I have been working on my turkey baster method of exchanging the PS fluid, and learning along the way. The PS fluid resivoir is kind of oddly shaped inside, but using a tube to get down in there, I can get kind of close to the bottom I think.
I have exchanged fluid three times so far. The first time I got about 250mL out of it. The next time, about 350mL. This last time, I think I got to the bottom, and got out 425mL out of it. The fluid has been dark black, like used motor oil each time. However, there is definite improvement. The problem is still intermittent, but it is working better, and more frequently. I have not been able to figure out how much PS fluid the system uses. I read somewhere it was 1.5L, but I haven't been able to confirm this. OTP has been less than helpful... but it is likely that I simply do not know where to look. I found where it says to use ATF. And it said something like 100g of lubricant. But that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

In case I'm not clear, my method has been this: Extract fuild. Refill with new ATF. Drive, and try to be sure to do some parking lot maneuvers going stop to stop while I am out. Repeat.

I'm just driving when I would normally drive somewhere so this may take a while, but it seems to be moving in the correct direction.


EDIT: I generally check the owners manual when I need fluid copacity. This car doesn't have one. Or rather, it didn't come with one. I constantly forget that I downloaded one. Perhaps I should print it out, and put it in my car, that way, I'll remember to check there. It's PS fluid capacity is 0.75L. So, at 425mL per exchange, I'm doing better than half at a time.

 

instead of driving it, put the front of the car up on jack stands, start it, and turn the steering stop to stop a few times smoothly. stop engine, suck, refill, repeat.

if thats really impractical, do stop to stop figure 8's at low speed in a parking lot.

it was really easy using my 'topsider' oil suction can. it sucked the corners of the reservoir out like a 6 yr old sucking on an empty McDonalds 'milkshake'.

 

I'm just sort of exchanging PS fluid amongst doing other things... don't have time to really sit down and work on my car right now... else, i'd use pierce's method. I still may try that in the future. I am always sure to do some stop to stop work before exchanging fluid again.

I'm on my 4th exchange, and have left the last fluid in about a week. I'll be evaluating this fluid sometime this week. I also put a magnet in there. It seems to be doing nothing at all. So I may remove it.

It now behaves more predictably. It doesn't steer well when cold, but seems to do pretty well once the car is a little warm. According to this (Steering:) article, this is a sign that the rack is the problem, or rather the cam ring is not doing so well.

Fortunately, the donor car from whence I am getting a new tranny has a power steering rack that indicates it was rebuilt. This may provide a solution for me. However, for the time being, I will just live with stiff steering at the start. It is much better than it was.

Along other lines, I got a replacement heater valve. It looks like putting that in will be a bit of an annoyance... and I will need to get some hose to help me make that hard right angle. I am debating if I should just drain the radiator fluid out altogether and change it while I am at it. I don't know if it has ever been done. But I also don't know how important that is.

 

I found a decent deal on used door pockets that match the color of my car's interior for about $80 on ebay. They are used but in good shape.



They arrived today. I didn't get the mounting hardware, as I knew I had it on the drivers side door.



I also thought I had it on the passenger side, I was mistaken. I guess I don't use that door as often to pay attention.



So, I mounted it on the driver's side door.



And will look out for the hardware in junkyards. I suspect I should be able to find it. Besides, the Drivers side door pocket is the most useful one anyway. I'll have to stow the passenger side one with my virgos for now.

On another note, I now have a flywheel from a turbo car (LH 2.4)... and will probably end up getting a clutch from FCP (http://www.fcpeuro.com/products/volv...4-245-kf242-04). The problem lies in the fact that the flywheel and clutch in a turbo and NAS are a little different--one is 9 inches and the other 8.5, and some other small but important differences. But, i'm on my way to having that problem solved.

Also, Power Steering is working predictably--slow at the beginning, but pretty reliably once warm. But I am happy that it is at least functioning and not functioning in a way that makes sense.

 

indeed, I stopped replacing the passenger side one on my daughter's 240, teenagers seem to use their foot as a door stop and that side would frequently break. this is compouned because the door open cam thing is broken so the door just falls closed ... I've even got a replacement hinge, but realized that replacing it is a job and not a simple bolt on.

 

I finally replaced the heater valve that had pretty much limited me to either Hot or Cold. As the spring is a nice time of the year to have some heat, but not too much, I figured now would be a great time to have working heater control.

This is kind of a how to, since I didn't find very much documentation. As is usual if you follow this, it is at your own risk, etc.

The Valve Itself

Here is the valve I got to replace it. Actually, I could only find the valve. I was going to get the kit from New Volvo 240 heater valve kit replaces 1348252 9131998 $59! New Volvo 240 heater valve kit replaces 1348252 9131998 $59 [] - $59.00 : EuroPartsHouse Bargain Parts , but they were rather always out whenever I checked. So I went to the local Advanced Auto, picked up a 90 degree tube and a hose nipple, and got the above assembly, pretty much like the one I could have gotten online.

Step 1: Draining the Fluid


I jacked up the front end of the car. I found the anti-freeze drain valve, and an appropriate hose to fit it, put it all together, and opened the plug. Very little came out. So, I let it drain down the side of the block, removing the plug entirely. Then I set out to take apart the interior of the car. (More on that later.) After I got most of it apart, I saw that very little antifreeze had come out. So I had the bright idea to squeeze on the radiator hoses a few times. WHOA! The anti-freeze then gushed out. so... I scampered around, finding the fitting and hose, and trying to get that in place as soon as possible. The long and short of it is that I lost about a third of my antifreeze to the floor.


But here is a picture of when I was catching the fluid coming off the block. Some say drain at the front hose. I didn't do that, as I wanted to be sure that the fluid out of the heater core was being drained properly. Maybe it would have worked out of the lower radiator hose too... but it seemed like I'd try Volvo's system.

Step 2: Take Apart Interior

As it generally is, you can decide how much you want to take apart your car to work on this part.


As you can see from my picture, I removed the seat first. For me, that is a no-brainer--4 bolts and one wire later, and I've got a lot more room to work.




Then I pulled out the knee pad, the side of the console, the cover of the console, the front of the console, and I also pulled up the carpet, which required removing some trim on the door-side. I just really did not want to risk any anti-freeze getting on my carpet.


Once you get there, you are down to the valve itself. (Re-using a picture here)

Step 3: Getting the Valve Off


I removed the screws that mounted the valve to the mounting bracket, and thereafter, was able to get the control wire off.


It turns out, that was the easy part. Getting the hoses off the valve proved pretty much impossible. I ended up cutting one of the hoses. If I had it to do over, i'd cut the other one. Once I got one free, I could twist the valve and get screwdrivers in there to loosen the other one. When I got that off, I tried to remove the bracket on which the valve was mounted. No luck. At all. So I bent it out of the way.

As a note, I had rags in place to catch whatever antifreeze was left in the system. Very little was, but the rags proved wise, as some did come out.

Step 4: Getting New Valve On


Due to my choice of hose to cut, putting the valve back in place was not that easy. But was doable--mainly just cramped. I did the hard side first (the hose that goes back into the console) and the other side proved to be pretty easy (the side that goes through the firewall). I found mounting the valve on it's side made everything easier to work on.


Before I tightened any hoseclamps, I test fitted the control wire to see that it would fit. I had to remove the control wire all together to bend a loop in the end of it so as to push and pull the valve appropriately. I thought I would be able to do that under the dash... HA! definitely not.

Also, I was trying to re-use the control cable that was originally there. That hasn't worked out well. I will be replacing it with a throttle cable form Home Depot when I undertake my next project... But that should not be too hard.

Step 5: Refill system and Test
I've done enough work on cars to know that you should test it out before you put everything back together. I re-used the fluid I got--it looked pretty much new, and replaced the fluid I spilled. Then, I opened the front and back doors to the garage, and started the car on the stands, and let it run until it heated up. Obviously, don't do this unless your garage is well ventilated... I'd hate for some sucker to kill himself because they were running their car in their garage. I checked for leaks, and made sure it worked. It did. So I finished it up.

Step 6: Put it all back together & get off the Jacks

Easy enough to do.

 

I mentioned in the last post that I didn't quite install the push/pull cable quite right. Which is to say, it would not turn off the heat all the way. So, I remedied that.

Since I already put the loop in the cable, I could not easily get off the cable end. So, I ended up grinding it off.

Here are some pictures.





You may note above that the rubber part of the cable housing melted a bit, as when I used the bench grinder on the brass end, it heated it all up a bit. This may be a problem in the future. But I am not very concerned at the moment, as I suspect that the clamping pressure will keep it all in place.

 

I ordered new motor mounts some time ago, and was simply waiting for the next oil change, as all the instructions I found online about how to change the motor mounts indicated that you had to have the oil filter off.

The Obligatory Oil Change

Started pretty much like any other oil change. Jack up, pull drain plug, remove filter. I also replaced the copper washer on the oil plug. As you can see from the picture, the old one was pretty beat up.





Jacking Up the Motor

Looking around, I found different ideas on how to raise up the motor. I felt the best one was where they recommended taking at piece of 2x4 and pushing up on the side of the motor side where the motor mount is, so as not to put pressure on the oil pan. I'm not sure that is described well... but maybe my pictures will help a bit.






Changing the Mounts

First, I sprayed all nuts and bolts involved with PB Blaster. Some were hard to get off, so this was probably good.

Removing the passenger side mount was not difficult... but that is really only because it was completely broken, and I could remove it in two parts. There is one bolt that is nestled behind the alternator, and it is a pain in the butt. Fortunately, I was able to remove the lower part of the mount, and then get a socket in there.

As you can see from this picture, the mount had completely failed, and was broken in two parts. This became apparent when I jacked up the motor.



Putting the mount back in was the difficult part. Kind of. I had to jack up the motor a little more to get everything to line up. But then everything went in pretty well... except that annoying bolt behind the alternator. I had to use the 12mm open ended crecent wrench, and do the old 12th of a turn trick--turn, flip wrench, turn, flip wrench, etc... But all said, it wasn't that bad.

Procedure on the other side was essentially the same. I didn't photograph it, but I had to move the jack right by the bell housing, as there really wasn't room anywhere else. The mount on this side looked to be in decent shape, but I replaced it anyway.

Put back in Oil and Filter
A simple step, but an important one. But also self explanatory.

Results
The motor seems to be up about an inch or so higher than it was. All I know is that were the oil drain plug was below the support to which the motor mounts connect, it is now above it.
The motor does wiggle as much when I accelerate. But an unanticipated result is that a lot more rattles in my car. I only had a few rattles before I replaced the motor mount, but there are a lot more now. I guess this is because the motor is more securely attached to the frame and more vibration is transmitted. Oh well... I'll just have to work on tightening up things.

EDIT: I realized after I posted that I had looked at this website sometime before, and pretty much followed its instructions. So, credit where credit is due-- http://volvo2.homestead.com/240mount.html

 

the instructions from the europartshouse folks say to cut that ferrule off with a hacksaw or a dremel cutoff tool, just cut a line in it at a diagonal, then spread it with a big screwdriver to get it off...

 

...which is what I should have done. But I had already put the bend in the wire... and thought I would not need the adjustment. Clearly I was wrong...

 

Nothing too exciting here, just wanted a quick update with stuff I've been tinkering on.

I ended up putting in a new cable to the heater control valve. The original one I screwed up a bit, and was really a little on the short side for my application. So, I put in a new one. Someone earlier on in this thread recommended going to a home improvement store and buying a tractor throttle cable. Done, and it is working great.

As it has been the rainier season lately, the fact that my sunroof has a water retention problem was accented by a cool flow of water every time I hit the brakes. The problem was not a hard one to fix... these sunroofs are not really designed to keep water out of the car, but rather to route the water so that it comes out the rear and front drains. And the system works pretty well, until they get clogged. As my car had sat for several years in a driveway under trees before I got it, all manor of tree matter had worked its way into the sunroof drains. Cleaning the front ones are easy, and I did that pretty early on. But the ones that drain the rear end of the sunroof are difficult to get to.

Long story shot, I pulled the sunroof apart, and just kept taking things out until I could see the drain holes in the back. I pulled out one of the sunroof rails, and discovered that the rear end of the rail is glued. Or rather, uses that funky tar like black stuff that never seems to get un-stickly. I found the culprit drain hole, and got a clothes-hanger back in there to clear it out. I used the end that is curled up from the part that forms a hook on the hanger. Using that corkscrew, I could get the stuff out. I was not too fond of pushing the gunk into the pipes, where it may or may not freely flow out. After that, I got a convenient squirter bottle, and voila! water came out the drain hole.

I was a little concerned about putting the rail in that I pulled out... but it seems to be working fine. I just pushed it back in place, and then screwed it in place with the three screws that held it in place in the open part of the sunroof opening. Really, the rear end of the rail doesn't need vigorous fastening down--it just kind of hangs out there so the sunroof has a place to slide back to.

So, onto the ABS question. This morning, I went up get my car inspected. (Naturally, I waited until it was overdue.) And what great light greeted me? The ABS light. Well, I said a brief prayer that it the light would not come on at the shop, and fortunately, my prayer was answered. But this happened last spring. I am fairly certain it is not the fuse--I have cleaned it up and haven't had problems with the fuses in sometime. It is an intermittent problem, but it more often works than not... and I am thinking it is connected with moisture and rain. This leads my mind to possibly a bad ground. I haven't gotten OTP out yet to find the grounds for the ABS system, but I think that is what I will do today. But in the mean time, does this sound about right to those of you out there? Or do ABS units fail and give an intermittent light? On a side note... the ABS sometimes goes off when I am coming to a stop in normal conditions, and lower speeds than it should. Possibly related?