New Front Springs and Shocks

Finally getting around to posting a picture of the last big job I did on the 1800. New springs and shocks for the front of the car to end the hobby horsing I was getting over bumps at speed. It's all gone now, front is tight and no more bounce. The rear springs and shocks which are way easier to do were done last year along with the limiting straps. The hard part about the fronts is that they are under pressure and to get them out you have to let the lower A arm swing down out of the way. this worked fine, but putting the new springs back in was not so easy as taking the old out.

The upper and lower ball joints all appeared to be in good health so I dodge that bullet for the time being. I think the PO had them changed out in the last 10 years so they were still in good shape as the mileage was and still is very low on this car.

Specs are as follows: Stock height springs, and KYB Gas-a-just shocks

Here is a picture of the passenger side, you can also see the new end links from the last project, I had to take those out again as they were connected to the lower A arm as well.

State Inspection--- Passed

I took the 1800 in for NH state inspection on Monday, I decided to find a new station after going to the local dealer last year and getting failed for stupid things like windshield washers not working. So this year I went to Lou's Custom Exhaust because I wanted to talk to someone about the SS exhaust system I installed last year after the Inspection failed due to it. First off I pulled up, parked the car and went inside to talk to someone and ask where they wanted it. A guy comes out and gets in the car and backs up to line up with a bay. As he is cranking the wheel to straighten out the car dies and he looks at me with a "whats with your car" look. he cranks for a bit but nothing, so I have him unlatch the hood and I take a look as he cranks. Everything looks fine then I notice the ground wire for the ignition has been disconnected due to getting tangled up in the steering coupling and getting yanked free. I reconnect and slide the tie wrap that has loosened and slipped down the battery cable back away from the coupling so it can't get caught again. It starts right up and we are back in business. The inspection passes in about 5 minutes, they don't even take the tires off, this is my kind of inspection.

I then ask the exhaust mechanic to look at the drooping SS exhaust I put on. He mentions that if the head pipe is 1 or 2 degrees off it will be 6+" off by the time it gets back to the tail pipe. It's not that bad but he says for $70 he will cut and re-weld the pipe tucking everything back up tight. I have him do the work and the difference is about 2" of clearance at the first muffler where I was hitting before over speed bumps or high driveway entries. $30 for the inspection, which is $10 less than the dealer, remember this car has no emissions to deal with. So for $100 I am out of there in less than an hour all fixed up. I will be going back next year as well, after that in 2011 I will only have to go every 2 years as the car will then be 40 years old and a true antique.

Anti-Sway Bar End Link Replacement

Anti-Sway bar end links

I had been looking at the cracked and rotted condition of the anti-sway bar end link grommets on the 1800 thinking they needed to be replaced and it looked like an easy job. As luck would have it someone on the Swedish Bricks mailing list was giving a set of urethane grommets away that IPD shipped him by mistake. So I put the front end on the jack stands and started working to remove the long bolts that hold everything together. With the use of some PB Blaster the top nuts came off with little trouble but thats as far as I got. The bolt is sleeved through a spacer that keeps the two ends at the correct distance away from each other. This sleeve was rusted solid to the bolt inside and was not moving. So out came the saws-all and I cut the bolt where the grommets were in hopes of finding replacement bolts [~8 1/2" long] and somehow reusing the tube spacers. This was not to be, even after taking the OA torch to the parts afterward the tube and bolt were fused together.

So now I have to replace both parts, luckily for me someone else on the 1800 list had gone through this pain. The answer was replace everything with a set from Advance Auto Parts, located a couple miles from my house. Here is the link to the company that makes the parts that are sold at AA part # is 9.8121R.

Energy Suspension Parts

All you need to do is get the correct size for your car and they bolt right up.

the finished product installed:

Fix the oil leak and cleanup

Fix the oil leak and cleanup

A large oil leak from the front of the car had caused me to tear into the front main felt seal of the engine. To do this you have to remove the grill, radiator and hoses, as well as a few other things that get in your way. I also pulled the alternator which needed new wiring and some heat shield over the wire to protect it from the exhaust manifold temperatures. Went to the local Volvo dealer to get the seal, of course they did not have it and had to order. One good thing is that when the seal came in they sent two, he told me he did not want to stock the thing so I could keep them both. It's always nice to have a spare, plus I think it is the same seal in the rear.

The leak was easy to find and fix, the front felt seal was pretty much gone, when I went looking it came out in pieces. Lots of cleanup and repainting of parts like the fan, lower radiator hose pipe, and radiator will make a big difference in appearance.

Here is what we have prior to the radiator being reinstalled.

From the front:



and from below:

Battery Box problems and fixes

I decided to do some cleanup in and around the battery box of the 1800 last week. The PO had someone [he never did any work himself] do work that included putting 2 cut sections of asphalt roofing shingles on the bottom and back of the battery box. On top of that were 2 1/4" pieces of plywood painted black with a FLAPS battery tray that had been cut and hacked to accommodate the windshield washer reservoir and pump.

It was a mess so I started removing everything, this is when I discovered the reason for it. 2 holes about the size of half dollars in the middle of the area under the battery into the passenger compartment. First off I had to scrape the asphalt shingles off and remove all the goo that they left behind. Then I got the wire cup brush mounted in a drill and had at the areas that showed any rust, the rest of the box was solid, all the angles and seams were tight and rust free. The next step was to paint everything with a rust preventative paint, to stop further rusting.

After that dried I applied a layer of FatMat sound/heat insulation to the bottom and back surface in a single piece to seal the entire area from the engine compartment. This stuff sticks like crazy to anything it touches and then all you need to do is apply roller pressure to bond it to the surfaces. After that I added a custom bent 304 stainless steel sheet to the back and bottom to give the battery somewhere to sit that would never rust again. Everything was secured with aluminum rivets with SS washers under the rivet heads.





I also purchased a battery mat product from IPD that was about $5 and cut that to fit. The original battery hold down system will be used rather than the over the top setup with J hooks that the after market FLAPS tray used. More clearance above as well so no more rubbing of the cutoff switch knob on the inside of the hood. The old buildup of shingle, plywood, and battery tray added at least 1/2" to the battery height.



I like the look and it will be much better than the crap that was in their before. It is amazing what some people will do to butcher their cars.

finished product minus the original equipment hold down which is being painted.

A while back I decided to swap the distributor in the 71E so I got out my spare and installed a hotspark.com module in it, swapped the cap and rotor for new Bosch and installed in the car. That is the quick synopsis, below are the steps to make it happen. A few notes about the distributors I used, the original is a Bosch part # 0 231 163 021 from the high compression b20E engine. I replaced it with a 0 231 163 033 from a newer B20F engine.

The first step is to get the engine to TDC before removing the distributor, to do this:

1:Remove the ground lead from the battery, and the forward most spark plug and wire.

2:Remove the oil fill cap and rotate the engine clockwise [facing front of car] until the rotor points at the #1 plug wire. [remove cap to view]

3:Then check the timing marks to see if you are lined up with 0 degrees, if you are check the two forward valves are both up, if they are not rotate around one more revolution.

4:Now shine a bright light in the spark plug hole and you should see the top of the piston.

5:You can now loosen the collar nut at the base of the distributor as if you were adjusting the timing, do not take the 2 bolts lower down that hold the collar to the block.

6:Disconnect the FI plug from the side of the distributor and pull straight up.

OK now you have the distributor in your hand, move to a workbench and take the points and condenser out.

WARNING: Here is the lesson part, your first thought after removing the condenser is to screw the small cheese head screw back into the distributor body, DON'T! Without the metal tab that the condenser rides on extra thickness the screw will penetrate into the distributor body and the spinning internal parts will come in contact with it. Since you don't want to leave an open hole in the body add 3 #6 washers in a stack under the screw to shim it out. [ask me how I know :-( ]

You can try it for yourself by putting the screw in without the washers and trying to turn the rotor by hand, it will not make a full revolution before stopping unless you shim it out. You could also cut the screw, but if you ever decide to go back to points it will now be too short for the job.

Install your Petronix or hotspark kit as described in the book of words that come with the kit, the hardest part is getting the grommet to fit in the hole that the condenser wire went through before. I used a bit of dish soap to lube things along, just a bit.

Once it is all together you need to reinstall the distributor body in the holder, take a minute to oil the wick and the oil fill cap on the side of the body first.

Point the rotor at the general location of plug #1 and check to see that gear or key on the bottom of the distributor is roughly lined up with what you see in the engine.

Drop it in and wiggle the rotor until it drops in place to the shoulder of the distributor body.

Slightly tighten the locking nut so the body still turns and rotate the vacuum retard unit towards the block.

Put the #1 plug in the plug wire and reattach the cap to the distributor, do not install the plug in the engine just yet.

Reattach the ground wire to the battery and turn the ignition on but do not try to start the car.

Note: this next step needs to be done in less than 2 or 3 minutes as both the petronix and the hotspark do not like to be left with the ignition on and the engine not running due to overheating and possible damage of the unit.

With your left hand hold the plug with attached spark plug wire against the block and using your right hand slowly [very slowly] turn the distributor clockwise until a spark jumps at the plug. you are not set at 0 degrees for the timing, should be close enough for you to start the car and time with your light next.

Stop and tighten the collar clamping nut, turn off the ignition.

Now reinstall the spark plug and wire and get all your tools out of the way.

Attach your timing light and time as you normally would, for me this is 10 degrees BTDC, this is the 10 degrees between 0 and 20 not the 10 degrees all by itself. [big difference, well 20 degrees anyway]

Car should start and you can enjoy never having to set points again.

Good Luck!
ayb

First post

First post to this blog.

excitement abounds.

thanks for looking
updated using drivel

ayb