How to Bring an 
1800 back from the 
Dead - in a hurry!

Or: A Three-Day Resurrection

Part 2 - Continued from December 2002, p. 7.

By Sven Olafsbrosson

     The tank sending unit screws are NOT the same, the 122’s screws are much larger and courser threaded, like a #12-24. The 1800 screws are more like #8-32 only perhaps even metric – hard to tell without a thread gauge or an actual screw. 

     “Hey Jim, got a tap set?”

     “Nope, but it's high on my list to get one.”

     “Could that be today?”

     “ Nope!” 

     “Got an Exacto knife so I can hand-dig the sealer out from these threads?”

     “No!”

     OK - think primitive… You know, shade tree… “Got a nail??” (Remember, we're not in San Diego anymore!)

      “Yep, got those!”

      An hour later I had most of the sealer dug out from the threads, but no screws, taps, Permatex, and a corroded sending unit. Time is evaporating, and we want to leave in daylight. How’s the interior coming, Dick? Got the seats in yet? We need those, you know. Hey how about a screw from the white '66 1800 in the drive? But it’s not mine, it's for sale for a friend. But can't we just borrow a screw, see if I've got the threads clean enough, and use it to find 6 like-screws to do this job? Why yes, let me fetch it for you. A half-hour later he shows up with a screw. Seems that the trunk was full of spare extra and unwanted Volvo Parts. Ever heard of such a thing? No, not ever!
     Turns out I had to grind some flutes to cut the tank filler out of those threads. We're talkin' modified borrowed screw as a makeshift hand tap, here. Then we went into town - Ace Hardware but John Madden had the day off so we got 'ol Joe to help us and we determined – now write this down – that the tank screws for an 1800S are #8-32 x 1/2" long. I happen to have a bottomless supply and will give some free to whoever needs 6 each.

     In Seattle however I had none, so we bought some at Ace. "Hey, where's John Madden, doesn't he work here?" Anyway, I used washers to hold down the sender where it was corroded and with a liberal – read Gray Davis - read electricity contracts – supply of Permatex to keep gasoline from filling our trunk every time we filled the tank.

     Dumped in the 5 gallons to make a total of 7 put into that bone-dry tank. Same result, runs only on gas put directly into the bowls. Try a new pump, ya. Two from the 'bucket', than the dry one from Dick’s parts car. Hey it started right up and away it runs. Ok lets just adjust the carbs. Holy-cow! There is gas pouring out of the carb onto the exhaust manifold. But, but, we removed the ignition key cylinder and I can't find the little slot way in this deep dashboard hole with this screwdriver. Well, hurry up because it'll catch fire and we all die if you don't! (Plus we’ll burn down the workshop!)

     After some heart thumping I took the carb bowl off, tightened the hinge with some needle-nose pliers and adjusted the level – by eye of course, ya and a sober one at that, aye.

     Fired up it runs really terrific considering it's been waiting over 10 years! Let me adjust those jets now – hey what’s that gas smell? Well it's dry over here on the carb side, look at the floor; it's covered with gasoline! Quick, kill the engine. It's the screwdriver thing…hurry before we burn-up the barn, Elmer. Wow, seems that by waiting all those years the coating came off the diaphragm in Dick’s parts car pump, and was pumping as much gasoline thru the drain hole in the pump casting as was going into the engine. Wow, we adsorbed most of the gas into last Sunday’s newsprint and put it outside into the cold night air, then we (I) took off the pump. We need a pump! Out to the trash can I go and pull out those we had earlier discarded. One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure, so I managed to free up one with a 'stuck' pumper rod, and man did that pump move some mean gasoline. Floors dry, carbs adjusted, time for dinner. It’s dark, getting colder, and the car is still only 2/3 assembled and not yet ready for action. 
Still need to change the brake calipers and bleed the brakes among many other details.

      Meanwhile Volvo Jim's house manager and personal advisor Leslie is waiting for the greasy boys to clean up and head to town for chow. We are working Volvos, but she is thinking Cadillac, make no doubt about it. 

     We end up at one of Whidbey Island’s two Mexican restaurants. Can you say Burr-eat-right-e-o? Man it’s cold anywhere north of Oceanside, CA. After some good north Pacific eSpanish eSpeaking fish tacos and the obligatory Cadillac for me and an equally hard to pronounce fare for the others in our 'party', we headed back to the latest incarnation of Volvo Heaven, Jim's Workshop. Jim lasted about a half-hour after the Cadillac kicked in: stay away from Mexican invented drinks bearing American Automotive names, please! So it was just the Dickster and I Sven the reformed Volvo patcher left to brave the long cold (I'm serious, folks!) night! Ok, fuel system seems shored up with that nine-lives fuel pump, so lets bleed the brakes. "Pedal;" "OK;" "Floor;" "OK, pump 'em;" "Pedal etc., then "Wait a minute while I climb up from this-a here cold floor to fill up the reservoir," "OK;" "Pump 'em;" "OK." Until all four wheels responded acceptably and the fluid was clear. "Wow, lets take 'er out for a test spin." "Won't we wake Jim 'n Leslie?" "Isn't that what we came up here for?" OK, lets do it. "Here," says the Gruff, old I-need-a-drinkster Sven. "Let me super tune these SU carbs by ear and we'll be gone." "OK, lets do it!" Wait, what’s all this anti-freeze doing on the floor, as we looked down and literally watched as our hearts crawled down below the layer of anti-freeze that was now covering a 6-foot diameter of the garage floor – including our shoes! This is going on 17 hours of wrenching and it's another MAJOR setback; looking back it was THE major setback, far worse than the sending-unit-on-the-gas-tank setback. Ouch, my aching back after 17 hours leaning over this fender.

     What's this? This freeze plug has just fallen out of the &$^%*$ block! (Can you read that Swedish, Bob?) Seems that the freeze plug behind the generator was put in American Style. (Not to be confused with a bunch of 70's lonely-heart types touring on a big cruise boat in the south Caribbean)

     This means American style as in Ford cup-style freeze plug, covered with shellac and pushed into place. The Volvo convex freeze plug was never 'smacked' to lock it in. You don’t 'smack' the cup type, and this smack-type had not been smacked! Wow, major midnight revelation, the Apostle John himself couldn't have written a scarier story, Fire and Brimstone included. We were preparing for a 'trial run' when this happened, and some shut-eye before the journey south would be mucho-appreciated! Well, what do you do? Look for a fresh bottle of Absolut would be the easy thing, but instead, it’s time to remove the generator! Wait till the midnight hour, yeah, right!!

     Watching poor Dicky’s eyes gloss over was not a very encouraging sight. Buying the completed white rust-bucket was mentioned AGAIN! Just buy and drive. Now what kinda hands-on restoration guru would let him be defeated and take the easy way out? (Take your time with that answer!)
Ok, reach under the generator, no you can't SEE it, this is a feel-only job. What, you can't find the bolts, hey come-on, you’ve been trained continuously for 17 hours now!! They should be either 1/2" or 9/16", and I don't know which end should be the nut or the bolt head, every one puts them back in differently. Well then, just unbolt the whole bracket. "What's that?" "Never mind, just take off the negative lead strap from the battery."

      "I can do that!" "Great." After some elapsed time we had the generator hanging by its wiring, where they all end up sooner or later. "Now I need a large ball peen hammer and a round drift about 1" in diameter!" "What do you need those for?" "Because this freeze plug needs to be smacked." "Why is that?" "Because, well, look over here on this side," as we walked around the back of the car to the other side of the engine compartment. "See this freeze plug? See how it's flat with a round indent in the center? The other ones are supposed to look like that!" "Oh! Well now what do we do?" Did you find the hammer and that drift?" "What's a drift?" "Well, one type is after you've had too much Absolut and then you're driving and you have one of those memory lapses, ya, and your car 'drifts' out of your lane and into the opposite lane. Back home we have those plastic Botts-Dots epoxied to the dividing lines that when we hit with our tires make a sharp thumping noise to wake us back up, and it's called 'driving by Braille'! Well, not that kind of a drift, Dicky, but one that I can hold onto this freeze plug and smack up here out of the engine compartment with the ball peen hammer I asked you to find." "I didn't find, one, Sven; just this here claw hammer!" "OH, come on, are you telling me that Volvo Jim has this 5 car repair shop, a 3-car garage full of restored cars, cars laying around outside everywhere, and you can't fine ONE ball-peened hammer, just a nail pullin' one!?" "Well then, you look, because I can't find one anywhere!" After looking for what seemed a short eternity, we used the claw hammer. Nothing other than it was ever found, no peens of any size, no small sledges, nada, zilch, nothing. Can you imagine, Bob, having only a single claw hammer in your shop to work with? Those overdrives would be looking pretty ratty, huh? It was 1:00 a.m. by the time we started banging, couldn't go ask Volvo Jim, so we did as best we could. Of course, the freeze plug ended up looking like it was hit with 200 rounds from an impotent gattling gun or perhaps by a good mechanic deep in the throes of an Absolut binge/Absolut withdrawal. In any event, it didn't leak… but as we were adjusting the fan belt on the generator, I decided to feel UNDERNEATH the exhaust manifold at the other 3 freeze plugs. By gory, these plugs haven't been SMACKED either.

     It's 2:00 a.m. and now the intake and exhaust manifold, carburetors, et al. has to be removed from the engine. The same engine that some 4 hours ago was getting adjusted for a test drive. By now any traces of that Cadillac were long gone, as was any sense of humor among the non-stop car mechanics. We have established the desire to stay away from the Absolut, and it was too late in the evening to scream very loud. So, we screamed softly. 

     Luckily, all this wrenching is programmed into the memory banks and none needs to be discovered. Found a 9/16" boxed end combo wrench and gruntingly removed the brass nuts from the exhaust manifold to the header pipe, then removed the generator I had just replaced, then reached under the exhaust manifold with a ½" boxed end wrench to remove the nuts shared by the intake and exhaust manifolds. I have small surgeon-sized hands, I do not know how a full-blooded Swede with lumberjack hands removes or better yet replaces these nuts. That thick undercut washer and then a split lockwasher then a nut must all be placed on a stud that cannot be seen and can just barely be reached by a surgeon-sized hand. Don't forget to remove the throttle linkage by removing the small invisible little spring clip that hides in the linkage ball with a wire leg pushing thru inside the joint itself. If you just FORCE IT without removing this clip first, YOU WILL BE SORRY! Then remove the linkage bracket from the firewall with a small 1/4" drive socket in 7/16" size. The oil pressure hose will need to be removed from the fitting that protrudes from the firewall. BE CAREFUL. The hose is tender, and if flexed too much will suddenly develop a bad leak. Any clairvoyants out there? Please read on!

     The intake and exhaust manifold can be removed from the head and pulled away 'some distance' perhaps a few inches. Actually, just a few thou past the head studs, then it can be dropped out of the way. You still need to be able to get on each freeze plug with that drift and claw hammer and SMACK them! This engine is evidently the result of a fresh rebuild, by an American engine builder that had never seen a convex 'SMACKER' type of freeze plug. Your Basic Chevy guy, but a good builder based upon how sweet it runs. Each was smeared with a brown 'shellac', and just pushed in!!!!!

     Plugs smacked, we then reassembled by reversing the procedure I have just outlined here. Really, it’s easy. If we had graphics I'd use 2 wrenches to show the complexity of this operation, well, maybe two wrenches and a claw hammer icon next to them, ya!!

     OK, procedure reversed and we're ready to fire it up and adjust things. By now it is close to 4 a.m. or later and the ol' eyelids were getting heavy, ya! Find the screwdriver, find the slot way in the switch, turn it over…terrific, fires-right-up and runs good; ok, lets adjust the carbs for mixture and idle. Man sure is a lot of smoke coming off the engine. Ah, it's just all that oil from the teardown that got on the exhaust manifold, Dick; not to worry. Man sure getting smoky and stinky in here, are you sure? Let me look…hey, quick, turn off the engine, the oil line to the gauge has sprung a major leak and is squirting oil all over the manifolds. @#$%^&*@#$%^&."

     "Well, now that the manifold is hot lets go inside and make coffee." 

     "Good idea," says Dicky.

     After a cup of Whidbey Island mud we went back to discover the pool of motor oil on the workshop floor. Pretty much in the past 28 hours we had: brake fluid, gasoline, anti-freeze, and now motor oil pooled on the floor. Only fluid not wasted was the Absolut. 

     Removed the oil filter to get the 1.5-inch access to the oil line hole. No brass fitting on the block for the 90-degree turn, which is probably what stressed the hose so. I poked around the shop and found an electric 'idiot light' sender and wound it into the hole. Since the car has no idiot light, we were going to drive 1500+ miles on blind faith that there is oil and good oil pressure in the engine. "Ok, lets tune it up and take 'er for a test drive!" "Finally!"

     After fighting and cursing the bonnet installation (Anyone been here, done that?) we were ready. The bonnet had never been re-installed since the paint job some 7 years prior. The hinges of course had not been used for twice that long, and have been vacationing on Whidbey Island. They needed flexural persuasion much the same as a knee joint needs therapy after living immobilized in a cast for 8 weeks. Kinda stiff. We had that bonnet on and off about 8 times trying to get just the right number and position of spacing washers correct. Now, finally it was on and latched. No fluids escaping. A Hollywood ending in the making here folks, ya!

THE SEND-OFF

     Leslie made us guys the most wonderful breakfast! Volvo Jim looked good after a good night’s sleep in a warm and cozy bed. Dicky looked good because he's a good looking guy; but Sven, well, even under the dirt he didn't look too good. You could see a layer of stress for every type of fluid spilled. You could see a smudge for every time he crawled under the Red Dragon.

     We enjoyed more Island Mud along with traditional scrambled eggs, bacon, egg, toast, bagels etc. Sven had fruit, was mumbling about an Absolut Mary and a 12-point buck or some such nonsense. Couldn’t tell if he was praying or going huntin', perhaps both!

     Volvo Jim had come back with a 5-gallon can of gas, so we started with 5 plus the original 2 gallons, as it was dry when I installed the tank almost 28 hours ago. (Minus of course what we lost on the floor during 'The Fuel Pump Adventure'.) 

     We needed road supplies: Tool set, flashlight, floor jack, fire extinguisher, black tape, duct tape, spare fuel pump based upon the one we had, set of points, and that's about it. If the Volvo is running there are certain items you won't need.

     As we left the little local PARTS+ with the above-mentioned items, we went east, and Volvo Jim in Leslie's Honda SUV scoot'a'ute went west. At about 5 miles to the I-5 Freeway, well past the Island's famous double bridge, we experienced a rough running engine, like it was going to roughen up and die. I pumped the throttle and it smoothed out after a mile, and ran like the king it is! That HAS to be a fresh rebuild, based upon the strong and torquey engine. After it came out of the funk, it ran strong, and we stopped at the freeway gas station to fill up, inspect for loose nuts and bolts etc., and otherwise inspect a car that has been sitting during the entire time since either of my children were born and grown.

     We got thumbs-up signs almost from the very beginning of the journey to the very end. We had people tooting and waving on the freeway. We had women approach us in gas station parking lots. We even had a homeless guy walk around a corner, see the car, forget to panhandle us, and told us of his grandiose scheme to get a Beemer. It was classic, and he KNEW what kind of car it was.

     The following is the list of problems we had driving home from north of Seattle to Poway, California, there is not enough room for the list of fun:
  

End of problem list, story! YA-Hoo!!!!

P.S. This car can be seen at SDVSA meetings and events, please come out and join us for some good times.