Duder's Beige Brick - ARUNDL - 1981 242 DL +B230FT

yeah it's good data to have available. Thanks, Duder.

No worries.

The clutch still isn't releasing right however - even with the taller throwout bearing, I only get about 1/2" of fork travel compressing the pressure plate before the fork hits the front edge of the bellhousing window.

This is with the cable backed out all the way as well, at the very extreme of adjustment.

Looks like it will need shims under the PP after all, and/or spacers under the fork pivot ball in the bellhousing.

I had to space out the pivot ball on mine since the Saab PP's fingers are so much shorter. I ended up with 2 of the Volvo cupped turbo exhaust manifold washers under the pivot to get the arm's travel and arc within the right range for full release while still having an adjustment range on the cable. I originally had to put 4 of those washers behind the pivot before I "fixed" my PP setup issue. Yours might be different depending on the fork and release bearing. Also if you set yours up according to that chart, your fingers should be sticking out more so you might need less (or thinner) washers than I used.

You want the arm to move across the peak of it's arc (or when the arm is perpendicular to the input shaft) while releasing so there is less side force on the release bearing, but just keeping the arm within the window on the bellhousing should get that close enough. I have also heard bad things about those cables. I was lucky and got one of the last original metal sheathed "good" ones from Volvo back around 2012.

Here is a post from my project thread when I initially put the clutch in without considering the PP's setup height, and then another thread I started while "fixing" it. Mine is a Chevy v8 t5 with one of the modified bellhousings that JohnV made. Maybe you can tell from the photos if I have the same fork and release bearing as you.

Duder said:

No worries.

The clutch still isn't releasing right however - even with the taller throwout bearing, I only get about 1/2" of fork travel compressing the pressure plate before the fork hits the front edge of the bellhousing window.

This is with the cable backed out all the way as well, at the very extreme of adjustment.

Looks like it will need shims under the PP after all, and/or spacers under the fork pivot ball in the bellhousing.

Click to expand...

Did you inspect the pedal? I had that same problem and the hole that the clevis pin went through was elongated.

wennstroma said:

I had to space out the pivot ball on mine since the Saab PP's fingers are so much shorter. I ended up with 2 of the Volvo cupped turbo exhaust manifold washers under the pivot to get the arm's travel and arc within the right range for full release while still having an adjustment range on the cable. I originally had to put 4 of those washers behind the pivot before I "fixed" my PP setup issue. Yours might be different depending on the fork and release bearing. Also if you set yours up according to that chart, your fingers should be sticking out more so you might need less (or thinner) washers than I used.

You want the arm to move across the peak of it's arc (or when the arm is perpendicular to the input shaft) while releasing so there is less side force on the release bearing, but just keeping the arm within the window on the bellhousing should get that close enough. I have also heard bad things about those cables. I was lucky and got one of the last original metal sheathed "good" ones from Volvo back around 2012.

Here is a post from my project thread when I initially put the clutch in without considering the PP's setup height, and then another thread I started while "fixing" it. Mine is a Chevy v8 t5 with one of the modified bellhousings that JohnV made. Maybe you can tell from the photos if I have the same fork and release bearing as you.

Click to expand...

blkaplan said:

Did you inspect the pedal? I had that same problem and the hole that the clevis pin went through was elongated.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback and tips guys - I will check into all of this stuff.

For random future reference: the beltline trim clip part number is 1247708. Quantity required for 242 = 51x.

Yeah and don't they add up quick!

Aftermarket ones suck too. If you can afford it buy Volvo ones. If you buy the aftermarket ones buy a handful of extras.

I was working on the 242 and my Land Crusher today, and this silly red car kept getting in my way. If it was mine I'd think hard about grafting Fiero body panels on it, for maximum trollage.

I saw yours and the fiero Friday night in person

Hank Scorpio said:

I saw yours and the fiero Friday night in person

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I didn't know you were in town - would have come out to the shop to say hi.

Hope you didn't catch rabies in there. Or scabies.

Battery tray is welded in now; don't have a good completed photo yet so this is a teaser.

Fiero, I saw that on the lemons article, lol.

Just started following your thread. Looks great.

I laughed seeing the comment about OE quality Pilkington glass (now owned by NSG).

Here is some more Pilkington glass.


Glad it worked out well for you!

Duder said:

A few weeks ago I bought a gorgeous brown dash from Dave Barton, with no cracks and very little fading. Decided to splurge a bit since having the windshield out was the perfect time to do a dash swap for easy access.

The typical Volvo wiring spaghetti mess was obvious once I pulled the old dash out:

So I did a bit of cleanup, re-routing some wires and vacuum hoses and zip-tying everything together that I could in order to reduce rattling noises while driving. The zip-tied wire pictures are more boring than a bag of rocks so I won't share them here.

Once the new dash was in I called around to various mobile glass distributors until I found one with access to the OE-quality Pilkington glass, so I went with that since it was only $20 more than the cheap stuff.

Getting the pinch-weld / flange ready for glass installation with a final cleaning:

(the old black gooey butyl tape is the stickiest stuff I have worked with in a while and didn't come off without a fight)

Mr. Glass Man painted the pinch weld and the inside edge of the glass with fast-drying primer, squirted a bead of urethane windo-weld with his nifty electric caulking gun, and set the glass in place.

One-man operation:

This guy said he has been installing glass since the year I was born. He did a good job.


Viola.

Back to the dash swap... for comparative purposes here's a "before" shot of the original dash, formerly brown, cracked, painted black with a blue glove box:

Aaaand...here's the spanking-new (looking) awesome crack-free brown dash installed with matching glovebox. Also please note the matching center console & kick panels that I found in the junkyard a few months ago, and the inside of the new windshield:

My reversion back to nice brown-interiored beige sleeper mobile is almost complete. Mwa ha haaaa...

Click to expand...

Duder said:

I didn't know you were in town - would have come out to the shop to say hi.

Hope you didn't catch rabies in there. Or scabies.

Click to expand...

Don't sweat it was only there for the night for a business meeting. Next time

HUB said:

Just started following your thread. Looks great.

I laughed seeing the comment about OE quality Pilkington glass (now owned by NSG).

Click to expand...

Sorry - I'm not quite understanding your post. Are you saying that Pilkington glass is "Not So Good," or does Nippon Sheet Glass make a decent windshield?

IIRC the windshield I bought was made in Mexico. To me it looks every bit as good as OE glass. No distortion or waviness. Certainly better than some of the el-cheapo windshields I've seen from Safelite and others.

I was laughing from it just being a small world.

Just like any supplier, they have challenges, but it's a very cool process.

Thanks,

I've been bad about updating this thread -- there has been some progress in small chunks on this lately. Now that I've had my Miata wrecked, found a replacement Miata, prepped it for its first trackday with a rollbar install, cooling system service, and brakes... fixed and flipped a lightly wrecked '98 Camry, cut our rusty E36 Lemons car into tiny pieces, rebuilt the brakes on my '66 Beetle, started recording a weekly live radio show, rebuilt the front axle on my '94 Land Cruiser, finished deleting the M5's SLS system and rebuilding all the PS lines and got that back on the road... it's finally back to getting the 242 running. Whee! All of this in the last 4 months.

A while back I was finally able to fix my clutch disengagement issue. Thanks to Alex for helping me with the solution, and muscle-effing the transmission out of and back into the car. If you remember, the M46 clutch fork was bottoming out against the front edge of the bellhousing window before the clutch was fully disengaged. The pedal felt fine up to that point, but actual clutch travel was only about half of what it needed to be. I started by measuring the distance from the front of the bellhousing window to the fork, with the cable removed, and the fork pushed forward such that the throwout bearing was just starting to touch the pressure plate diaphragm spring fingers.



Then we pulled the transmission and bellhousing and set it on the floor. With the fork still installed I moved it forward to this same position, relative to the bellhousing window. Then we took two squares and measured the distance from the bellhousing / block mating flange, to the tip of the throwout bearing. Sorry, I forgot to take any further pics, so all you get is that exciting one showing the initial measurement in the car.

After scrounging around in the shop we came up with three exhaust manifold washers (either Redblock or Whiteblock; I forget which) which were used to space out the fork pivot ball, which required a longer bolt to retain it. We held the throwout bearing position constant and moved the pivot ball forward in order to move the fork back in the bellhousing window, so it was fairly close to the rear edge.

Got everything reinstalled, and the cable now adjusts out the slack in the right range, and the clutch disengages completely. It also engages nicely. Pedal feel is great and effort is only a bit higher than stock. Seems like it will be a perfectly livable setup once this car becomes a semi-DD.

The only other exciting thing is that I fully welded the battery tray and finish ground the welds. It's almost imperceptible now that it was ever replaced, apart from the lack of paint. So I'm happy.

the old clutch fork spacer trick. glad you figured it out

cosbySweater said:

the old clutch fork spacer trick. glad you figured it out

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Thanks. Yeah, I was thinking that was just too simple to be the fix, but all appears well now. Someday I'll drive this thing again and report back on the clutch feel and performance!