Dear All,

I just wanted to say a thank you to those who've offered advice and also congratulate you on a brilliantly informative forum, without which I don't think we would have ever got this car back on the road!

It's a 1986 door 340DL Auto (so has stayed very true to the original DAF design) with 39k on the clock, which I bought in October last year having never owned one before and knowing nothing about them We finally got it running as it should last weekend and it is now taxed and ready to roll. When I got it there were a number of problems; the brake pedal went to the floor, there was a horrendous noise from the drive system, it revved itself to death etc... We almost gave up on several occasions. There was a fair bit of work involved and I've listed the things I can remember below...

Mechanical bits
New brake master cylinder and brake fluid (bit of a priority as there weren't really any brakes)
Adjusted centrifugal clutch with new shims (from Dan in Holland)
Replaced leaky oil seals on the secondary transmission unit (from Dan in Holland again)
Replaced oil in primary and secondary transmission units
Replaced CVT drive belts (complete nightmare with no pit of lift)
Repaired accelerator kickdown switch
Oil and filter change

Electrical bits
Replaced faulty EMV diode (thanks to volvodspec’s CVT Diagnostic Manual)
Replaced faulty tacho relay capacitor and added additional failsafe diode (again thanks to volvodspec’s CVT Diagnostic Manual)
New battery
New spark plugs

There are still a few minor niggles like the heater fan not working and wheels not properly balanced... but I can live that for a bit.
If anyone is interested, there is a vid of the CVT working just after we changed the belts here...

http://s1096.photobucket.com/albums/g32 ... -33-26.mp4

We have a few spare diodes for the EMV/tacho relay and a few dozen capacitors for the tacho relay so if anybody needs some, please let me know.

Thanks again,
Soph x

Nice work, always good to see another vario working again!

Glad to hear that this is now going well.

Keep your eyes open about the heater fan fix which I'll maybe get round to posting.

Great work !!!
Glad to see another successful Variomatic Volvo back on the road.

John

Hi mate.
This sounds like it was a real labour of love. Well done.
Cheers Mark.

It was hard work, but worth it.... I think! Thanks All x

Well done indeed. Awesome work.

Nice one, well done for putting all that effort in! The heater fan not working is probably the usual resistor pack problem ...

Cheers

Tom

Well done, I'm very pleased to see that you persevered with it. That's a really useful video as well.

You may have seen from my recent thread (http://www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/v ... =5&t=13660) that I have been doing quite a few of the same jobs as you had to, and now my CVT is running SO much better! My next job is to check and probably replace the oil in the primary and secondary transmission units.

Sion

My next job is to check and probably replace the oil in the primary and secondary transmission units

Hi Sion, this job is much easier with some sort of sqeezy-bottle-with-short-tube-in-the-top arrangement (which we didn't have) as both filler holes can be quite awkward to get to especially as the car needs to be level.

We had real problems changing the belts and ended up having to 'undo' the secondary unit. We found there was no way (with the car on axle stands) of pulling down hard enough on the old belts to separate the pullys.

Had a look at the heater fan resistor pack at the weekend and think I need a new one

And I still have an unidentifed vibration type noise to get to the bottom of and need to change the fan belt - keeps us busy though

Soph

noo-noo wrote:We had real problems changing the belts and ended up having to 'undo' the secondary unit. We found there was no way (with the car on axle stands) of pulling down hard enough on the old belts to separate the pullys

That is making a meal of it.

It's quite simple to do with the correct tool.

Variomatic belts and tool by macplaxton, on Flickr

As you can see it's just a enormous G-clamp with a couple of nylon blocks to protect the pulley faces.

If you don't have the tool to hand or some sort of rugged G-clamp or speed clamp, then a trolley jack and a block of wood trick can be used.


(Photo borrowed from Joe's site, the rest of the details can be found HERE)

A spark plug makes a good spacer to stop the pulleys pinging back shut whilst you change the belts.

Anyway, it's a job that shouldn't need to be done again for a good while yet.

Ahhh...!! We didnt have the tool or anything similar, but the trolley jack trick would have made like much easier

But do remember that the trolley jack workaround was used on a Daf 33, where the springs in the secondary pulleys do not need as much force as those of the V300 CVT do...

nvdw wrote:where the springs in the secondary pulleys do not need as much force as those of the V300 CVT do...

True, you have to bounce a bit harder, or eat more pies.