Fellow brick owners,

I knew I needed to replace worn front and rear bushings, ball joints and front struts. I purchased the Bilstein struts (through shox.com), ScanTech bushings, ball joints, and motormounts purchased through GAPA.com. With these parts, approx $500 worth, in hand I made an appointment with my local foreign auto repair shop. After waiting a week just to get a check out they informed me that indeed I needed to replace these parts along with the motor mounts and left tierod. I told them I'd purchase the parts. I just need them installed. For labor alone the quote was for 18.6 hours at $63.60/hr for a total of $1183! Now I purchased this car for $2200 and spending this much hard earned cash makes me queasey. I've yet to inform my wife (oh boy here we go). Is this the going rate out there? I live in Spokane,WA. I have some tools, a floor jack with stands, full metric set, and a copy of Bentleys repair manuel. Now I've read the procedure and it seems straight forward. It referrs to a bunch of speciality tooling. I need a coil compressor. Any suggestions for a safe unit (those compressed coils freak me out). Hell for the amount of money I could save I could buy a hydrolic press for pressing out the bushings. Any affordable suggestions regarding pressing out these bushings. Besides for a press and a coil compressor is any other tooling required? TIA

scott

I had motor mounts done @ 2hrs and rear trailing arm bushings @ 2.5hrs, so I guess every place is a little different. However, 18.6 hours sounds very high. I also had torque rod bushings done @ 2hrs. All of this was done at $61/hr., so your labor rate is well within reason.

Good luck.

Hi Scott, I've got a little Volvo shop in Canby, OR, 20 miles south of Portland. I did a quick estimate of the time it should take to change those parts and its more like 9.6 hours. Here's the breakdown: front control arm bushings-1.2 hrs, rear trailing arm bushings-3 hrs, ball joints-1.2hrs, front struts-2hrs, motor mounts-1.2hrs. I didn't include the rear torque rod bushings because I would recommend that you revert to the earlier style rod bushing that you can get from the wrecking yard for real cheap. They are a better, more solid bushing than the later style,and rarely ever wear out. I think they changed at about the 1980 model year. You may want to consider going to a Volvo specialist rather than a general foreign car shop, and have them do just the stuff that requires the special tools. Anyway thats my two cents. Hope it works out for you.

Since I have a good source for Volvo parts, I like to buy my own and then get a mechanic to install those that I can't do or don't have the time to. I have always suspected in a few cases these guys really jack up the price of labor to, in effect, cover the parts cost they've lost and labor! I'd rather have them say 'no', than to jack me around. I have a feeling that your mechanic may be doing the same.

A few options:

a) go broke. not too desirable

b) get your hands dirty and leern a little (sounds preferable to me)

c) find another shop (hmm.. his quote does seem very HIGH!)

I'd do some of the work myself.

Compressing the coils is no big deal. any auto (decent) auto parts store will have an inexpensive coil compressor you can use. not a big deal.. tighen up the coil, yank it off... Just make sure you follow the instructions closely and use your own common sense...

If you're going to have the struts off to be replaced, you might as well do the ball joints yourself. Not a hard thing to do!

I've never done the whole tie rod replacement, but it doesnt look that hard. Replace both, since you're going to have to realign anyhow. And heck, if your gonna pull off the tie rods, make sure you put on new ends to save yourself trouble later.

While your front end is disassembled like a mofo, you might as well just pull off the components you need bushing pressed into, bring them and the new bushings to a local auto/machine shop and have them pressed in. probably wont cost you jack to have someone just do the pressing for you.

repack the wheel bearings too.. I think you'll have enough torn apart this will only add minuites to do.

The 240's front end is pretty damn easy to work on.. I really dont like mcpearson struts, but after you've done them a time or two, it's not much a big deal.

If you're not up for ripping down the front end quite a bit, you'll want to find a more reasonable shop. I think 18hr is a LOT more than it's going to take them!!

It might take you 18hr of labor total if it's your first time doing any of this.. but still!

Good luck!

-Nate

Scott,

RE the coil compressor: I have never worked on a 2oo series machine, but I purchased a coil compressor for a Dodge Van that I worked on 3 years ago for about $35.00. The coil thing is nothing to worry about. Piece of cake, in fact. The coil compressor does all the work, you just have to unbolt/switch/rebolt. No problem!

In fact, I would do all the work you listed for $150, just because I haven't had anything to work on since I replaced my waterpump last month. Just bring your car over here!!

Scott,

Take a look at your ball joints and see if there are 4 bolt holes on the mounting flange. If they are like the ones on my 86 240 you won't even need a ball joint separator - they just unbolt from the control arm.

You may need a tool to separate the tie rod ends. iIn my experience it's better to use one of the screw types since they don't damage the rubber seal on the tie rod - useful for separating this part without damage when you don't plan to replace it.

You will also need a large diameter spanner tool to undo and tighten the upper shock absorber nut that you have to reach though the spring. I guess you could attack it with a screwdriver, but once you round it off you'r in trouble.

The 20 ton hydraulic jack that I purchased many years ago had paid for itself many times over with the use it gets with bushings and bearings on my Volvo. Sometimes you can use a socket from your ratchet set as a drift to press out bushings. I've collected some pieces of pipe joint to use in place of some of the Volvo counterholds.

Scott -- another approach for the rear end is to rent the rear trailing arm bushing tool. Duane Hoberg, among others on the Brickboard, rents this tool at a very fair price. Includes instructions. The job is manageable with hand tools and stout forearm muscles. Then just remove the other bars and rods and take them to your local auto machine shop for them to press in your bushings. I've done this twice for my two 245s, and I recall being charged $50 or so in labor.

The motor mounts are pretty easy to replace. I'm sure the archives has a good procedure or three.

Rob

This is why we do our own. For the struts and ball joints and what few front bushings you actually see are shot, and I doubt it is many, you need only a $15 ball joint separator, $15 spring compressors and a strut nut tool and a floor jack and small bottle jack. I'll give you the source for the tools to get if you write me. You should be able to do it in 4 hours or in 2 1/2 with practice and a helper. Motor mounts are a couple of hours of fussing at teh most. In the rear the only problem is getting the big trailer arm bushing tool. The only other bushings likely to be shot are the torque rod bushings and they are easy with a press. I highly recomment the $100 12 ton chinese press or a huge bench vise. Try to rent the $200 bushing tool or heck, buy one if you think you will do another car or two. The guy should have pissed you off enough with that inflated labor charge to do it yourself.

I recently did all the things you described to the front end. It wasn't particularly difficult, nor am I particularly talented. Standard tools, Bentleys, and this board will get you thru the front end for around $100.

However, From what I understand, the rear suspension is much more difficult. My mechanic has quoted me about $300 for parts and labor for that.

Good Luck,

Tom

as you see from the other posts you can handle the job with a manual, some basic skills, and a little $$ for tools.

however i have one very important peice of advice- give your wife the shop quote and let her sit on it for a day or 2, then tell her you can do the job yourself.

you get to buy some new tools and she's actually gratefull that you spent the money on them. :)

-any day you get new tools is a good day.

Guys:

For us rank beginners, please post a list of specialized tools (#'s and prices) we would need to do a complete bushing/shock/strut rebuild on a 200 series car. My wife says to bring an itemized list before Xmas. YIPPEEE!!

Genaro,

I have the Volvo service manual for the 240 front suspension and steering.

If you were to try to obtain all the special tools that Volvo mechanics have at their disposal for the jobs you suggest you might as well go out and buy a new S-60.

All of the nice to have counterholds that are in the manual can be worked around. If you pry off the protective cap on the top of the shock absorber nut inside the engine compartment (on either of the fender wells) you will see the problem of unloosening the shock absorber from its upper mount without Volvo tool 5036. Seems to me that I used a closed wrench with a a big S-curve on the end to hold the big nut while using a big crescent wrench on the shock absorber shaft itself.

To loosen the shock absorber nut inside the spring strut you need something in place of Volvo tool 5039. I found that Proto Tool spanner # C472 adjustable from 1 1/4" to 3" works OK at around $13, but I would buy a bigger one if I had to do it over.

There are all manner of spring compressors. I think that the Lisle products that you can find in Pep Boys are good enough. If my memory serves the better ones have safety hardware that prevent the springs from flying off in the event that something slips. Seems like they are < $50.

The screw type tie rod separator that I bought years ago cost around $30. God knows how much Volvo wantrs for their tool # 5043.

The Volvo tools that you will need to remove the large bushing on the rear trailing arm - #5078 and 5079 cost around $170. I don't know if IPD still rents them out. The smaller bushings on the front of the arm will submit to substitutes for Volvo drift 5088 and counterhold 5087, but these are about the most difficult ones on the car to press off since there's not much surface to push on. Might be cheaper to take the trailing arms to a Volvo shop and have them replace bushings. Shouldn't Volvo mechanic more that 1.5 hours for all 4 with special tools at hand.

JC Whitney (www.jcwhitney.com) has a screw type tie rod separator for $16.99, item# 81ZX2149N. I just ordered one, it hasn't arrived yet. Wish I had it last time, as I ripped the rubber boots on the tie rod ends using a pickle fork.

For the top strut nut, the Lisle Universal Strut Nut tool set works perfectly. Sears and Pep Boys have this set, less than $50 as I recall. I needed to use my own hex key when installing the new Bilstiens, as an apropriate one was not included in the kit.

For the strut retaining nut inside the spring, I used large-jaw Vise-Grips(tm). Available just about anywhere for $14.