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.

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.

I had dad pull the choke out because the cable is still a little sticky and I gave the motor a crank.  It tried, it really did – and some smoke sputtered out of the inlets on the carburetors.  Upon inspection there was gas in there – so it seemed that gas was getting into the pistons.  It just might be firing at the wrong time?  We looked at the distributor and made sure the wiring to the sparkplugs was correct.  According to the Chilton book and the orientation of the distributor it seemed my connections were right.  Then it dawned on me – this is one of those things I’m not sure about.  Did the previous owners put the distributor back in properly?  Maybe it’s 180 degrees off?  Hell – even if it’s 20degrees off it will have problems starting.

It started getting dark and there wasn’t any way for us to tell what was going on without some research.  Time to give some more love to the Google machine.  Maybe I am overlooking something obvious but I’m really confident about the carburetors and proud of my rebuild job.  This time I’m blaming it on the distributor and we’ll see if I’m right.

http://dbuettner.dyndns.org/tlms/trsite/downloads/carbs.pdf

If this link dies in the future let me know in the comments and I’ll post a local copy.

It’s looking pretty good!  Photos after the break…

Got out to the car after work and had some nice cool weather to work in.  Munched on some grapes that mom sent me out there with while I set the gap on the plugs and put the wires on.  Tried to start it – no dice.  Pulled out one of the plugs and felt/smelled it for gas.  It was dry.  Checked the damping pistons on the carburetors and they were wet with gas.  Fuel is getting to the carburetors (both of them) but not getting to the cylinders.  I checked the throttle plate and it moves with the linkage – no issue there.  Something in there is causing the fuel not to get to the engine.

Stuck, I decided to at least change the oil.  But the tires need some air – and the car was so low to the ground I couldn’t fit the used oil container underneath.  Oh well.  Another day.

In the meantime I am pouring over the diagram of these Zenith Stromberg 175CD2SE carburetors in the Chilton book.  I watched some youtube links of taking apart a slightly different model Stromberg carb from an MG.  It’s pretty insane what this guy does in 25minutes.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=L5GveCj3Hck
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QTFbwcxc5eI
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CZ1nr1WroRs

 I still haven’t decided if I’m going to undertake rebuilding the carburetors myself.  I am pretty confident in my ability to keep the parts organized and my thoughts clear.  Plus I’m not in a huge rush, I’d just like to get it on the road and if possible save myself $500.  As Jim says, if you fuck up – at least you still have one for reference!  I did call Edgecombs (our local Volvo dealer in Charlottesville) and they don’t rebuild carburetors.  It’s actually sort of up in the air whether they will work on 164s at all.  I guess it’s good that I’m learning so much about this car.

After reading up in the Chilton book I learned a bit more about the charcoal canister in my car.  Pictured below, it apparently filters fumes from the gas tank and carbs so that there’s not a lot of gas fumes floating around when the car is running.  It pulls right out and is easy enough to disconnect.  The filter in the bottom needs to be replaced about every 45,000 miles according to Chilton – mine obviously needs a new one.  The whole canister may also need to be replaced – you can’t refurb them.  I’m not sure if the engine will run without it?  Without a clear vacuum diagram I don’t know where the hoses go anyway.  It looks like just a little detective work should be enough.

Charcoal Canister – hose on the right is connected to the fuel tank for capturing gases?

Crumbling filter and the bottom of the canister

Saturday afternoon I got a bit more done.  I worked on the choke and carburetor linkage to try to free those up.  The choke is really stuck with gunk.  After working PB Blaster into all the springs and wiggling it by hand for more than an hour I finally got the choke to move and the carb linkage to move smooooothly.  The gas pedal goes down easy and I could hear the valves on the engine side of the carbs opening up.  It’s close!  I was able to open the choke with the manual release inside the car but it was tough.  I think the metal cable is sticking inside the rubber tubing of the choke cable.  Next time I’ll spray some silicon in there to grease it up.

This is the pretty picture of the choke and carb linkage before I cleaned it.

For my own future reference (and because I wish I’d found a photo like this online before I started figuring mine out) here is a poorly edited version of the same photo above.  Clicking it will open it in a new window and it’s a big file – hopefully you can make out some detail.

Yellow = valve between the carb and engine
Purple = carburetor linkage
Green = choke assembly
Red = choke cable