Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Post your project vehicles here! One thread per vehicle please.
User avatar
Fred
Moderator
Posts: 15431
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:31 pm
Location: Home sweet home!
Contact:

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Post by Fred »

Off sick today. Mostly in bed but I thought I'd better take the 740 for a WOF before I got a parking ticket. Only minor easy chores for a clogged up Fred to do on her before that:

1) Glue high stop to window - done, very easy, worked well. Didn't line it up too well, but good enough for government work.
2) Check fuel pump connection for looseness, cleaned both halves, tightened terminal, pushed back on, still doing it.
3) Thought maybe the shifter being so loose had become an issue and prevented ECU operation or some such. Ended up using a piece of the 1/4" ID hose, pushed into the shifter first, pin pushed in afterward, then washer and circlip on. Feels like new again! But no change to the issue.
4) Ran the poor thing for a while, and poked prodded various things. Managed to get it to seemingly consistently die with one movement of the ignitor loom, and live with another. But not 100% sure about that.
5) Took it and got WOF, and on the way had it die at speed, but had it locked in lower gears all the way to hold 2 to 3k always. Figured out that ignition off/on immediately resolves the issue 99 times out of 100. So now I'm thinking it could be hall sensor issues. In either case, it's sudden and complete loss of power. The "sometimes runs badly instead of dying" thing indicates that it's out of sync with the car, hinting at hall sensor, too. FreeEMS wouldn't act that way, but perhaps the OEM stuff does?

In any case, it's back on the street where it was with fresh WOF and it can stay there for a few days/weeks/whatever. I'm back in bed.

Will upload the pics tomorrow just in case someone paranoid is stalking me there.
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
User avatar
Fred
Moderator
Posts: 15431
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:31 pm
Location: Home sweet home!
Contact:

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Post by Fred »

DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
User avatar
Fred
Moderator
Posts: 15431
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:31 pm
Location: Home sweet home!
Contact:

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Post by Fred »

Just took the 740 sedan for a good B234F thrash! I love the way that thing revs! Not driven it except once for the WOF since this thread was posted over a month ago! FEELS DAMN GOOD :-D

Checking things:

Image

Image





Destroyed the other dead ignitor I had:

Image

Image

Image





Easier than trying to cut it open, and means I definitely couldn't cut something by accident in the process.

The terminals are nice and long and go into the sealed section, where fly wires are soldered to them.

It'd be those fly wires, or solder joints that have failed on my current semi-functional one.

BUT: I've now replaced it with some JDM goodness to go with the JDM origin of the car:

Image

Image

Image





The winter sky through sunroof shot was taken on the prior shot's "wedged in" wiring :-D

The first shot was just for testing, fired STRAIGHT up nice and strong and purred.

I'll just park the 740 up as is and do it properly later. Those Bosch ignitors are huge and pointless at best.

Next up, the 240... time will tell!

Tweets for reference:

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 5679334400
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 6999111680
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 7381885952
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 4994654208
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 5871325184
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 9963276289
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
User avatar
Fred
Moderator
Posts: 15431
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:31 pm
Location: Home sweet home!
Contact:

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Post by Fred »

Used this as mobile mechanic car today, back and forward from garage to 240 wagon trying things, testing things, fixing things, and eventually solving the issue with the 240 wagon :-D

One observation about the way it's running with the JDM ignitor: smoother and more responsive. I do believe that the ECU is a dumb-dwell type, and the stocker has a role limiting dwell time at idle and maybe high RPM, but the JDM one is dumb and just does what it's told. So I think it's getting a stronger hotter spark as a result, and that seems to have improved things. Nice.

Even so, although it gets warm, and so does the coil, not crazy excessively so, just moderate. I'm happy with it, for now.

Last word: This just donated a poor quality DIY mirror to the 240 wagon for WOF duties. Sharing one between two cars, for now. Meh.
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
User avatar
Fred
Moderator
Posts: 15431
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:31 pm
Location: Home sweet home!
Contact:

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Post by Fred »

And already an upgrade or two! :-D

Found in the garage: Another original Volvo igniter AND the RHS mirror from the caravan! :-D

Fitted both and she's back to fully functional.

The 240 can keep the crappy mirror until I get a nicer one, then the crappy one can be a spare. Crappy = home cut glass with mirroring damage in the middle from DIY install.

Ignitor needs screwing to the engine bay, which I'll do tomorrow morning.

Back to the dodgy brakes/suspension and all the other little things that are wrong with this, then.
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
User avatar
Fred
Moderator
Posts: 15431
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:31 pm
Location: Home sweet home!
Contact:

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Post by Fred »

Tomorrow morning, or in several years...

Brake shake and tyre imbalance or out-of-roundness has gotten worse. Might need to do something about it soon.

I don't feel confident driving it at speed anymore. Need to remedy the several issues ASAP.

Can't really do the bushes until I prepare the arms and upgraded sway bar. Rotors and pads are ready to go. Can't really do any of that until I've tried a new left front wheel and tyre.

And can't put any time into it until I get the BMW all sliced. Sigh.
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
User avatar
Fred
Moderator
Posts: 15431
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:31 pm
Location: Home sweet home!
Contact:

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Post by Fred »

Half a 360, 85% of this 740, and 17% of the caravan, all together: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0827885568

Image






Had to remove the spare tyre from the wheel: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0836894722

Image

Image

Image

Image

Cunning as a maori dog. Kiwi as some number 8 wire.
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
User avatar
Fred
Moderator
Posts: 15431
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:31 pm
Location: Home sweet home!
Contact:

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Post by Fred »

This is a strong clue that I have a heater channel based leak into the cabin that's been causing the flooding, or more than one leak: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 1268219904

Image






Old fan had flooded rusted bearings, too, so that again hinted at a heater channel leak. Replacement fan has a drilled lower cover to let grease/oil/water out so it can't sit wet. But I need to find the root cause eventually...
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
User avatar
Fred
Moderator
Posts: 15431
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:31 pm
Location: Home sweet home!
Contact:

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Post by Fred »

Gave it a good clean head to toe today: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 2744714240

Image

Image
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
User avatar
Fred
Moderator
Posts: 15431
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:31 pm
Location: Home sweet home!
Contact:

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Post by Fred »

^ clean and shiny yesterday.

Full tank of 91 RON and a fresh WOF today.

Feels good :-)

Hooligan was cocking a leg and marking its territory on the way home a couple of times into second, too. Ooops.
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
FreeEMS.org - the open source engine management system
FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
The ever growing list of FreeEMS success stories!
Post Reply