Herman and Operation 30MPG

[jfife83]

Hey guys ...thanks for the help...it was the vacuum line on the pressure regulator near the fuel filter passenger rear.

[callahanoffroad]

Well. Herman blew his power steering rack on Sunday. It was a weird sensation. I've had power steering go out, but that's a slow gradual type of thing. This was a sudden loss of power steering. Funny thing is that I was mid turn when it went. Hahaha I felt really bad as I was delivering some groceries at the time. Well not bad about delivering the groceries, but bad that half of the power steering fluid dropped on this nice lady's drive way. This stuff was a dark brown black mess of a spill.

So I rushed home and ordered a new steering rack. Just came in today and after a trip to harbor freight yesterday to get a nice jack with 20" of lift, I tore into the project. I've never replaced a power steering rack before. On a Volvo these suckers really are buried under everything. So out came the subframe and the rack, and after a trip the Home Depot to find some new adjustment nuts I got the new rack installed with only minor issues. I still need to finish the install, but I'm pretty proud of myself for getting the rack removed and reinstalled in a day!

[abscate]

Well. Herman blew his power steering rack on Sunday. It was a weird sensation. I've had power steering go out, but that's a slow gradual type of thing. This was a sudden loss of power steering. Funny thing is that I was mid turn when it went. Hahaha I felt really bad as I was delivering some groceries at the time. Well not bad about delivering the groceries, but bad that half of the power steering fluid dropped on this nice lady's drive way. This stuff was a dark brown black mess of a spill.

So I rushed home and ordered a new steering rack. Just came in today and after a trip to harbor freight yesterday to get a nice jack with 20" of lift, I tore into the project. I've never replaced a power steering rack before. On a Volvo these suckers really are buried under everything. So out came the subframe and the rack, and after a trip the Home Depot to find some new adjustment nuts I got the new rack installed with only minor issues. I still need to finish the install, but I'm pretty proud of myself for getting the rack removed and reinstalled in a day!

Well done, there!

Any tips or tricks to share?

It looks easy on mine, I’m not sure I would describe it as buried...

[callahanoffroad]

Well. Herman blew his power steering rack on Sunday. It was a weird sensation. I've had power steering go out, but that's a slow gradual type of thing. This was a sudden loss of power steering. Funny thing is that I was mid turn when it went. Hahaha I felt really bad as I was delivering some groceries at the time. Well not bad about delivering the groceries, but bad that half of the power steering fluid dropped on this nice lady's drive way. This stuff was a dark brown black mess of a spill.

So I rushed home and ordered a new steering rack. Just came in today and after a trip to harbor freight yesterday to get a nice jack with 20" of lift, I tore into the project. I've never replaced a power steering rack before. On a Volvo these suckers really are buried under everything. So out came the subframe and the rack, and after a trip the Home Depot to find some new adjustment nuts I got the new rack installed with only minor issues. I still need to finish the install, but I'm pretty proud of myself for getting the rack removed and reinstalled in a day!

Well done, there!

Any tips or tricks to share?

It looks easy on mine, I’m not sure I would describe it as buried...

Actually yes, so I removed the rear part of the subframe, and left the front attached. This allowed the rear to swing down so that I could fanagle the steering rack out. There are 6 total bolts holding the steering rack in. 4 closer to the time rod endlinks, one in the dead center, and one that is part of a shield. I used a piece of 2"x4" board to give me leverage to swing the subframe down to give enough space to rotate the steering rack out. It's tight in there. The power steering lines have three retainers. I removed all of them to allow me to move them around. That helped a lot. It really helps to have a helper. The adjustment nuts on the inner tie rods are m14 x 2.0 you need two of them. Also, contrary to Robert's video and a write up I read, you do not need to remove the ball joint or control arms. Simply unscrew the tie rod end links. You should however remove the away bar end links. This allows the subframe to swing free. As for you Abscate, you can just drop your subframe entirely and pull the steering rack off. Put it back on and then put it back up. Yours should be super easy.

Greg850r told me that he likes to drop the engine and transmission through the bottom of the car. At first I wasn't sure how that would work. But now I see it's actually a lot easier to drop the subframe with everything still attached, and lift the car up and off. With a double post lift that makes a heck of a lot more sense.

Hopefully I'll get the install finished today, and I'll be able to get it realigned this afternoon.

[ZionXIX]

Did anything else have to be disconnected? Did you have to fight the motor mounts?

[abscate]

I was poking fun at you because I had yanked the engine on the 1998, and that steering rack was just left bare.

[callahanoffroad]

I was poking fun at you because I had yanked the engine on the 1998, and that steering rack was just left bare.

Oh I know I figured anyone reading would appreciate the extra info.

Zion, the only motor mount I touched was the rear one that connects to the power steering rack. One bolt 14mm out of the bottom. I also had to remove the lower torque mount. Which I then replaced with a poly unit.

Both my upper and lower torque mounts are poly now. So I shouldn't need to replace them anytime soon

So I finished up the project today, took me a total of 13 hours. I think I could do it in 6 if I did it again. I would say overall it was not specifically difficult. Just a lot of moving pieces to keep track of.

The biggest difficulty for me personally was two things. It was 25 degrees Fahrenheit while I did this job, and I have big ham fists. The big hands made getting into some of the tighter spaces very difficult. This was especially an issue getting the steering column to connect to the steering rack. My solution was 2 hours of cursing at it until it capitulated. that didn't work so well, so I heated the aluminum joint with my plumbing torch twice for 30 second increments and that did the trick.

Overall it works great. No leaks. Fresh alignment. Now that I have that awesome jack I'll have no issue dropping the fuel tank to replace the leaking hoses next.

[greg850r]

Well. Herman blew his power steering rack on Sunday. It was a weird sensation. I've had power steering go out, but that's a slow gradual type of thing. This was a sudden loss of power steering. Funny thing is that I was mid turn when it went. Hahaha I felt really bad as I was delivering some groceries at the time. Well not bad about delivering the groceries, but bad that half of the power steering fluid dropped on this nice lady's drive way. This stuff was a dark brown black mess of a spill.

So I rushed home and ordered a new steering rack. Just came in today and after a trip to harbor freight yesterday to get a nice jack with 20" of lift, I tore into the project. I've never replaced a power steering rack before. On a Volvo these suckers really are buried under everything. So out came the subframe and the rack, and after a trip the Home Depot to find some new adjustment nuts I got the new rack installed with only minor issues. I still need to finish the install, but I'm pretty proud of myself for getting the rack removed and reinstalled in a day!

Man why didn't you call me? I have a rack complete with lines, tie rods and pump still attached just laying out on the driveway.

[callahanoffroad]

Well. Herman blew his power steering rack on Sunday. It was a weird sensation. I've had power steering go out, but that's a slow gradual type of thing. This was a sudden loss of power steering. Funny thing is that I was mid turn when it went. Hahaha I felt really bad as I was delivering some groceries at the time. Well not bad about delivering the groceries, but bad that half of the power steering fluid dropped on this nice lady's drive way. This stuff was a dark brown black mess of a spill.

So I rushed home and ordered a new steering rack. Just came in today and after a trip to harbor freight yesterday to get a nice jack with 20" of lift, I tore into the project. I've never replaced a power steering rack before. On a Volvo these suckers really are buried under everything. So out came the subframe and the rack, and after a trip the Home Depot to find some new adjustment nuts I got the new rack installed with only minor issues. I still need to finish the install, but I'm pretty proud of myself for getting the rack removed and reinstalled in a day!

Man why didn't you call me? I have a rack complete with lines, tie rods and pump still attached just laying out on the driveway.

Oh dang Greg! I totally should have called you I just didn't want to impose.

[callahanoffroad]

What a crazy week it has been! After the power steering rack replacement, Herman has been driving very nicely again!

On Thursday I received an order for 606 units to pickup from Aldi's. Turned out to be all canned goods for a canned food drive. Took three carts to get all of those cans out of the store!

My wife Jessie with the loaded carts

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Surprisingly it almost all fit!

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Only about 20 had to go to.the back seat

After this my wife agreed that we need overload springs.

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That was really exciting! When we got to.the building they sent out about 20 employees to unload Herman and they loved that I fit almost all of the cans directly in the trunk. You should have seen the smiles on their faces when we opened up the trunk! That's some Volvo Christmas magic right there.

Normally, that would have been a very interesting week all by itself. As they say on infomercials, "But wait! There's more!"

We had snow on Sunday and Monday. The slippery, wet, slushy, snow, that is perfect for snow balls, but terrible to drive in. As a result It's been a very busy work week! A few weeks ago, I flushed my coolant system and filled it with the correct pre-diluted coolant as preventative maintenance. Well, all of a sudden on Friday night my low coolant light pops on at one of my deliveries. I didn't think anything of it because sometimes it can take a bit of time for all of the air to work itself out of these Volvo coolant systems. So, I top off the coolant and I head back out for another delivery. Luckily, that was my last delivery for the night.

After I pull the car into the garage my wife comments that there's a new stain on the drive way, which I of course investigate and find to be coolant! In a small panic I start looking for the cause of this coolant leak. I checked all the hoses, the radiator itself, and the overflow tank. Until finally I see fresh wet coolant on the lower radiator shroud/belly pan. Ah ha! I exclaimed, and tightened the lower radiator hose. Only to find that the coolant was still leaking.

So, I swiftly drop the belly pan and look around for the source of the leak. The plastic end of the radiator is leaking, but the radiator itself seems fine. Then I realized that the radiator drain plug aka petcock is missing! But a missing drain plug should have dropped all of the coolant. I grabbed one of my big spot light and shined it up into the hole only to find that the head of the plug had BROKEN OFF ENTIRELY. Now, it would be a good time to remind the reader that this is not my first new radiator, but my second new radiator in two years. The first one failed in Dec 2018. This radiator is barely a year old.

Now the story of the miracle at 1st Capitol


My radiator leaking and dripping it made quite the sad sight. Would the fluid stay with me the rest of the night?

Away I ran with a scurry to search for the part, only to find that it was non standard and that broke my heart.

So, I measured the bore, counted the threads, only to find it was no use and I trudged off to bed.

Early in the morning I awoke with a crash, to search for a part to be twisted, not mashed.

I phoned to the store to search for the plug, but they couldn't be bothered like a bug in a rug.

Suddenly an idea crept into my head. "I shall make one not but one instead!"

"Instant gasket and a stainless steel bolt. That should stop the leak quickly with a jolt."

Away I flew into my workshop with care,
Knowing that soon my morning deliveries soon would be there.

Tearing through my collection of bolts with a flash, "m10? M12? M14? None of them fit!" Immediately my confidence came to a crash.

Sullenly I sulked, and retreated post haste. To devise up a plan, with time I could not afford to waste.

I searched and I searched, and finally found Carquest was the maker, I can track them down.

With part number in hand and a local listing in tow, I called the on Advance Auto to see if they'd know.

Jessica answered and then jumped to the search, silently I prayed "please don't leave in in a lurch."

I waited, and I waited on hold till my waiter could wait no more.

Finally Jessica returned, but something was the matter

"I have the radiator, but I can't sell it to you. It was returned as defective. Here's what I think we should do."

"You just need the plug, not the whole assembly, if you care to retrieve it it's here just for you."

I called by Good Father to ask for a ride, in his black tinted Hummer I hopped up inside.

On to St. Charles we shot with a flash. His polished chrome bumper's in sun light did flash.

Finally I arrived at the auto parts store, to finish my quest that wasn't a bore.

There it was gleaming those silver radiator fins, a small black chalice I was about to win.

With a twist of my flat head the plug came right out, quickly I returned home, I could not lag about.

Now a drain of fluid that fell with a crash, the old plug easily out with the tiniest smash

Now what's next to do? Install the new plug with three turns plus two.

Down at the bottom I returned to the top, fill that reservoir and waste not one drop.

To life sprang the engine with subtle valve clatter. I checked on the new plug to see if there was any matter.

It was dry as a bone and leaked not one drop.
After the heater warmed up the engine I would stop.

Allow it to cool and burp out the air.
Top of the reservoir and try not to stare.

Herman was saved On this warm winter day,
From the tiniest leak that caused such dismay.

Merry Christmas MVS.
-Ryan

Pics of the offending plug

Radiator Plug