So I have had a frustrating and rewarding day all in one. Found out the title for the 1990 240DL sedan that I bought is not valid. Then I broke an upper bleeder nipple on then drives side front caliper...kind of expected that but still sucks.

My brakes are now rock hard but this car needs serious attention in the Spring.

I have an exterior drivers door handle! I have all my mirrors!

OK, now for the help I need. The PS Pump bushings on this car were beyond shot. I also found that one ear on the PS pump is broken. While installing the accessory bushings the rear one popped right in from the rear. The front one will not go in from the rear (middle, actually) of the bracket but pops right in from the front. What is the correct orientation. The existing one came in from the rear but that does not seem right although the alignment looks OK.

Sadly I will run out of time to do the job right and am leaving the old alternator belts in place. I am forced to replace the AC and PS belts in the dead of winter because the AC belt broke on the drive home. The alternator belts really are easy enough but someone broke the tensioner (got a new one from the junk yard) and I will not have enough time to replace that.

Also, what purpose do the shields behind the brake disks serve? Mine are barely there anymore due to rust.

Thanks,

Mike

Hi

The bushing you are referring to presses in from the front-I just checked mine out.

One thing I have found with the bushings that seems to help is to apply a little bit of silicone spray to the bushings. I press them in using large channel lock pliers and for hard to get at ones (usually the bushings that mount at the rear of the accessories) an old bolt threaded thru the bushing-a tip picked up from Dave Shannon's super helpful site.

The shields behind the brake discs I think serve to keep debris away from the discs.

I think I have seen pics of POR 15 applied to the shields-but if yours are barely there probably better to get some new ones.

You aren't alone in bringing a 90 back up to speed-I will be dong so also this Spring.

Good luck

Travis

Just to verify, the rear bushing installs from the rear and the front bushing installs from the front...correct? That makes so much more sense...channel locks popped it in that way just fine but then I second guessed myself.

This car is far from dead...it just has a lot of hack maint, rusty parts underneath and mild neglect. The records show it was converted, by Volvo, to 134A. The brakes were completely redone (hack shop) which is why the spongy pedal.

Someone did a timing belt, then later the water pump but never did the cam or main seal both of which are seeping. The flame trap was clogged solid so that may fix the problem.

I actually like the manual windows and locks. I have never had a Volvo with cloth seats and these are in great, if dirty, condition.

Thanks for the clarification!

Hi

Yes the rear bushings install from the rear.

Just make sure the power steering pump is inline correctly after you install the bushings. After I installed new bushings on our 92 the pump was slightly out of line as there was a bit of space at the top of the ps mount where the bushing goes against the metal spacer. The new bushings must have been a bit shorter, so I had to insert a washer between the new bushing and the metal spacer.

You mentioned the flame trap was clogged and you fixed that-did you happen to check the breather box under that? If your flame trap was clogged-hoses or the plastic filter itself-the breather box could very likely be clogged also.

I like the manual windows and cloth seats also. I prefer them to the power windows and vinyl (cracked badly) seats in our 92. My cloth seat (driver side) was especially dirty, but when I rebuilt the seat a year ago I stuck the fabric in the washing machine-came out really clean.

Travis

Sorry, forgot to mention the breather box. It was obviously newer and also on a 90K maint receipt in 2004. The OD only shows about 14K since then so I am assuming that the car did rare, occasional short trips adding to the tendency for the flame trap to clog.

I plan to use stacked washers to get everything as lined up as possible since I am not replacing the bushings on the compressor and because of the broken ear on the PS pump.

Errr, wait. You mention a spacer. Something did not look right on this mounting. Is there supposed to be a single bolt through both bushings with a spacer in between? that would make a lot more sense than the current mounting of separate bolts. Only owned one brick this new before and it was a 760 Turbo.

Thanks again for the help.

Mike

When you are directly in front of the power steering pump the top right mounting point is where there should be a spacer, it's about 1 1/4 inches in length. The bolt enters through the rear part of the mount/bushing, then spacer, (at this point is where I had to insert a washer) mount/bushing and nut.

This does get confusing, although my instinct is to arrange it so the pulleys are in line and leave it at that.



--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.

As always, a picture is worth a thousand words. Looks like trip to the pick-n-pull this weekend. Good thing I have that pesky title issue to give me time to do the job right....

This post and the images helped me immensely - when I was disassembling the pump, the spacer fell out and I couldn't figure out precisely where to put it in reassembly.

The archives save the day again.

Aaron