Took a photo of her this morning as I walked to work:

Well the Volvo is back on the road and the springtime air seems to be treating her well. I put the intake/exhaust manifold back on with a new gasket I got from Swedish Treasures out of NY. After a little burning in the gasket it runs great. The rear carburetor is still not performing like the front one and I think it may either need a replacement (I have 2 spares) or a rebuild. Still with only one carb it runs great and even my sportscar fanatic friend was surprised at the power it has now. Getting the u-joints done last year was a huge benefit.

It may need some exhaust work in the near future but for right now I’m going to drive the hell out of it in this nice spring weather. I spent all winter looking at other old Volvos and when I got back in the 164 I realized why I love this car so much. It’s comfortable, a bit unpredictable, and totally unique looking. I stopped to get some dinner the other night and a small child pointed to it and said “Mommy thats a cool car!” High praise indeed.

I dropped the old girl off at C&R Auto in Charlottesville to have the universal joints replaced. It has always had a pretty strong vibration coming from the drivetrain at above 45mph or so. I put up with it on the highway when I had to but I’ve avoided driving at higher speeds with it due to this. It’s OK around town but pretty nervewracking on I-64. Hopefully I’ll be able to cruise in comfort (and safety!) on the highway when I get it back out of the shop.

I was also lucky enough to find a pair of chrome headlight surrounds on Ebay along with a “new” heater blower assembly. That isn’t so much an issue right now but last winter it really sucked not having heat. And those chrome headlight surrounds will really be classy – I sanded and primed the ones I had but I still like the look of the chrome a whole lot more than the painted ones. I’ll put up some pictures when I get her out of the shop.

After some exhaustive work I finally managed to pull the instrument panel out of the dashboard without removing the dashboard itself. This wasn’t easy but the good folks at brickboards.com assured me it was possible and they were right. First I unscrewed the speedo cable and then pulled the wires out of the jacks on the back. Once I’d done this I wish I’d labelled the jacks but they look individualized enough that maybe it won’t be such a pain in the ass reconnecting them when I’m done? We’ll see.

I started by setting the whole thing on my desk:

I snapped some photos of the back before I started removing screws:

The little can on the bottom center with the 3 wires going into it is the voltage stabilizer.

This is where the speedo cable screws in:

Here’s some other photos of the front with the gauges portion separated from the speedometer cylinder. Separating these parts is a series of screws and it is very easy so I won’t bother going into the details. If you managed to get the instrument panel this far you can figure out how to disassemble it Just make sure not to lose any of those tiny screws!

OK. Now taking the voltage stabilizer off is a matter of carefully disconnecting the 3 wires that attach to it, which is easy – they are all secured by male/female crimp connectors. The voltage stabilizer is attached to the instrument panel by two metal tongs on the stabilizer that clip around a little rubber nub that is secured to the back of the instrument panel. Pictured here:

Next was the toughest part – I had to pry the lip back from the backplate of the stabilizer so that I could open it up. This I did with some careful work using a pair of needlenose pliers. I didn’t want to destroy the stabilizer housing. When I was done and opened it up it looks like this:

This is as far as I’ve gotten with the voltage stabilizer. I purchased a 5V regulator and a 0.01uF capacitor from Radio Shack for $3 and I will soon solder it to the proper points and begin testing. Hopefully this fixes my gauge problem and will provide a more reliable stabilizer for my nearly 40 year old instrument panel!

Click the photo for a larger version.  As you can see the cable itself hooks around a little post and about 3 inches to the right of that is the clip that secures the sheath to the assembly.  This clip comes off with a phillips head screwdriver and aside from the rather uncomfortable angle you have to reach up under the dash it’s not a big deal to remove.  You’ll probably also notice on mine that the black plastic surrounding the sheath has broken and separated.  See how there’s no black plastic where the phillips head clip is?  That’s why my choke cable was moving all over the place.

I went to Napa and bought a new choke cable for $10.  I got a 6′ cable because I wasn’t sure how long I’d need and figured I would be safe.   I pulled the choke cable out of the new one since I just needed the sheath itself.  The new cable had a sheath that wasn’t covered in plastic but it was the same size and my Volvo cable fit just fine inside it.  I did have to trim the new sheath to get it to be the right length and this took some trial and error.  I didn’t measure it when I finished (sorry!) but I’m guessing it was probably about 5′.

Unfortunately (like an idiot) I dropped the clip that holds the choke cable sheath to the carb.  It fell to the ground and I couldn’t find it.  So right now it’s being held on with a set of vice grips until I can stop by the hardware store and pick up a screw clamp or something.  Nice and shiny!

The other end (under the dash) clipped on nicely and after adding some silicon spray to the inside of the sheath it’s really smooth and doesn’t move around!  In the end I found it was a lot easier to just replace the choke cable sheath and not the whole cable.  If your cable is in good shape and you have issues with it moving around like I did just go for this $10 fix.  Hopefully it lasts another 40 years!

Here’s what the frayed end of my old cable looked like:

Now I can control the choke without having to open the damn hood and hold the sheath with my hand while I adjust it.  That was such a pain in the ass (as well as embarrassing).  It’s never cool to have to routinely open the hood of your car in order to get it started.

In the meantime I picked up a parts car – this one a 1972 164 with MT and electronic overdrive.  It’s in a bit of rough shape but it’s fuel injected which is a whole new set of problems challenges that my gullible friend Jim has agreed to help me get running this spring.  Here are some photos of the parts car (the seats aren’t in bad shape!):

http://flickr.com/photos/colten/sets/72157610912941316/

I grabbed a whole bunch of trim off the parts car and some incidentals like the original vinyl glovebox folder with ‘Volvo 164′ in silver lettering on it.  The parts car was apparently an extra in the film ‘Swedish Auto’ that was filmed right here in Charlottesville a few years ago.

The next projects are fixing the heat and putting in new seatbelts.  The heat wasn’t an issue until about a week ago - it is really starting to get cold.  I think the blower motor may be shot but it doesn’t seem to be a huge deal to put a new one in, I just have to find the right part.

How to replace the instrument panel voltage regulator in the 164 with cheap, modern parts

Parts familiarization workbook

Building an in-dash air/fuel mixture monitor

And finally… The Volvo 164 club of Sweden Link Page (aka GOLD)

I blew the head gasket driving it back into town to my mechanic. I was going to take it in to have the brakes done but about 3 miles outside of town it started spewing coolant out of the front. Opening the hood revealed the disaster – steam coming from between the head and the block. My overheating problem wasn’t fixed and now the head gasket was gone. After some choice profanities my friend and I waited for the tow truck and had a bite to eat. Fortunately she broke down at a very ritzy country club and in the dark the profile of the car sort of looks like an older Jaguar. Also they couldn’t see all of Jonny’s tattoos.

After towing it to my awesome mechanic and talking to them the next day they confirmed my suspicion. The head gasket was gone, gone, gone. I dropped off some benjamins and they got to work – though the toughest part was apparently FINDING a gasket set for the B30. One was located for a choke-inducing amount of money and they sent the head off to be resurfaced.

As of today the head has come back from the machinist and apparently it took three passes with the milling machine to get it flat. It was way off before. This was somewhat comforting in that it revealed the source of the problems. Having a nice flat head surface, newly grinded valves, gaskets, and seals (even the intake and exhaust manifold gaskets) is HUGE peace of mind. I hope to get her back later this week. They’re in the process of bolting everything back on. The head is apparently physically on the block now and just needs to be set.

I’m vaguely interested in a new intake manifold that can support a single Weber downdraft carburetor or something of that ilk. If anyone knows of a compatible one please post. The B30 is an inline 6 and I havent had much luck locating possibilities. I know the older Datsun Z series were inline 6 and I have seen downdraft carbs for them but who knows if the manifold will fit. Maybe I will have better luck with the Strombergs after my engine work – we’ll see.