tuner4life

Gloomy day, but this car always brightens things up! Still daily driving the C70 until the V70R gets finished up.

So... Last night, I disassembled the fuel system and tried to make sense of that mess. I've got a new pump, ejector, and filter. But I'll have to custom make the lines. Going to hit the local parts store in the next day or so and see if I can gather the necessary parts. Anything metal is rusty and I don't trust the old rubber. Going to try to replace all of it with nylon lines. Anyways, here are pictures from last night. Mostly for my reference, but I'll post them here too.

Thanks! I've actually already got the POR15. It was delivered yesterday. Going to do the subframe and a few spots of surface rust underneath. I've used it on several other projects and never had an issue with it. Just have to apply it by the book. I think that's where the negative reviews come from. I don't have a great parts list at the moment, but once everything arrives, I can take pictures of the packing lists and what-not. There are a few parts that are discontinued and you will have to jump through some hoops to source, but more are still available than I expected. I got most of my info from these threads: http://forums.swedespeed.com/showthread.php?163864-98-00-AWD-Component-Parts-Listings http://v70r.com/forums/topic/37473-p80-awd-rear-suspension-bushings/ Big Will has also been a great resource during this project. He is very knowledgeable about these AWD cars. I don't have a total amount for what this will cost yet unfortunately and tbh it's probably best I don't add it up, It's in the (more than 2) thousands by now for sure. But I'm replacing every wear part in the rear subframe, both fuel pumps fuel lines, the entire exhaust, Nivos, brakes, driveshaft, etc.. I even got a wild hair the other day and ordered every bolt, nut, and washer that I could source. Might have been overkill, but I know that it will be done right. If you are confident working on suspension stuff and aren't scared away by pressing bushings in/out, then you shouldn't have too many problems. It's just a huge project in general.

Haha!! The rest of the shop looks about the same. Need to clean it up before doing any more work.

Thanks! Finally done with the dis-assembly of the suspension! Didn't have a ton of time over the weekend, but got both rear knuckles stripped down. Got the remnants of the abs sensors removed, wheel bearings pressed out (both were bad), the joint at the top for the upper arm, removed the dust shields without breaking them (thank god). Hoping that there is enough metal there to save them, looks like only superficial surface rust. Anyways.. Going to contact a local powder coater this week and see about having some of these parts done. Bare knuckle: And here is every part that I had to press, push, hammer, burn, cut, chisel, etc.. out of the rear suspension. Glad to be done with that part of the project...

Installed some '04 Jewel taillights over the weekend and got a few rolling shots courtesy of my brother. More lowering and some wheel spacers are on the to-do list for this winter.

Spent the last couple evenings fighting with the lower control arms to get the bushings out. The worst being the bushing at the end of the arm that connects to the knuckle. The steel sleeve and the aluminum arm had bonded together to solid that even after cutting a slot in the sleeve, it still took quite a lot of effort to remove it from the bore. There is quite a bit of chalky oxidized/corroded aluminum here, I was able to remove some of it with a wire brush, but I need to go at it with a sanding barrel on a dremel before pushing the new bushings in. Happy to have the lower arms stripped bare now though. Just a few more bushings and broken bolts to remove and then I can work on other parts of the project.

Thought about it.. I've used it on steel before with pretty good results, but idk about aluminum.

Last night I got the rest of the bushings pressed out of the subframe. Wasn't all that bad really using the big c-clamp style ball joint press. Got to work cleaning all of the grime off of the subframe. Had a bit of help. Once I got all the thick/nasty stuff brushed off, I sprayed it down with simple green and let it soak for a while, then scrubbed it down again and rinsed. It's not perfect, but plenty good for who it's for. Here is the only part that I'm a little worried about. The surface where the subframe meets the body on the driver's side is a bit pitted. I've scraped and wire-brushed away anything loose and this is what I was left with. Still structurally solid, but I'm worried that the texture will invite more corrosion later on. Looking for suggestions on what to coat that area with? Spray with epoxy paint and call it good? Slather it with anti-seize? Heavy Grease? It will (hopefully) be many years before I have to take the subframe down again, so I want things to be as protected as possible. Especially since this car will see winter use.

Worked last night on getting the old bushings out of the subframe.. Got 2 out so far. Had to burn the rubber out, then very carefully using a sawzall I made cuts in the old sleeves and pried them out. The bores look pretty good but I'll clean them up with a wire brush before installing the new bushings. Besides a couple of pry marks around the holes I'll call these 2 a success so far.. Only 4 more to go on the subframe and 4 more on the control arms.. Also got a weird look from my wife when I brought a box of new bushings inside and put them in the freezer.

Didn't take any pictures but last night I only had a short time to work. I removed the mounting bracket that is mounted to the body under the back seats that holds the front mounting points for the fuel tank straps and the forward VC mount. That was a bit tedious as the bolts were pretty corroded, but they did come out without breaking. I also disassembled the VC. Removed the bearing and bushing. I need to clean the housing up before reassembling. The bearing in the VC was definitely bad. It growls even when spinning in my hand. I also believe that the Pinion bearing in the diff may be questionable too. There are some light radial score marks inside of the VC housing where it looks like the VC may have made slight contact with the housing. I'll replace the pinion bearing too for good measure.

Good to know! Thank you! I have all of the originals bagged up and labeled where they go so it should be pretty easy to check.

Over the weekend, I got the rear subframe apart and stripped of everything except the bushings. It was a bunch of work, but nearly everything came apart relatively easily. There were a few bolts that broke off but nothing that I don't think can be taken care of with some heat and persuasion. I was impressed overall at how easily it all came apart for being a 240k mile Michigan car. Now that it's apart, I'll be going through each piece 1 at a time and cleaning them up and replacing any bushings, joints, etc.. Also have a box of parts started that will be going to the powder-coater. I also think I have most of the parts I need either here or ordered. I spent a bit more time and $ than I was originally planning on, but I managed to source nearly every nut, bolt, and washer for the rear subframe new. Should make things nice and easy going back together. In addition to that, I'll use a bit of thread locker on the threads and anti-sieze on the shafts of the shoulder bolts. Should make things easier if this ever needs to be done again. Not sure why this batch of pictures looks so bad...

Only had about an hour to work on this last night, so I focused on removing the rear bumper and inspecting the body for rust problems. (Cleaning up the shop will need to happen before I do any more work on the car.) I was able to get the driver's side bolt out without breaking it somehow but the passenger side broke right off. I was however able to mangle the bottom of the bracket enough to slide the bumper down and off. Here are the results of that. Definitely ordering new brackets and bolts this week. My Saab 900 Resto project is now being used as a shelf lol. Too many projects going on at once. After getting the bumper off, I went under the car to inspect the rust situation. Thankfully it was better than I expected for being a daily driven Michigan car it's whole life. There are several areas of surface rust above the subframe, but after poking around with a screwdriver nearly all of them feel solid enough to be cleaned up and treated with POR15. That should take care of them for a long long time. There was however one rust hole that I found on the front left mounting perch for the rear subframe. I poked through it with a screwdriver and ended up with a bit of a hole. I'll have to weld in a patch in this area. Also discovered that someone has been in here before, although they did take a shortcut through the floor to get to the fuel pump. Not too thrilled about that, but it does look like they sealed it up reasonably well. I'll inspect it further when I get the carpet and back seats out. That's all I've got for now. I probably won't get a chance to work on this again until the weekend. I also think I've got my suspension figured out. I'll be going with IPD front springs with Koni Yellow struts, and in the rear I'll be using the Euro Nivomats with stock rear springs (minus ~2 coils) and drop bolts as needed to match ride height to the front.. Then IPD sway bars front and rear. I really didn't want to go with coilovers since this car gets driven in the winter and coilovers will get ruined very quickly in the winter even with the proper care and cleaning. Here is the thread that has sold me on this setup. The height looks great for a daily driver, and I like the idea of keeping the Nivos in the rear since This car often gets used like a truck. http://v70r.com/forums/topic/38045-the-re-birth-of-a-martian-floggingmikes-build-thread/

I am definitely interested in these pictures!

If only they sold FWD Saffron Rs in the USA like in Europe... It's time consuming and a bit awkward to lower the assembly just using a trans jack and a floor jack, but overall it's really not that hard overall to get to this point.. (I'm sure my opinion will change as I attempt to change all the bushings and what-not back there. Here are the steps to get where I am now: -Jack car up as high as you can get it and take the back wheels and fender liners off (pass side is really the only one that needs to come off) -remove locking ring from fuel fill and push the fill through the body -In the trunk, remove the floor compartment lids. Under the forward lid, remove the access plate that the wiring runs through. Unplug the wiring and push through the floor -Remove the exhaust (easier said then done if it's all original and rusted together) -Remove the plastic cover from the fuel lines on the right side of the floorpan. Let them hang for now. -I decided to break loose the 6 allen bolts holding the VC shaft to the diff input. Didn't remove them yet, just broke them loose now because it might be harder out of the car (not necessary if you don't plan on separating the VC from the diff) -remove the driveshaft from the VC and let it hang (I removed the whole thing with the bearing plate because it's getting replaced. -Unhook and remove the brake line from the 3 way splitter on the left side around the trailing arm mount. Also disconnect the hose from the brake line and remove from bracket on the right side. unmount the lines completely from where they pass through the brackets. There will be too much tension when you unbolt the trailing arm mount if you don't disconnect them. -disconnect e-brake cables from brakes and bracket on control arm. make sure that they are loose after coming out of the floor. I pulled them forward out of the way. -Using a couple of 2x4s and a transmission jack, fashion a bracket that will support the fuel tank on both halves at a similar height as the subframe. (I ended up using a trans jack from the back and a floor jack in the front to fully support everything -Unbolt the mounting bolt for the front of the VC and unbolt the fuel tank straps where they mount to the body at the front of the tank. -Make sure that the jacks have sufficient tension holding everything up. Then unbolt the 6 subframe-to-body bolts. This is tough! Especially rust-belt cars. The bolts will be corroded and very stuck. I had to work them a little at a time to avoid breaking them. -At this point the assembly is loose and can be lowered a little at a time making sure everything stays level. Also make sure that the fuel filler doesn't get hung up and that no lines or hoses are being hooked on the way down -The fuel lines on the right side have seemingly no good place to disconnect so I ended up undoing them up at the front. The pressure regulator and everything got removed with the rear subframe. Just keep moving forward till you see threaded fittings you can remove. (Also note that any gas in the tank will start to run out of that hose as soon as you lower it lower then the level of the tank. I pulled the hose end back to the tank and ziptied it above the tank so it wouldn't spill). -At this point everything is loose and can be slid backwards. Mine wasn't jacked up quite high enough to clear the fuel filler so I slid the whole assembly to the right and got the fuel filler out through the wheel-well before sliding everything backwards. So yeah... I'm about 5 hours in at this point. On an unrelated note. I tried to remove the rear bumper and the 2 bolts broke off with almost no effort.. How screwed am I? Can I grind the 2 adjacent bolts (or whats left of them) on each side and gain access to what I need that way? I want to take care of any rust behind the rear bumper while I'm here.

Got the subframe and fuel tank out last night. Wasn't all that bad really. The 4 big subframe mounting bolts did fight me some and I thought I might break them, but with a bit of working them back and forth and PB blaster they came out just fine. I was pleasantly surprised that there was little to no rust above the subframe. Just a couple of small sport of surface rust that I'll touch up with POR-15. What an over-complicated mess... These fuel lines are terribly rusted.. I'd like to replace them with new. The volvopartswebstore.com site shows them available.. We'll see if that's legit or not. If I can't get them, then I'll have to make my own. so overly complicated. Next project is to take all of the pieces apart now that they are accessible.

I've been all over that thread several times now. It's beyond me why they would make so many changes to a car that was made for 3 years! I am pretty certain that this car is all the "early style". I know for sure that they VC is, and if that is then the driveshaft would also have to be the early style right?

I saw the big thread on SS about the differences and just read through it again. I believe you may be right about the shaft length being different in 1998 from the newer ones despite that thread saying that they will interchange. I'll probably stick with a 1998 shaft just to be safe. Here is the place that I saw the info about the bolts being used for balancing: https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5dt8gtxneqp3n1/AWD%20Fuel%20Tank%20Removal.pdf?dl=0

I saw that and thought about using it, but I want to pull the sideskirts to clean behind them while I'm doing this and it looked like it would be an issue to remove it with the jack stands there. The metal right inboard of that spot is also very thick and sturdy. I don't think it will be an issue. Last night I got a little more done. I removed the rest of the old homemade exhaust up to the downpipe. It's held up well but there were definitely a couple of pinholes in my crappy welds and the cheap flexpipe I used is coming apart. The whole thing will be getting redone. Also got the driveshaft out. Can't tell if it has ever been replaced before but it looks like an original 1998 Driveshaft. Either way, I'll be replacing it with one from Colorado Driveshaft. I do want to check if they will send me a 1999-2000 shaft in place of my 1998 or if they will only send the same as original. Also, had a question about the bolts at each end of the driveshaft. From what I have read, Volvo used different length bolts as weight to help balance the driveshaft assembly. I was hoping that I would avoid that mess, but I did find that one bolt on the front flange was about 7 mm longer than the rest. Will I need to worry about somehow getting that bolt back in the right spot with the new Colorado Driveshaft? I'd happily replace it with a standard length bolt if it won't cause any issues, but reading about the balancing thing has me a little worried. I marked it's location just in case, but am looking for advice.

Thanks! The jacks are just in front of the "longitudinal stay brackets" as Volvo calls them. with some wood cushioning between the stands and the car. From what I've read this is a solid enough area to support the weight.

It has begun.. Day 1: jacked up as high as my stands will go, wheels removed, rear section of exhaust removed, fender liners and mud flaps removed. I'm taking lots of detailed pictures, but I'm not going to post too many yet as I'm working on a new extortion-proof picture hosting situation. Once I get that sorted I'll dump a bunch of pictures.

Yeah. 10-4 on the being super careful. Been soaking it all in PB every couple of days for the last week and I'm gathering as many parts as I can find before i start. Just getting worried that I'll tear into it and not be able to find some crucial part then I'll be really screwed.

So let's beat this dead AWD horse some more. In my search to find a good condition low mileage VC, I'm coming up short. I did see a parts diagram at one point for the VC and there is a bearing in the VC that looks to be replaceable. My noise definitely sounds like a bearing that is failing and it makes it at all speeds. My question is can that bearing be changed out relatively easily? I have a press, but am not sure about pulling that whole unit apart. The AWD works fine otherwise. I can definitely tell that it was working over the past winter. We had quite a bit of parking lot fun last winter.. The car has 240k miles, would you re-use the VC with a new bearing, or try to find a lower mile replacement?

It would be significantly easier and probably cheaper to buy a T-5 and paint it Saffron. I really don't want to come across as complaining. I love this car and the AWD is a nice feature to have especially since this is a daily. This particular part of the project is just more money and labor intensive than most others. I'm sure it'll be worth the work when it's over and back on the road.