plastic welding - first time, so focused mostly on rebuilding the broken parts - I'll tidy it up when I get paint to rejuvenate it properly.

20200527_192421 by V G, Flickr에서

20200527_201636 by V G, Flickr에서

Carefully removed some material from this later grille behind the emblem

20200527_201642 by V G, Flickr에서

20200527_201639 by V G, Flickr에서

20200527_202153 by V G, Flickr에서

20200527_201636 by V G, Flickr에서

Let in the bits, step by step

20200527_210654 by V G, Flickr에서

Started thinking on an emblem and wanted to test out the prancing moose before committing to a proper version 20200527_231033 by V G, Flickr에서

20200528_000900 by V G, Flickr에서

20200528_001334 by V G, Flickr에서

2020-05-28_12-22-28 by V G, Flickr에서

Not sure how I feel about it but I don't know I need some filler and more sanding work on the grill lats to make it look decent :D[/QUOTE]
 
I do a lot of plastic welding for volvo parts. What I use as filler is the base material. I save a lot of plastic pieces that normally people trash for this reason. The plastics are all some sort of abs composites(each vary). Go back and keep filling in the area where it needs it. You can go back and smooth everything out with a die grinder or a dremel tool(I've been using a die grinder with a coarse sanding roll). Once everything is smooth out. You can use a primer-filler to smooth out imperfections. I use SEM trim black for the finishing coat.

Example(this repair is not too pretty but it doesn't need to be): Door pocket tab broken

s-l600.jpg

s-l600.jpg
 
Your headlights would benefit from these black out trim pieces. You can make a wanted post and I'm sure someone will have a pair to sell you.

49948762761_d8a2c45497_c.jpg
 
I do a lot of plastic welding for volvo parts. What I use as filler is the base material. I save a lot of plastic pieces that normally people trash for this reason. The plastics are all some sort of abs composites(each vary). Go back and keep filling in the area where it needs it. You can go back and smooth everything out with a die grinder or a dremel tool(I've been using a die grinder with a coarse sanding roll). Once everything is smooth out. You can use a primer-filler to smooth out imperfections. I use SEM trim black for the finishing coat.

Example(this repair is not too pretty but it doesn't need to be): Door pocket tab broken

s-l600.jpg

s-l600.jpg

Awesome 👍 thanks for the tip. I've heard good things about baking soda and super glue of all things !
 
So I finally did more testing of the fuel system. I thought I'd heard the pumps running but it's only the tank one whining away. I tested them both. My only issue now is waiting to get the cash in to replace the main pump and that the tank is three quarters full which I'm sure will be allover my garage floor soon ;)
 
So sorry for the later update, had a bunch of landscaping land in my lap at the house. We now have a small orchard and vegetable patch in the making as well as a rainwater harvesting system!

I had ordered the pumps about a month ago and got a delivery notification for them, never saw the package arrive despite me having signed for it, still waiting on the replacements.

20200619_200139 by V G, on Flickr

Of course I had drained 99% of the gas out of the tank in preparation- all clean and no rust so may have lucked out, the sender appears to be working and on testing the pumps my in tank one seems to have survived, I'll replace it anyways when I've the system drained. Then hopefully I can get it running. I know the external pump is bad - even without the relay, jumping the connection gives nothing. To be expected after 2+ years off the road I guess.


So mechanicals on pause until parts arrive I turned to the niggly bits I knew I'd live with once the car was driving so tried to get them fixed - the passenger door handle was broken. Drilled it out, tapped it and added an ikea screw and end with some loctite to keep the scandinavian theme.

20200623_155707 by V G, on Flickr

20200623_161321 by V G, on Flickr

20200623_161458 by V G, on Flickr

20200623_161505 by V G, on Flickr

I then moved on to the keys scenario, the trunk, glovebox and doors/ ignition - got the trunk re-keyed and got some copies made and YES! I had to use every, single extension I could find in the garage to undo the trunk lock receiver from the ski-hole in the back seat. I was welcomed with various intake parts, a can of easy start and a rust free trunk pan/wells so very happy there!

20200623_154459 by V G, on Flickr

I finally got the title paperwork sorted last week - my county insists waiting 40 days for any previous owners to lodge an appeal for storage lien title transfers. Given the last time it was in their possession was over 2 years ago and the only hope of them getting ownership again was paying the $16,000 bill for the towing and storage fees I was pretty sure there'd be no contest.

Still waiting on the fuel parts I decided to do something I had the materials/ tools for and give it a bit of a detail.

20200624_200149 by V G, on Flickr

20200624_201951 by V G, on Flickr

Half the reason I wanted this car was it's turbo intercooler setup, the other half was the body. Incredibly straight and rust free. I can't stand paint/body work!

20200624_213524 by V G, on Flickr

Just one layer of finnish kare sealant, buffed. I didn't even polish/ claybar it yet !

20200624_213518 by V G, on Flickr

20200624_213540 by V G, on Flickr

Next up was fitting my momo I've had 15 odd years with my new hub from Estonia - cheap on ebay and seems to fit very nicely !

20200627_155809 by V G, on Flickr

It was last seen in my mk2 golf :D

20200627_162002 by V G, on Flickr

I've a generic horn push ordered, the volvo ones are stupid money and this is a beer change build !
 
Found a set of seat covers local for $20 and they'll do until I go over the interior properly/ until the kids are past incontinence/dropping icecream :D

20200627_173847 by V G, on Flickr

Out came the seats - not too bad a job despite my 6ft2' big arse in there - I think someone had loosedned them up for me. Again astounded to find no rust hiding and I had a peek under the carpets too - nothing thankfully !

20200627_173914 by V G, on Flickr

Found more cable than a radioshack would've had on hand back in the day !

20200627_203612 by V G, on Flickr
20200627_173944 by V G, on Flickr
Then the Baja modifications started...

It's basically a rally car now. Used space- tape, NASA and dollar store approved along with some skinny cable ties to contour fit the quality walmart offerings to the formerly supple leatherette which now has the texture of a 90 year old Floridian's hide.

20200627_205152 by V G, on Flickr

20200627_203654 by V G, on Flickr

20200627_205145 by V G, on Flickr

These skinny ties from dollar store were gold - slipped through the fabric - didn't have to cut any holes !

Then I went to work on removing the cables

20200627_210555 by V G, on Flickr


20200627_210608 by V G, on Flickr

20200627_210618 by V G, on Flickr

20200627_210625 by V G, on Flickr

20200627_211719 by V G, on Flickr

Basically has the grandma look for when I get pulled over.

20200627_211729 by V G, on Flickr

20200627_211807 by V G, on Flickr

20200627_212044 by V G, on Flickr
and for my next act...
 
Back
Top