It"s always worth taking pictures...if only as a warning to future generations!

I'll remember that next time I find a monstrosity like that!

Milestone!


A few weeks ago I tried to get the 343 into my garage; after some persuasion (remove front brake pads and push!), it got comfortable on the garage floor.


The first task at hand was to refurbish the carburettor since the car would no longer idle or run well enough to actully be able to move under its own steam.



Considering the amount of debris and dirt I found in the float bowl and the fuel filter, it's a miracle the car even ran at all! The guy I bought it from drove it home just a few weeks earlier...


The cooling system wasn't in much better shape... Do not wait 15 years+ before changing coolant! I had to use a piece of welding wire to push through the coolant passages in the intake manifold to get the rust out, not even blowing with 8bar compressed air helped!

Today I finally reassembled the car with a cleaned and refurbished carburettor (the Classic Swede refurb kit did not include two of the three vacuum membranes needed for these old carbs, but otherwise all went well...), new coolant and fresh oil and filter. The car started up after som hesitation, and at first would not run at all without choke (even after warming up). After a while though, the engine made a POFF-sound and started running as it should and I could set the idle at 725rpm and call it a day... The next step is to drive it out into the snow and back inside onto the lift for brake and CVT overhaul and inspection! After that, the car is hopefully mobile enough to bring my other 340 in from the cold and start working on that one!

By the way, does anyone have any suggestions as to why the -76 343 suddenly (one night without anyone touching it) started flashing left and would not stop unless I disconnected the battery or removed the turn signal relay? I guess the electrical system needs some TLC as well before the car is ready for a trip to the beach...

Hello Kurre,
Very nice to see your 343 is getting up and running again!

I've had some troubles with the turning relay as well, as it is a DAF one with only 2 connections.
Mine got jammed up and would not blink at all.
It has also behind the ashtray a 2nd blink relay, this is for the audiable "rep-tok" sound to remind you the turning signal is on.
I modified the turning relay to a more modern type in the fuse box. Later on I found 2 relacements for the Original one. Maybe try them later on.

In your case I would suspect the indicator stalk, these are brittle, and might just got jammed in turning left position?

Regards, Freerk

I will check the indicator stalk, but as it happened by itself one eveneing when the car hadn't been touched for over a week it doesn't sound as the most obvious answer...

Things are happening again!

The Swedish classic car magazine Klassiker are hosting their annual meet called "Träffpunkt" at Wenngarn castle 17/9; this year the theme is the seventies cars... What better than to get the my 1976 343 running and take a 100km trip?
All decided, I rented a trailer, hitched it to my 240 and went to get the 343 from storage. An uneventful jurney later it was time to fit a battery, start the car and roll it into the garage to see what I hade to fix before an MOT. This is where I hit the first hurdle; true to form, I have bought yet another 300-series Volvo with a bad starter motor... After a few failed attempts, it gave up completely!


Luckily, I had a NOS starter motor of the old version (as well as a working used late model starter...), so a quick change later the car started. The old starter hade thrown out the bushing in the front, most likely it hade seized sometime during the 17 or so years the car has been standing... I drove the car two laps around the neighbourhood to bring it to working temperature and get a first list of things to do, then into the garage. First impressions? The turn signals are still not working, windshield wipers are not working and the voltmeter indicates that the alternator is not charging - electrical gremlins anyone?


Starting with the turn signals, after some troubleshooting I isolated the problem to the hazard warning light switch. After dismantling, cleaning and lubricating it the turnsignals were working again. A better switch was also ordered from an ebay seller just in case...
Ths windshield wipers were next - another marathon of measuring and trying to decipher the wiring diagrams in the manuals (and correlating to the color coding on the wiring in the car; why didn't Volvo use UV resistant wiring, they are all beige now...) the problem was identified as a grounding issue of the wiper motor. A quick fix once identified...


That marked the end of the first day of work; the next step would be the voltage regulator. I managed to verify that the alternator itself was in good order, so only wiring and voltage regulator left to troubleshoot! After that, some cleaning, new tires, and general TLC it might be able to pass its first MOT since 1999!

After some filing on the breaker point arrangement in the electromechanical voltage regulator, the battery was charging again!


A few hours of gentle scrubbing later, most of the moss and pine needles collected over the last 17 years were gone and the car started to look presentable again!

The topic for the next day was CVT inspection to see if it was working as it should - it was soon rather apparent that it wasn't... I started by following the guide from the forum and quickly discovered that I seem to have a leaking CVT membrane. Next came testing the EMV which presented the next challenge - suddenly the car had decided that 4000rpm was a suitable idle speed... Some tinkering later I discovered that the problem was casued by a dodgy "repair" by some previous owner.


The kick down switch on the throttle cable had snapped; in an attempt to fix it som previous owner had tried to glue it back together. This only resulted in the pedal side of the switch being glued to the throttle cable... End result? Constant kick down and a tendency for the throttle cable to jam! Not a recommended solution...

Last day of my summer vacation - clock was ticking to get the car ready for Wenngarn...


The famous EMV - after disconnecting the throttle cable and bypassing the kick down switch it could be tested and was found to be in perfect working order. No leakage, solenoids activating as they should and all the switches to activate/deactivate it are working. The micro-switch on the carburettor was adjusted and I was on to the next task...
Inspection of the clutch also revealed a system in good working order; only problem was a system massively out of adjustment with a badly warn clutchplate. About 2mm of play between pressure plate and clutch disk with 2.4mm of shims - setting it to 0.2mm would require 0.6mm shims... Since I don't have time to change the clutch at this point, I'll order a set of shims and try to set it as best as I can for now...


Next on the list was inspecting the actual CVT... The belts looked good, Volvo original belts, 43mm wide with only minor cracking. The pulleys have some corrosion damage on them, so along with a leaking membrane a complete CVT overhaul or exchange would probably be a good idea...
Next was checking the pulley gap which was 0mm with some margin, the belts were even riding slightly outside of the secondary pulleys... I think it has been a while since anyone adjusted this! I set the pulley gap to about 1.8mm; hopefully the car will drive beautifully once the new clutch shims are in place.


Finally a picture of the car after a few hours of polishing it. Far from perfect, but a clear improvement from its previous state. It was also rather amusing trying to figure out what the car has been through over the years - the car is covered in at leat four different shades of orange and on top of that are a few patches of touch up paint in various shades of red and purple! The resprayed panels also seem to have been resprayed by someone with more will than talent - most of the resprayed panels are covered with either bubbles or orange peel finish. On top of that, there are dings and dents on virtually all panels, including the roof... There is plenty to do if I want to bring this car to concourse condition in the future!

Epic work.