I'm starting this thread to chronicle the goings-on with my turd of a 1985 760 Turbo that my wife has affectionately christened the "Jurbo" (that's pronounced YUR-bo, get it right). The plans are to get the car back to a real stage zero, then add a few go-less-slow parts. My long term goal is about 250hp.
I purchased the car in November 2017 after running across the world's most detailed Craigslist ad- complete with exactly zero pictures and no mention of condition or maintenance at all. What it did mention, however, was the mileage at a hair under 78k original. Called the phone number in the ad, set up an appointment, and travel to the address the seller gave me- a podunk repair shop in the south suburbs of Minneapolis. My expectations were extraordinarily low. The car fired right up, but had idling problems. It died immediately on the test drive the first time I tried to get it to boost, and lots of the interior trim was in the trunk. It died occasionally while moving, apropos of nothing. It was going to need everything rubber replaced from being driven less than 500 miles in the last decade. Bummer. The good news is that the stack of work orders that came with it was thicker than my forearm, it had spent most of it's life garaged in Colorado, and the mileage was verified to really be 78k. Party on. This is what it looked like when my wife and I picked it up-
Neat. At this point, the plan was to park the car in my garage stall at our apartment until I could find a work space for it, then pick away at the things I knew it needed until was reliable enough to be my DD. This did not happen.
Shortly after this purchase, my wife's '98 Accord (RIP to the only rust free Accord in MN) was stolen from our parking lot and totaled. She couldn't drive my MINI, and needed to get to work. "What about the Volvo?" she asked. We had the requisite discussions about the car being old and pissy, and that almost none of the maintenance or repairs that needed doing had yet been done. The Jurbo was then pressed into service as a way to get her to work and back. Turns out, she loves the damn thing warts and all.
Since she was now driving it, I figured I should fire up the parts cannon and get to work. The lack of idle was traced to a flaky IAC- popped it open and was greeted with this-
Mmmm... toasty. Right then- off to ebay for a replacement. Now it idled! Woo.
Where did all the brake fluid go?
Oh yeah. That's not good.
Throw a bunch of money at IPD, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand...
Installed the new MC and bled the brakes-
Cool. Now it's significantly less of a deathtrap.
Despite itself, it did start and run for her every day, even when we had a high temp of -2F in February. Once it was warmed up, it ran and drove pretty well. It looks damn good too, which helps.
During these few months, it would still have intermittent running issues and returned an average of 11mpg. Even for a 7er, that's kinda garbage. It was also even slower than a 760 Turbo is normally. After consulting the oracle (read- TB's Maintenance forum), it was suggested that I check the engine timing. I had a timing belt invoice from three months prior in the aforementioned giant stack of records, so I figured it was worth checking. Turns out Podunk McGee's Auto Emporium had timed the motor two teeth off, and the car had been running that way this whole time. In a Minnesota winter. I was blown away. So then, new timing and accessory belts in hand, we did the needful (as well as a bunch of deferred maintenance):
At the same time, we undid all of the bodges the previous shop had made to get it to run with the timing so far out. The car was back on the road- holy hell I had forgotten how much fun boost is. My mojo was restored as the sun set over this beautiful slab of Swedishness.
The Jurbo behaved itself quite well during our house purchase and my wife continued to use it as a daily driver until May of this year when she went out to the car to go to work and was greeted by a car that refused to run. If you grabbed the harness that runs under the intake manifold and jiggle it, it would start and run just fine. Boo.
At this point, I decided that it was going to get parked and gone through completely- the wiring elsewhere in the engine bay was looking very crispy and the vacuum lines were all old enough to remember the Reagan administration, so into the garage it went. Here it is, looking quite sorry for itself.
Started taking things apart:
The offending bit of wiring harness. There is an invoice for the "repair" of a coolant temp sensor and a new wire run to the ECU. What they really did was perhaps a bit less than that. Lazy bastards. At least I have a whole new harness from Mr. Barton now.
While I was waiting for a few parts (read: when I should have been working on cleaning up the engine bay), I decided to give it it's first polish and coat of wax since god knows when. This is how it sits today:
I love this stupid thing.
TLR- guy buys old 760, car is pissy from sitting and shoddy work, guy does a few things to make it run a bit better, wiring harness stops play.
I purchased the car in November 2017 after running across the world's most detailed Craigslist ad- complete with exactly zero pictures and no mention of condition or maintenance at all. What it did mention, however, was the mileage at a hair under 78k original. Called the phone number in the ad, set up an appointment, and travel to the address the seller gave me- a podunk repair shop in the south suburbs of Minneapolis. My expectations were extraordinarily low. The car fired right up, but had idling problems. It died immediately on the test drive the first time I tried to get it to boost, and lots of the interior trim was in the trunk. It died occasionally while moving, apropos of nothing. It was going to need everything rubber replaced from being driven less than 500 miles in the last decade. Bummer. The good news is that the stack of work orders that came with it was thicker than my forearm, it had spent most of it's life garaged in Colorado, and the mileage was verified to really be 78k. Party on. This is what it looked like when my wife and I picked it up-
Neat. At this point, the plan was to park the car in my garage stall at our apartment until I could find a work space for it, then pick away at the things I knew it needed until was reliable enough to be my DD. This did not happen.
Shortly after this purchase, my wife's '98 Accord (RIP to the only rust free Accord in MN) was stolen from our parking lot and totaled. She couldn't drive my MINI, and needed to get to work. "What about the Volvo?" she asked. We had the requisite discussions about the car being old and pissy, and that almost none of the maintenance or repairs that needed doing had yet been done. The Jurbo was then pressed into service as a way to get her to work and back. Turns out, she loves the damn thing warts and all.
Since she was now driving it, I figured I should fire up the parts cannon and get to work. The lack of idle was traced to a flaky IAC- popped it open and was greeted with this-
Mmmm... toasty. Right then- off to ebay for a replacement. Now it idled! Woo.
Where did all the brake fluid go?
Oh yeah. That's not good.
Throw a bunch of money at IPD, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand...
Installed the new MC and bled the brakes-
Cool. Now it's significantly less of a deathtrap.
Despite itself, it did start and run for her every day, even when we had a high temp of -2F in February. Once it was warmed up, it ran and drove pretty well. It looks damn good too, which helps.
During these few months, it would still have intermittent running issues and returned an average of 11mpg. Even for a 7er, that's kinda garbage. It was also even slower than a 760 Turbo is normally. After consulting the oracle (read- TB's Maintenance forum), it was suggested that I check the engine timing. I had a timing belt invoice from three months prior in the aforementioned giant stack of records, so I figured it was worth checking. Turns out Podunk McGee's Auto Emporium had timed the motor two teeth off, and the car had been running that way this whole time. In a Minnesota winter. I was blown away. So then, new timing and accessory belts in hand, we did the needful (as well as a bunch of deferred maintenance):
At the same time, we undid all of the bodges the previous shop had made to get it to run with the timing so far out. The car was back on the road- holy hell I had forgotten how much fun boost is. My mojo was restored as the sun set over this beautiful slab of Swedishness.
The Jurbo behaved itself quite well during our house purchase and my wife continued to use it as a daily driver until May of this year when she went out to the car to go to work and was greeted by a car that refused to run. If you grabbed the harness that runs under the intake manifold and jiggle it, it would start and run just fine. Boo.
At this point, I decided that it was going to get parked and gone through completely- the wiring elsewhere in the engine bay was looking very crispy and the vacuum lines were all old enough to remember the Reagan administration, so into the garage it went. Here it is, looking quite sorry for itself.
Started taking things apart:
The offending bit of wiring harness. There is an invoice for the "repair" of a coolant temp sensor and a new wire run to the ECU. What they really did was perhaps a bit less than that. Lazy bastards. At least I have a whole new harness from Mr. Barton now.
While I was waiting for a few parts (read: when I should have been working on cleaning up the engine bay), I decided to give it it's first polish and coat of wax since god knows when. This is how it sits today:
I love this stupid thing.
TLR- guy buys old 760, car is pissy from sitting and shoddy work, guy does a few things to make it run a bit better, wiring harness stops play.