Why I hate repairing old cars.

[Teddy1975]

Welding exhausts is quite tricky, especially with a MIG welder. A good torch and a filler rod would make it somewhat easier in my opinion.

[oragex]

Here's a video that talks about this welder




I haven't tried mine yet, still in the box. I'm kind of scared welding for the first time, still reading online for safety tips

[j-dawg]

Neat! Welding is fun. I think exhaust pipe material is a lot easier than the bodywork sheet metal (22ga) that I was doing on my old MR2 with a wire-feed MIG welder - blowout city.

For the cleanest welds with that machine, use MIG, but for exhaust pipes, you can probably get away with flux core welding. It leaks? Splatter on more metal until it doesn't! Nobody will ever see it.

[BEJinFbk]

Here's a video that talks about this welder




I haven't tried mine yet, still in the box. I'm kind of scared welding for the first time, still reading online for safety tips

Break that baby out!
Spend some time welding on scrap.
Practice makes perfect.

[mecheng]

Here's a video that talks about this welder




I haven't tried mine yet, still in the box. I'm kind of scared welding for the first time, still reading online for safety tips

Interesting, is this flux core or with gas therefore MIG?

[dosbricks]

You guys are teaching me about the advantages of owning the same cars for 20 yrs. and doing my own work.

[scot850]

Well onto todays rant! What is it with Volvo engineers and the use of dis-similar metals threaded together?

Today decided to stop procrastinating on replacing the holed dryer/accumulator on the project V70. Done this job a few times before and hate doing it as there is limited room to undo the spring clip at the top to remove it. Surprisingly today it undid really easily. That was just to fool me into finding out the large threaded pipe connector onto the top of the dryer would not undo. The original dryer used what looks like brass or an alloy as the threaded male connector on the dryer and a steel female threaded fitment on the pipe to the back of the A/C compressor. No matter how much force I allied it would not loosen from the pipe.

Eventually I had to cut the dryer off below the connector and then tried a six point wrench on it rather than an open wrench as it was rounding the threaded 'nut'. Still could not undo it, tried heat but still nothing. In the end I had to pull the radiator fan to give room to access the internal hex bolt at the back of the compressor to remove the whole pipe.

Naturally the 'O' ring is not in stock at the dealer. When I got the pipe end into the bench vice I found the hex end on the dryer threaded portion had actually deformed out of the hex. In the end I had to use a large set of pipe pliers to lock onto it to get it off. The internal portion of the pipe end had rusted and the dissimilar metals had fused partially preventing being undone easily or even with difficulty!

So once again I have had to do way more work than needed because of poor design methods on Volvos. When will those idiots ever learn that cold wet conditions where salt is used just does not work when mixing materials (e.g. the whole rear sub-frame fiasco on my AWD 'R').

Only reason it was not as bad as all that is I was planning to remove the cooling fan to access the top nut for the front engine mount when swapping it out. Also gives room to access and clean a lot of the oil from the front of the engine and ancillaries that had leaked from the PS pump (bad hose clamp) and the leaking A/C dryer.

Old leaking dryer

Now just have to wait for the 'O' ring to be able to re-assemble. Checked with the local repair shop and they asked that I not put PAG oil into the new dryer so they can do that as part of the system re-pressurising. Saves having to buy yet more PAG46 oil for it to sit on a shelf with only a little used!

Nice to see the old dryer was stamped made in CANADA and the new one Made in China! New one feels as heavy as the original but the threaded connection to the flex pipe to the compressor looks cheap and nasty.

Question: How do you tighten something which you cannot fit a socket onto, to 30NM?

Neil.

[abscate]

30 Nm or 20 ft lbs, so about 40 pounds force on a six inch box end.

That's using your arm strength up to the elbow, but not your shoulder.

[Overland_XC]

This is why I do my own repairs. You either deal with what the po did our what a bad shop did and redo it correctly or you take it to a shop that will do shoty work and you'll end up paying it the end. I finally found one good honest mechanic in my area but only take there if it's over my head. I just recently purchased a nice 1998 v70 xc which seemed taken care of but a few days later and I'm ripping into everything to remove/replace cam seal, pcv, vacuum line and regular maintenance points. Also have a badly torn cv boot and the other is about to go on top of leaking oil cooler hose. Got a lot of work cut out for me.

[mecheng]

I would use Channel locks or Plumbers wrench with a rag over the teeth combined with some duct tape. Don't apply too much pressure but the rag would help

I see Volvo parts starting to be made in China, after all they are now owned by a Chinese group. Hopefully they improve their QA from traditional levels of quality they are known for. After all, they can learn the best techniques if they are willing to look beyond short term profit like the Japanese did.

Coming from a Honda, I love the Volvo's rust resistance, I think you have some nasty de-icing chemicals in Calgary, the regular salt in my area seems to do only minor harm. I spray my car once a year with vegetable oil which helps a bit.