1971 Volvo 164

This is a short synopsis because I’m a little tired:

Compression tests on cylinders read OK (thanks Jim for letting me borrow your gauge).  They read from about 125-140.  The book says that they should be 142-170 but this car is nearly 40 years old and I am not terribly interested in high performance.  I will check the valves this week and maybe that will help a little.

I got the alternator and power steering belts off and with about 30min of work managed to loosen the pivot bolt on the alternator enough to move it and eventually get it off.  I took the alternator in to Advance to have them test it but they said it was too old to be tested on their machine.  I suspect it needs to be replaced anyway and it’s not really expensive, I was just trying to avoid it.  The belt they sold me ended up being too small, so I have to go back AGAIN for the right one.  Power steering pivot bolts didn’t budge so that belt will either be tricky to put on or it will be a pain in the ass working those bolts loose.

Replaced the horn and moved it under the hood so that it’s not getting kicked up gravel and water all over it.  The old one was so rusted I had to pry it off the frame.  Climbing around under the car today I noticed there was another horn on the other side that looked newer.

My IPD stuff I ordered should be in this week: carb synchro, Haynes manual on the Zenith Stromberg carburetor, oil pressure switch, and coolant temperature sensor.  If the gauges for coolant temp and oil still don’t work then I found a site where you can replace the OEM Volvo instrument panel voltage regulator with a 5.1V relay and a capacitor.  I’ll have to dig up that link.  If it works hopefully it will save some other poor 164 owner with a faulty instrument panel from having to scrounge Ebay for an overpriced one.  I scrounge Ebay for everything else for this car.  If I had a nickel for every time I searched for ‘Volvo 164′ or ‘Zenith Stromberg’ or ‘Volvo 160′….