I joined this forum to get info to help with sorting out a 1991 240 wagon my sister-in-law gave me. They were going to junk it as paying a shop to fix all the problems would have cost way too much. I have been doing my own work on cars for 30+ years, recently this has included a 93 VW Eurovan and an 84 Peugeot 505 with K-jet (of various cars I have worked on these 2 are most similar to the Volvo I think).
I am hoping to get some help with a couple of questions:
The car was parked outdoors and got wet & moldy inside. Anyone know of a good technique for killing mold? I figure if I can kill the mold the car is saveable, and if not then the smell is just too awful for anyone to want to drive it.
The front power windows work (slowly) but the back ones don't. My guess is the regulators are stuck from sitting a long time, I think no one sat in the back because the seatbelts were stuck behind the seatback and the handle to fold that forward is missing along with most of the linkages. Turns out it is easy to trip the latches manually with a screwdriver, so no that problem is "solved" for now.
There was water in the hidden cubby under the floor in the rear of the car. I can't quite tell where it might be coming from. Do these cars have common leak points? There is some rust perforation at the very back of the floor, where the hatchback closes, could it come in through there? The card under the passenger side back window (the fixed window, not the passenger door) is wet at the bottom, and the carpet on the floor was wet. There is some rust at the front of the passenger rear wheel well, and a small rust hole at the end of the rocker panel in front of the back tire.
Other things I need to deal with - the heater fan is not working, I haven't 100% ruled out the 25AMP fuse, but the previous owner told me it used to make a burning smell and then it quit, which is not encouraging. I have had the dash out of my eurovan, and I have seen the writeups on doing the fan for a 240, looks like a 2 day job but do-able.
The clutch cable is too tight, there's no free play and the engagement is right at the top of the pedal travel. The car drives, but if you gun it in gear the clutch slips. That's with loosening the adjustment to the point that the cable drags against the side of the white plastic tube on it's way to the clutch fork. I saw a note that the washer and rubber pad at the clutch end of the cable have a right way and a wrong way to be installed, I am hoping that they are in backwards.
There are various electrical gremlins which I think are probably mostly fuse-box and/or moisture related. Years ago I dealt with the barrel fuses on VWs, they were prone to causing problems when the contacts got dirty, so that's where I'll focus to start.
Cheers, Ian
I am hoping to get some help with a couple of questions:
The car was parked outdoors and got wet & moldy inside. Anyone know of a good technique for killing mold? I figure if I can kill the mold the car is saveable, and if not then the smell is just too awful for anyone to want to drive it.
The front power windows work (slowly) but the back ones don't. My guess is the regulators are stuck from sitting a long time, I think no one sat in the back because the seatbelts were stuck behind the seatback and the handle to fold that forward is missing along with most of the linkages. Turns out it is easy to trip the latches manually with a screwdriver, so no that problem is "solved" for now.
There was water in the hidden cubby under the floor in the rear of the car. I can't quite tell where it might be coming from. Do these cars have common leak points? There is some rust perforation at the very back of the floor, where the hatchback closes, could it come in through there? The card under the passenger side back window (the fixed window, not the passenger door) is wet at the bottom, and the carpet on the floor was wet. There is some rust at the front of the passenger rear wheel well, and a small rust hole at the end of the rocker panel in front of the back tire.
Other things I need to deal with - the heater fan is not working, I haven't 100% ruled out the 25AMP fuse, but the previous owner told me it used to make a burning smell and then it quit, which is not encouraging. I have had the dash out of my eurovan, and I have seen the writeups on doing the fan for a 240, looks like a 2 day job but do-able.
The clutch cable is too tight, there's no free play and the engagement is right at the top of the pedal travel. The car drives, but if you gun it in gear the clutch slips. That's with loosening the adjustment to the point that the cable drags against the side of the white plastic tube on it's way to the clutch fork. I saw a note that the washer and rubber pad at the clutch end of the cable have a right way and a wrong way to be installed, I am hoping that they are in backwards.
There are various electrical gremlins which I think are probably mostly fuse-box and/or moisture related. Years ago I dealt with the barrel fuses on VWs, they were prone to causing problems when the contacts got dirty, so that's where I'll focus to start.
Cheers, Ian
