Diff end plate gasket

[mac]

Further news - I have at last rec'd an e-mail back from VCUK - 15 years is now down to 10!!! :-

"our ref 231901 Please Quote on all correspondence

Thank you for your e-mail below. I am sorry that you are disappointed
with the fact that we are unable to provide a part for your Volvo 300
series. We do everything possible to keep stock of parts for at least
10 years after the finish of production of a model, however, you will
appreciate that it does eventually become financially unviable to
continue to produce them. Naturally, some parts are more readily
available than others however, there comes a time when stock of parts
does become depleted and we are not in a position to supply further
stock. I would recommend that you contact either the Volvo Owners Club
for assistance or visit www.gcp.se (Genuine Classic Parts AB) to see if
they have the part you are seeking. This is not a Volvo Car Corporation
website so I regret I cannot take any responsibility for any
inaccuracies or transactions that you may have with them. I do hope that
you can find the part that you are looking for.

Veronica Knight
Customer Relations Consultant"

My immediate reaction - 'go consult yourself Veronica' but of course it's not her fault.

Wouter - if you read this - how bad are things getting in flatland ???

I shall keep stirring in the VOC but they find things are changing also - when I spoke to Jack (Cluer) last he had almost been told to 'F Off' when seeking info from VCUK technical and has a letter telling him the Owners Club should have no more access to technical info than any other member of the public !!

I guess they have made it very clear that unless we want to buy a new Focus or Mondeo - oops sorry I mean V50 or S80 we can expect little interest from them.

As I said on the VOC forum "encouraging isn't it"

Mac.

[pettaw]

Mac is it worth doing something for Jack on this subject for Volvo Technical Driver? Only cos many more people will read that than will go near forums, either here or VOC. The ten year old rule, is pure Ford speak. Shame that Ford Heritage actually seem to do a better job than Volvo.

If things go the same way then I'm probably not going to be able to get my air filters at OE quality any more

[Chris_C]

Right, well, if the VOC arn't allowed any higher access than the public, if I do remember the law lectures right, either any of us of the VOC can demand teh technical drawings. Lets p*ss the tossers off, and all apply for access to them. See how well customer a*se rodgering copes with that one.

Anyone got access to high media? Would f*ck Volvos lifetime care values that always used to be held so high if there was enough publicity against them. Nick, if you do get in touch with media for the rally stuff, keep the useful contacts

Maybe also time for a proper sized Volvo United meet, outside a relavant dealers... again with enough press. It would be something that could make Volvo look great with all of the lifetime owners there, especially as most of us are the market they fail at, the teens and twenties. Wouldn't look good at all if the general public found they didn't treat them well. Many angles you could take it, all you need is a vindictive press person (ok... a press person).

[foggyjames]

Next Meet: Marlow, Bucks...

cheers

James

[mac]

Ev'nin all again,

What have I stirred up ?? - Over 20 replies to my thread on the VOC forum in less than 24hrs. 33 replies here !!!

Pettaw - I like your idea of an article for Technical Driver - I will give it some thought. I've also got a VOC Essex & Suffolk regional meet next Thursday and if Chris Wickers is there (he usually is) I'll have a chat to him as well - after all he's on the VOC board of directors now.

Before we launch an assult in 'Tech Driver' though I feel (personally) that rather than "we can't get - moan, moan etc." it would be nice to do a bit of digging - maybe make a template, perhaps even produce a gasket or three, and then the article can say "you can't get from VCUK - but you can get from V3M!!".
Kudos for V3M and one in the eye for my brother bearded farts who are frightened of anyone under 60!!

As I have said, if anyone can come up with a new gasket I'll happily make up a template and research gasket material etc.


Just my musing - ideas, comments anyone.

Mac.

[pettaw]

Mac there was a guy on VOC who had a new gasket I think.

Hold on, let me find the link.

Edit: its on your thread you started, on page 2: from a guy called Mlts. http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/forum/showt ... 122&page=2

I was talking to my local dealer today and they were saying so much 300 stuff has now gone unavailable. Heater resistor packs (we already know about that one:) )they said they used to do loads of those too, as well as door mirrors, the plastic guard plates for CVTs(well, I'll give them an excuse there cos they're rarely needed) rear spring bushes, oh, and one of the gaskets for the base of a Weber carb for the 1.4, the bottom one is still available, but not the top one And all the sunroof parts for the Golde sunroofs fitted to 360s.

[mac]

Thanks for the link Pettaw, I had actually seen that and have now got around to responding. If I can get a template made we shall see what we shall see.

I suspect we will be more into making gaskets in the future - do I see a new career beckoning ??

Mac.

[Chris_C]

Heater resistor packs are 90% complete... as long as VW arn't as ghay... else I'll be in redesigning terratory

Foggy, wheres that new one? and the injection board you lazy oike!

EDIT: I'm with Mac tbh... which is why I mentioned the drawings thing (was wound up earlier ) Anyone have any contacts who would know the law regarding this? Or how we could go about it?

[Chris_C]

Just thought of another obsolete part (ok, not super important!)

The spongy filter type thing in the heater box (VADIS cools a WATER SEPARATER, though how sponge separates water...) but this can be remidied so as not to get hoooge bits coming thought the vents with the old frame from the filter and a tight (a tight, dear reader, is one leg from a pair of tights...)

[foggyjames]

Mirrors are an interesting one. I'm about to sell a manual one to a dealer second-hand for them to fit to a customer's car!

cheers

James

[Nick C]

I've just changed the diff gasket on PTF, using a new home-made gasket.

It wasn't particularly difficult, the worst bits being cleaning up the parts before putting it back together! I also found it a bit of a pain getting to soem of the bolts, as the axle gets in the way of them! The solution I found was to do up the bolts on the top 2/3 of the cover, then lower the car back to the floor, crawl underneath (I'm slim enough to fit!) and tighten the bottom ones!

New gasket, cut using the old one as a template:


Cleaned up backplate:


New Gasket in place - the boltholes proved too hard to cut accuratly through the old gasket, so I cut them roughly, then cut them properly using the plate as a guide:


Nice Shiny diff - no signs of any extra wear as a result of running low on oil:


She's a tight fit in our garage! What the picture doesn't show is how badly offset the garage is compared to the house, making getting the car in and out interesting...


I've got loads of gasket material left, so if anyone wants some, let me know, enough to make one of these should fit in an A4 envelope so shouldn't cost too much to post under their new scheme...

[SteveP]

It wasn't particularly difficult, the worst bits being cleaning up the parts before putting it back together!

Hell yes.. that took longer than the job itself by far! Not a nice job, but one that can't be ignored really... nice work on the gasket.

[foggyjames]

I'd be up for a sheet of that material - I have a diff swap and box freshening to perform. Excellent work there chaps. I'm...well...proud that people are actively looking after the cars, and not treating them as a disposable toy - good work!

cheers

James

[petefarrell360]

I'd read this thread, but lacked the time to reply. So, I'm definitely in agreement with all that has been said. Ford........I believe that it is Japper who has a highly amusing and suitable picture, the Ford badge, below it, "well.....at least they circled the problem!" How very true. To reduce the 15 year parts supply down to 10, that's ridiculous. After they've taken over the company and on cars produced after that time, then yes, that can be implemented, but to apply this to previous models produced before their involvement is wrong IMHO. As someone else said, with Ford's experience, they don't expect their cars to last 10 years, so parts won't be needed!

I'd be well up for the gathering with press etc to get some action! As Chris said, it makes a mockery of the Lifetime care Volvo promoted their cars with. With the the likes of V3M, Tbricks, VOC forums etc, as highlighed earlier in the thread, there is the potential to get a massive response. If a standard letter template was drawn up, posted up as a downloadable word doc, print and sign, add your own rant if you so desire or ammend and post to Volvo! That way it's not one body such as the VOC ranting on our behalf, and then brushed off in one fowl swoop, but an army of disgruntled customers, demanding answers, which should get noticed a bit more.

Also, Chris, we need to look into this seriously about getting hold of the original drawings for parts etc. That'd really annoy them, if V3M as a non profit making organisation intent on keeping the cars running could get hold of the drawings to then get parts produced, it would be a major step forward and would also secure the future of the Volvo 300.

If parts aren't available, and people aren't enthusiasts like ourselves, when something goes wrong, and it can't be sourced easily, and maybe using a second hand part is not advisable, such as diff end plate gaskets, or people just can't be bothered or cannot trawl scrapyards (or find one of the rare ones that doesn't just crush 300's when they get there!) to remove parts themselves, then the car will most likely be scrapped. This means for the sake of simple items a car might be scrapped, or suffer damage. I'm with Andy on the fact that original Volvo parts are the way to go, but if we can't find them, we must resort alternative sources.

If the drawings are released to us, I might have some sources for prodcuing some of the complicated metal work, requiring CNC machining etc! But that's a long way off yet.

Pete

[foggyjames]

To be fair Pete, Ford are actually extending the parts availability for older Fords, and the rumour was that this would be rolled out to the PAG brands too. This is very much a Volvo issue, IMO.

They sold cars in the 80s with promotional material which said the average lifespan for a Volvo was ~20 years. How does that work when parts availability can't be guaranteed after 10 years? I bet they'll bend over backwards to provide Irv Gordon with parts for his 2 million mile P1800!

cheers

James