FrankenMoose

There is an upcoming car show hosted by the Ballard Elks, of which Jake Hall is a member. I have attended this show for the past few years. Some years a lot of the local crew show up, some they don't. Ballard Elks Annual Car Show I was thinking that we should kind of high jack the show, of a sorts, and turn it into a Autumn/Fall version of the XXX Swedish Drive-in, just not named that, since it is the Ballard Elks show after all. This show is for all that show up and pay the entry "donation", so it would not be exclusive to us. But, the timing is right, as opposite the year from XXX and you please, and it's an established show ran by people that have hosted a car show before. The Ballard Elk Lodge has a large parking lot, it rarely has reached 1/4 capacity in the past with all the cars that show up. Plenty of room for us lot, and the others that come each year. The Volvo people that have come in the past tend to gather in one corner of the lot and socialize while the rest of the show does what they want. It works out nicely in my opinion, and we are all mutually respectable of each other. And, since this is a Elks Lodge event, the entry fee donation is going to help charities. If we usual Volvo suspects show up, that would be a sizable contribution that they would love to see. From a few years back:

I dip , you dip, we dip... Layed down about 5 layers of base coat Gunmetal Grey today. The top coats will go on tomorrow. Final color will be Matte Silver.

I agree. I'll work on it. Ok, let's see if this works...

I agree. I'll work on it.

This week, I set out to stop the oil leak from the back side of the block, for good this time, I hope. I fist thought it was the exhaust cam seal, but I replaced that, and the leak kept going. Now, i think it's the turbo drain pipe seal. SO, I ordered a new TD04 piping kit from Kinugawa. Actually, it was two kits: one for the coolant feeds, and one for the drain tube replacement. All are stainless steel braided Teflon tubes with adjustable banjo bolts, barbs and adapters. The Drain tube has a 1/4"NPT threaded tip that has to be tapped into the block where the OE drain press fits in. It took a bit of time to locate a tap that was teh correct size, and tapered properly to tap the hole. I ended up modifying a harbor Freight tap to do the job. Tapped, cleaned, flushed, cleaned again, then installed the pipe end. Worked great. Installed the turbo flange side, even easier. Connected the tube tot eh two ends, everything was going great! ...until. I installed the Bevel Gear... Damn tube stuck off straight off the turbo about 65mm. The BG sits about 50mm below the turbo... So, I called up Kinugawa and asked if they knew about this,a nd they replied " Um, I think our kit is for the FWD only..." Fantastic! I tapped the block, there is no going back! So, then I asked if they had a version that has a 90 degree tip on one end. And, they did. Ordered it, it arrived a few days latter, installed it... still hit... Shit. Oh, wait, rotate the connection 180 degrees, BAM, clearance! Throw it all back together and test. All is well... so far. I'll take it out for a day and see what happens. Here's some Pics (if they decide to link...): This may have been the cause of the leak... Wrong tube. Straight outlet sticks down to far for AWD setup. Final tube, but not final position. The turbo side needed to be rotated to clear the BG I din't get a pic of Final.

awe man, not this again. It has to do with my google settings. I'll fix it. I did not. I arrived back in Seattle the night before from a week in Chicago. I was to beat to get my arse down to IPD and the car wasn't in any shape to be there either.

Thought I'd flock the upper section of dash that gets all cracked and looks terrible while I had the dash out today. I'm replacing the dash and center console due to the fact that almost every mounting point on the both are cracked and no longer holding anything. The upper dash pad was traded out a few years ago for a Dolby version in great condition.

Finally! 27"x3 Curved Samsung Monitors!

Had the VR detailed over the weekend. First time in 8 or so years. My friend did a great job. I wanted the paint to be clean without any issues before the dip. Took all the trim off, as well as the side mirrors, rear spoiler and the licence plates in order to get at as much of the paint as possible. It looks really good; almost good enough to not dip it... almost. Dip ordered today, going with Matte Silver, like this: Once its dipped, the black around the windows and along the bodyline will return. Hopefully in time for IPD Garage sale!

I noticed the other day that my sunroof motor was lagging. It worked, but was slow to vent, and would only open with a hand assist; same for closing. So, I stopped by a local pick-n-pull that had three different P80 wagons and decided to practice taking the headliner and all the trim out just in case I needed to replace the whole thing. I got the process down perfect. I can take the headliner out without breaking a single clip, or creasing the liner. Then I changed focus onto the sunroof itself. That's when I realized that the motor is serviceable from the access port in the headliner that the console sets in... WHA, Wha, whhaaa... So, I took all three motors home with me, and installed them one by one into my car. All three work great; as good as mine used to. Needless to say, I only need one. But, I will keep one other for backup. Anyone need a sunroof motor from a 98-00 P80? I don't really think that is was that big of a time suck to learn how to remove the headliner without damaging it. I have a fiber optic starfield generator from a defunct company called iSky that I have just laying around. For awhile now, I have been teasing that I want to install it into the headliner of the Wagon... Looks like I now have the ability to do it without screwing things up. LOL Sure would beat a suede headliner... or maybe both, a suede headliner with a starfield generator :D

Focused on another leak (other than the transmission, which seems to be doing OK); an oil leak. The back side of the block has a thin layer of oil all over, as well as the bevel gear. The bevel gear even has oil puddles in the webbing on the top. There is even some oil on the exhaust manifold. I've been looking all over for the leak, with no success. Then, a friend brought up the exhaust cam seal, and had I checked it. I thought, well... that is a place where oil could leak and get everything I just mentioned soaked... So, I ordered a new seal and planned to take a look when it arrived. It was like $15, so no real loss if it wasn't the issue. Tearing down the the upper engine mount and exposing the cam sensor cover was easy enough. Once I took the cover off, about 1-2 ounces of oil came spilling out. I thought, Bingo! I pulled the old seal and found that some of the sealant from sealing the valve cover was still lining the area where the seal sits. I cleaned it up and installed the new seal. All better. As with any leak, time will tell if this was the problem. But, there is a lot of evidence that it was, IMO.

Alright, update time: Wins and Fails addition Win: I got it all put back together today. Parts arrived yesterday afternoon. All looked good. I installed the large seal first with the help of an ABS pipe to pressure it into place, and used a blind bearing puller as a ram for the smaller one. When they both looked properly seated, I installed the o-ring and bevel sleeve. The sleeve took a bit on massaging (hammer) to get it all the way on, even with the supplied spline grease. Then, with the pass. axle and bevel gear still out, I started it up and put it in 1st gear. No sign of the oscillation! The sleeve turned on it's axis without any variation. So, it looks like the prior sleeve had in some way been damaged when it was installed revered, then corrected by the shop that installed the LSD. Fail: I would have posted a Video of the new sleeve, but apparently the Marshmallow 6.01 patch for the Cataclysm root broke my ability to take video. Win: After letting the car run for a bit, I turned it off, then let it sit for a bit; since it used to leak a lot once turned off, I thought I'd let it sit to see if it leaks. No leak! Fail: I remove the pass. axle to reinstall the bevel gear. All went well, until I tried to bench press that bevel gear into place. I dropped it... on my ring finger. It actually bounced. It hit my finger, bounced, then landed on the ground. That som'bitch is heavy. My finger is going to be black and blue tomorrow, but nothing broken. Win: Ok, so bevel gear back in. Axle back in. Fail: I Can't find the rear drive shaft bolts to attach it tot eh yoke. Looked for like and hour. Win: Found the bolts, along with the rear bevel support! With the car off fall fours: I put another quart in the trans, started it again, put in in first, and let it run again. No leak. Turn it off, let it sit. No leak. While I was down there, did some maintenance: Replaced the missing exhaust bolt (turbo-downpipe), replace exhaust hangers (one missing, other broken), tried to clean up some of the trans-fluid all over the bottom of the car (going to have to steam wash that crap off). All in all, it looks like I might have finally solved the problem, a year and a half after it was installed. Between the missing o-ring and the "warped" sleeve, I'm not sure what it was, but let's hope it doesn't come back. Now, to turn my attention tot he Meth Tank, and it's leaking level sensor...

Got the collar off today, finally. I used a 38-50mm Blind Bearing Extractor with a slide hammer to slowly slide that thing out. It took about 20 minutes of banging away at it, but was simply the easiest way to do it I have used. I posted a video on FB of the shaft spinning without the collar. As far As I can tell, the osculation is gone. This leads me to think that the collar was damaged when the shop that installed the Quafe LSD had originally installed the collar the wrong way around. I inspected the collar, but there is no visible damage. All the splines are in great shape, and the overall condition is good. There are sings of some grooving to start on the outside where the seal was rubbing up against it; but, i think that was due to the osculation. I can confirm that, from the assembly diagram, there was a part missing: Numbers 20, 19, 22 and 21 were all there, but the O-ring (#23) was missing. This is probably the main reason that there was a leak, but I think the improperly installed, then improperly reinstalled collar had a lot to do with it as well. New collar on order, as well as all the seals and o-rings. With less than 2 weeks to Triple X, I got to get this thing fixed soon if I want to not miss another one...

I attempted to remove the collar this weekend, but had all the wrong tools. I'm going to call over a friend and see if he can bring the proper items; I attempted to use the blind bearing removal method, and he has one that is big enough to fit (the biggest one I have an 26-32mm, but an 38-50mm is needed). In other news, I was able to remove the pass side axle and check to see if it's bent. As far as I could see, it is not. So, all the oscillation in the video is in the collar/trans area. One possible problem eliminated. More as things go...

Ok, so, update from this weekend. Removed the pass. CV shaft and bevel gear from the car. Cleaned up a lot of the gear oil from the underside. And inspected the area for leaks. It is very obvious that the leak is coming from the pass. side only of the trans; so, that is were I concentrated. I noticed that the outer seal (#22 in the image above) was wet, but not damaged. Also, the inner lip of that seal was were it should be, on the inside. Prior to this, the second time this leak was addressed, the entire edge of the inner seal was poking out the outer seal. So, it was quite obvious at the time that was the issue. Looks like it was a bit more than that... In a stroke of genius, Goldpancho suggested that we start it up and put it in gear. Since the only thing wrong with the car at the moment is the trans., it was done. We both noticed that the collar has a wobble to it. He even took a video of it and posted it on FB to share(FB Video post). In the video, you can see the collar oscillation, but it also relieved what looks like a bent axle. All of this points to possible carrier bearing damage, am suggested by Lookforjoe when I asked him for his opinion. With all this, I wasn't quite sure what to do; so I buttoned it up and quit for the day, then started researching the problem. This weekend I will pull the axle and check it for damage and/or verify if it is bent. Also think I'll pull the collar and all the seals to take a look behind there and see what I can see. The only thing I can think of that might have damaged teh carrier bearing would be when the shop that I can rebuild the trans. and install the Quaife LSD, they had installed the collar backwards. I remember not noticing this when I was assembling the engine for installation, and tried to force the Bevel gear to mount on the collar; only to have it stop about 1/2" short. That's when I started asking around what could be wrong, and Lookforjoe came to the rescue again, and mentioned that the collar was backwards. I removed it and turned it around, and reinstalled it. Then, put the bevel gear on with out any more issues, and didn't look back. In hind sight, I probably should have looked in there and checked for any damage that my "forcing the BG to mate" could have done. Oh well, next time, right? At minimum, this is a new collar kit. At worst, I'll have to pull the tranny and replace the bearing. Not looking forward to one, and dreading the other...