I've introduced her to 'the Family' but since it's turning into a project of it's own accord I thought I might as well start a separate thread on the Volvo 360!

I present to you my daily driver rolling project:



My first 360 GLT - 1987 vintage. 2 litres of Volvo Red Block EFi, mid-gearbox, RWD goodness!

It was meant to be 'just' the runabout but I really like the quirky, retro character and have been unable to resist thoughts of B230 Turbo conversions and Land Rover rear dampers (more because I've a few hanging around than becasue of any drift fantasies!) with some 'stealth' style.

This weekend I collected some alloys:



They originally came fitted to my Dad's Passat estate (!??) but I have 'liberated' them as he has a tendency to trash all things automobile. A quick trial, while on my bro's ramp for exhaust bodging, shows they fit (ish) although the wider centre bore worries me slightly...

They are 14" Wolfrace and with a clean and repaint I think they will suit the car.

While prodding underneath, as our kid welded the front pipe, I decided the chassis rails and rear wheelarches will need some attention:



eBay provided this repair panel but sod's law dictates I have only located an offside repair panel when the near side is in the worst condition (though both will need doing sooner than later)!

Hopefully it will make it through MOT time in July with minimal expense and I will find more time to sort things properly!

Looks saucy mate. Very nice.

Dont fret over the CB. Ive ran various oversided cb alloys on various 300 with no spiggot rings with no ill effects.
Many others have too.

Add rubber and clean-ness and get em on!

MOT time sneaked up on me!

I'm still dreaming of a 2.3 turbo conversion (I have my eye on a dormant, late 940 estate) so the exhaust was bodged again to avoid buying standard parts now when I may need a custom job later.

Spotted rust holes on each side in the chassis rails / crossmember, over rear driveshafts, during pre-MOT check-over and got little brother to patch them. Also changed OSR tyre for a (better) used one.

'Cosmetic' damage around front end (mainly because I ripped the trim off on my rickety ramps and rusty metal beneath it exploded!) / wheelarches was covered with aluminium-backed 'speed tape' for now:





Oh, and I changed the engine, gearbox and final drive oils too - maybe 'placebo effect' but it really does feel smoother to drive as a result

MOT itself brought the following 'to do' list:

* OSF side light inoperative - bugger, didn't have time to check them!

* Corrosion too close to both rear suspension mounts (closing panels) - missed those too, thought they were rusty drain holes and not structural but I guess they're part of sills.

* OSF wheel bearing rough

* NSR tyre below legal limit - it was low but not below 2mm, so I'd left it for the time being; an overzealous tester? (place is a tyre and exhaust fitting centre)

So, back to little brother (the welder!) for more patching and swapping of tyre with the (steel) spare. I had a wheel bearing 'in stock' - I'd thought it needed the OSF doing a while back but tightening the hub nut sorted it - so that was a quick job too.

One (free) retest later left me with just 3 advisories:

* Minor exhaust leak - now covered with paste

* Slight play in steering rack

* Vehicle tested in wet

... but she's legal for another year and all (expensive test but big brother labour rates) for under £100!


Anyone got a decent front valance, any front wings or a NSR arch panel?

Good news dude.
Well done!

12 months extra rolling.

nice motor there! no spoiler though. Love those new wheels too.

brickie501 wrote:Anyone got a decent front valance, any front wings or a NSR arch panel?

For wings and arch panel, try Hadrian:
http://hadrian.dominohosting.biz/hadria ... f/MakeList

The front valance is a little bit more difficult, I know of a 340 version (no cutouts for the fog lamps) for sale, if that helps ...
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0417560301

Cheers

Tom

Thanks Tom

I sent a query but, unfortunately, Hadrian are out of stock on front wings at present

Rear arches are ~£30

I managed to pick up my OSR for £8 on FleaBay so I will keep searching for a while yet!

Have found some spigot rings on the 'Bay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0459351522

Might ask them about some for my pre-2000 Wolfrace alloys - at 99p each, they're cheap enough to put my mind at rest over the centrebore discrepancy.

Hi all,

Been away and standing for six months has obviously been a problem for the 360 as it won't run

This is all a bit secondhand as a friend has been looking to get it ready for me and they are reporting on another mechanic's view - I know how difficult 'remote diagnosis' is but...

Thought I had done the best I could using fuel additive (trying to preserve fuel a bit) and disconnecting battery but obviously not good enough!

Seems fuel related and need for new fuel pump has been mentioned but it was running well before...

It's being looked at by a professional 'freind of a friend' so I'm skipping the obvious. In your vast experience are there any faults 300s suffer after being laid up?

Will try and get a better read-out of symptons but just looking for a steer in the right direction

Many thanks

As you look at the fuel pump relay over the passenger wing next to air flow meter, pull outvthe relayvand jump the 3 centre terminals going from top to bottom. My GLT decided to eat the relay so I tried this as a temp fix when I need to move her.works a treat.
Adam

Thanks 340GLT ...

Apparently bypassing the relay worked, in so far as fuel is now getting to the injectors, but that has now shown there to be no spark !!!

Obviously various parts have failed through lack of use; while I hit the manual, any suggestions for bits of the ignition system that could have gone the same way as the fuel relay?

So I managed to get up to look at the car yesterday armed with my brother (the mechanic one), a selection of tools (particularly a multi-meter) and (on the advice of the mechanic 'friend of a friend' who has been looking at the problem) a spare Crank Position Sensor or CPS (but from a 940 turbo).

After checking what had already been done and a few false leads (the other guy wasn't around) I found the Owners Manual … which we quickly exhausted! A bit more digging found my trusty Haynes manual, which was more helpful.

The CPS on the car seemed to be faulty – not 220 Ohms +/- 60 (thanks Mr Haynes)– but we were unsure and moved onto the EFi Control Relay wiring anyway. This was OK until we got to an ignition signal which didn't look like the 'flashing' output expected (we were using the multi-meter rather than the test lamp suggested) but, not fully understanding the system, we weren't sure why that would prevent fuel and spark.

Following through the block diagrams and control relay pin-outs we managed to get the fuel pump 'ticking' but no spark, as per the previous attempts. From experience, my brother had suggested the overall fault could be a triggered 'inertia' / crash switch but no amount of 'Googling' had found any mention of one being fitted on a 360. A mental leap then got me wondering if the lack of an ignition signal would stop the fuel circuit energising as a 'feature' of the EFi. I knew from researching 340/360 EFi problems hereabouts that a faulty CPS would completely stop the Renix producing any spark so, logically, it wouldn't stump up a 'flashing' ignition signal either (assuming that was where such a signal would be produced). Haynes was unclear but this is backed-up by Ride_on, in answer to my related question over on the engine technical thread; unfortunately I didn't see his answer before setting off

So much for the theory but how to confirm the fault?

This is where the 940 CPS was supposed to come in but, unlike me (beforehand), those who know about such things will explain that the 360 CPS has two (not three) wires and is a completely different shape and fitting to the 940 one…

… but it does have the right range of impedance and the end will physically fit in the bell-housing!

Not wanting to destroy an otherwise good part (with no guarantee of success), we chopped the connector off the faulty 360 sensor and searched for something to join the bare ends to the relevant two pins on the 940 item's connector. Unfortunately neither of us had brought an electrical connector/crimp kit, much less a soldering iron etc. BTW we were basically in a yard miles from nowhere; no shops around even if it hadn't been late afternoon / early evening on a Saturday.

We didn't have enough hands so my brother found some rawl plugs (yes the things that go into walls to screw stuff onto!) in my 'misc' toolbox and some monumental bodging ensued. The split ends of the rawl plugs were used to hold the bared wires, from the 360's CPS plug, to the correct pins, in the 940's CPS plug, while he held the sensor element in roughly the right position and I turned the car over. After a quick check that we were now seeing spark and fuel, we replaced everything we had been fiddling with and … she fired up.

We were already towing and there was no way that lash-up was going to make it the 100+ miles back so she isn't back on my driveway yet but at least the fault, and required solution, are confirmed.

Now I was warned CPS's can cost in the region of £200 which isn't far off what I paid for the car - which is why 'friend of a friend' wanted me to decide what to do - so I will be looking at cheapo options! Luckily my brother took one look at the 360's and called it a 'Renault type' so maybe I will get down the local scrappie's with my trusty multi-meter to find a good used one off something French

The down sides are I don't have any pictures (but chopped wiring is not that interesting!), we didn't get back until 00:45 and we may have destroyed my brother's Discovery's gearbox – off to look at it now but that's for another Forum!

Shoestring

Renault 5's, clios, megane's, espaces, all that sort of era dude.

Keep hold of that plug, the only differences between all of those sensors and the 360 one are the length of cable and the plug, lots of renaults have the female plug on sensor rather than male.

As it happens new ones appear to be £20-30 but (better yet) an R reg Clio on it's way to the way to the great carpark in the sky gave up its CPS for the cause (FOC ) so Shoestring's back on my drive again

The sensor itself is identical but the Clio loom plugs into a socket on it, rather than there being a flying lead. So all it took was cutting the plug off the car to join to the remains of my original sensor lead.

Now with 70% less bodging!

Result!!

Thought I'd share my latest discoveries of alternative parts sources.

I've lived with a 'stuck' driver's electric window for some time. Pressing the switch did produce a 'clunk' but no movement so a seized gearbox was suspected. Originally, the window had got slower and slower (so at least I had managed to to leave it closed) until it wouldn't move at all. Having to open the door for car park entrances etc was getting boring so I decided it was time to do something about it. In line with the 'shoestring' approach that something was not going to be ordering from a Motor Factors, nevermind Halfrauds (as if they'd have 300 parts)...

I stripped down the door to have a look and, after a bit of a struggle, managed to extract the motor. The gear looked pretty rusty and I couldn't turn it, even with a pair of grips, after a soaking in WD-40. So I started looking for a replacement but there are very few 300's in the scrapyards and nothing for one was coming up on eBay searches. The part looked familiar though...

You may be aware of my Land Rover 'habit' and a root around the lock-up uncovered the motors from an '80's Range Rover I stripped. The electrical connections obviously need changing for 'spades' (not sure if the position of the connector block on the motor body matters?) but they're physically similar with the exception of the drive gear:



Left to right: Range Rover Classic rear door motor, Volvo front door motor, Range Rover Classic front door motor (scrappy 240 driver's door actually pictured as mine was back in - so pictured motors would all be 300 passenger side)

I couldn't get my puller on to swap the gears however so put them to one side. Casting the net a bit wider, I started checking older cars in the scrappy and comparing photographs online. An old BMW looked looked similar but I couldn't see the gear in place nor remove the thing at the time (no torx bits)! Then the description of a new eBay part (£££ ) helped because it seems 240's and earlier 740's (pre-1990?) used the same motors. After a week, I struck lucky with an old 240 appearing in the local scrappy.

I removed the driver's door motor, managed to check it worked and, once back home, struggled to fit it for ten minutes before realising that Volvo obviously used the same font door motors but on opposite sides!

It was too late to go back for the other one and I had to use the car so I refitted the old motor to hold the window up. I couldn't resist pressing the window button though and the week's soaking must have done the trick because I was rewarded with maybe 0.5cm movement. This steadily increased over several days to the extent that it now works normally again ... ah well!

Still others may not be so lucky so, in summary, if that elusive 300 scrapper isn't available you could try some of the following (slightly) more common window motor donors:

240 motors - in opposite doors
Range Rover motors - if you can swap drive gears (can't remember 100% but think those pictured are driver's side) NB central locking solonoids look same too
Pre-1990 740 motors (maybe) - not sure whether 'inverted'
1980's BMW 300 maybe?

PS Remember I'm in UK so was working on offside of car (and the motors pictured are for nearside)...

Shoestring