My adventure has made a lot of progress, the car is now driving under it's own power and not spewing any fluids anywhere except for the transmission, which I decided to put off until I can do all the seals at once.

But after driving it around a bit I've discovered another problem... the car makes pew-pew noises while driving. Now I'm usually pretty good at diagnosis, but this is my first foray into something with more issues than solutions. It makes the noise above 15mph and is vehicle speed dependent, not RPM or load.

I can't drive it down the road without laughing too hard to confidently not hit things. It feels like I'm driving a bad 80's sci-fi film.

One of my rear wheels is also wobbling a decent bit, way more pronounced under braking. Could that be just a rotor warped badly enough? This is also my first car with a solid rear axle, not exactly sure what components in there could cause something like that.

In short:

Car goes pew-pew
Wheels are trying to fall off

Where should I look first?

 

jack the wheel thats wobbling up and spin it by hand, grab it firmly at 3 and 9 o'clock and rock it to see if its loose.

if you're lucky, its just the lugnuts that are loose. if you're not so lucky, your hub is bent (not fatal, just more difficult to replace).

 

The lugnuts aren't loose, it's a rear wheel so if the hub is bent does that mean replacing the entire axle on that side?

 

you didn't say which model car you have ... but afaik, you're best off finding a whole rear axle assembly (differential and both axles) from a similar car and transplanting it.

240 and 740/940 aren't interchangable, 740 and 940 should be. donor and your car both either should or shouldn't have ABS (ABS has a differenet 'tone ring' inside the differential, used for both the ABS rear channel and speedometer). automatics, turbos, 16 valves all use different final axle ratios, so ideally the donor car matches yours in respect to these things (a different final drive ratio isn't fatal, but could change the performance/economy balance some, increasing or decreasing RPMs at freeway speed).

also, if you have a 7/9, some of those had lockup rear axles, sort of a simple 'positraction'... can help a lot if you drive on snow/ice/dirt. afaik, 240's never got these.

 

Mine is a 1985 244, automatic, GL.

Upon further inspection, the rear wheel that is wobbling's caliper is still seizing off and on, think that could have something to do with it if it's the rotor?

I've also replaced an axle in an 1981 RX7, it wasn't TOO bad. Is there a reason that replacing the axle is difficult enough to warrant replacing the whole rear end? there seems to be a lot more that would go into doing it all.

 

the rear axle on these is an old fashion Dana 30, similar to whats in many Jeep CJ models as the front axle, hah! to change the half axle will probably require removing the whole rear axle assembly anyways, as far as I know, you'll need to gut the 'pumpkin' (differential) to do this.

before I'd do that, to figure out whats bad... get the car up on jack stands... pull the wheel off.

now, use a dial gauge to check the runout on both the brake surface of the rear rotor, and on the hub part just outside the bolt circle. if they are OK, then your wheel is bent, time to find a new rim..

Next, unbolt the brake caliber, and hang it carefully out of the way using a coat hanger or whatever (so you don't put weight on the brake line). remove the small pin or bolt thats between 2 of the lug bolts, and the brake disc rotor should come off (might have to convince it with a rubber mallet). Note there's a tiny DRUM brake inside the disc rotor, this is the parking brake. now, use a dial gauge to check the runout on the flange of the hub behind the brake rotor. if thats bad, then you'll need to replace that axle or the whole rear end.

 

Ah okay, thanks for the tip on the axle, I'll look into it further to determine the real issue.

I'm used to axles just being splined in, figured it could be an afternoon job and a trip to the junkyard. Hopefully it isn't the axle then. And there's a drum brake inside the rotor? Is it as much of a pain as a usual drum brake to get apart?

 

the parking brake shoe assembly stays on the hub when you take the rotor off, the rotor comes off pretty much like any other disk rotor. just make sure the parking brake isn't set when you try and get it off, hah!

 

Alrighty, after getting some more things sorted out I think I'm ready to tackle the brake/wheel issues.

My next question.. I need the car on stands as short of an amount of time as possible so I'd rather not wait to order parts until it's in the air. But which parts do I need? I was planning on rebuilding the one caliper I know is seizing and possibly replacing another one that has a broken off bleed screw. I'm seeing a few different types/styles of caliper that were used in the rear and how do I know which one I need and which rebuild kits to get? Is the manufacturer stamped on the caliper itself, or is it a year specific thing?

 

I'm of the opinion that brakes are too important to mess around, and will generally use over-do my brake jobs. new rotors all the way around, new pads, and if you suspect the calibers a full seal kit all the way around. if your calibers are of the sliding pin type (like my 1992 740 turbo's big single pot girling fronts), new slider pins unless I know they're in really good shape. absolutely critical to use the right sort of brake grease on those pins.

 

My fronts seem to have 4 pistons(2 inside and 2 outside), with 3 bleed screws each. Kinda confused as to the proper way to bleed those. And the rears seem to be single pot calipers, but I'm seeing rebuild kits for ATE, Girling, Seves and such.

 

See here for the "Official Volvo Procedure" (k-jet.org has alot of greenbooks available for download).

Here is the order I use (recommended by many others..):

1. Drivers side rear nipple
2. Drivers side front upper nipple
3. Passenger side front upper nipple
4. Passenger side rear nipple
5. Passenger side front outer lower nipple
6. Passenger side front inner nipple
7. Drivers side outer lower nipple
8. Drivers side front inner nipple


Also - changing the half axle/shaft does not require removal of the entire rear diff/axle assembly. Just pull off the rear rotor/drum, remove the four bolts holding the shaft to the axle housing, put the rotor back on (backwards) with 2 lugs, and give it a couple solid tugs. The shaft will pop out. Make sure you're sitting, as it will make you sit if you aren't already.

Here is a guide to which vehicles/halfshafts are "swappable/interchangeable".

Volvo Greenbook for the Rear Axle.

 

Thanks for the info, that helps a lot.

So how do I know which calipers I have so I can order the correct rebuild kits?

 

VADIS suggests that a 1985 volvo 240 sedan with a B230F engine and a AW70 automatic transmission might have girling ventilated, or girling non-ventilated in front, and ATE in back.

the ventilated front disk will be quite obvious, its two disks sandwiched together with ribs connecting them, vs a single solid disk.

it appears both types of girlings are 4-piston, and have the same rebuild kits. the ATE rears are 2-pots (1 on each side)

here's the back...
Rear wheel brake ate, exc (us). Fits: Volvo | VolvoPartsWebstore.com

the non-ventilated front
Front wheel brake, non-ventilated disc girling 242 ch 53865-122894, 244 ch 82980-274964, 245 exc (ca), (us) ch 54710-80000, 245 (ca), (us) ch 54710-79342, 262 ch -2659, 264 ch 9675-46514, 265 ch -10919. Fits: Volvo | VolvoPartsWebstore.com

here's the girling rebuild kit.
Repair kits Front wheel brake. Fits: Volvo | VolvoPartsWebstore.com
(#3)

and the ATE rebuild kit
Repair kits Rear wheel brake. Fits: Volvo | VolvoPartsWebstore.com

 

Alright, I've been super busy so there hasn't been any update on this situation, but as of last night I finally got the car up and started checking out what all was wrong.

One of the rear calipers was completely seized, had to get it off with a hammer, that rotor was also visibly warped. Axles look like they are spinning true, the rest of the brakes seem to be in decent working order, and I found where the "pew-pew" noise was coming from... inside the diff.

First order of business will be to crack it open and see if it even has any fluid in it(I know, I know, should've done that before I drove it anywhere), and then see if anything looks actually broken in it.

Thanks for the info on the calipers, I'm ordering rebuild kits as soon as I'm back in town again.