hint--when tighening a cam down, don't start in the middle and tighten that down all the way and then move outwards. Tighten in stages among the various bearing things. I just snapped my A cam...and am none the pleased. I guess it makes sense that it would break, but it didn't occur to me at the time. I guess it's back to dumb M cam land.....grrr...too much pressure from the pushed-down valves and POP! the thing snapped. I can't believe it really...I guess I wasn't meant to have more power...
Nate Gundy

I've got a new A cam under my bed, together with a new crank for some bizarre reason. Slight surface corrosion, no rear drive machined on it if you need one.


Regards


Pete

well, sure I'd be up for it, but what would the cost be? I'm quite poor you see....but it would be nice to get a better cam in the car! You can email me at ngundy@hotmail.com if you'd like. I'm very interested...don't really need a crank though :) thanks a bunch
Nate Gundy

I can't really add much other than we all mess stuff up - we are humans...I screwed up a Chevy push rod cam - bunged but not broken....butt-hay I was young :)

The other guys have the good advice - you must just had the lobes in the bad location.....I guess the good news is that had the cam simply bent a) we would all be pissed at Volvo for making soft cams b) and you would still need a new cam....
--
www.fidalgo.net/~brook4

Sorry to hear that happened. Try getting yourself the Bentley manual. They have
the procedure in there with the exact order of removal for the cam bearing
journals. You actually remove journals 1,3,5 and only use journals 2,4 for
the removal/installation process. But, read the book and try again you'll
get there. Wish you well.

Dave 82 242ti

yeah, I have bentley and read it. Unfortunately, my mind got flooded with the part about all the valve shims and such, and somehow I totally forgot that. I don't really know how I forgot something that seems so stupidly obvious, but I guess I was just in a hurry and really stupid. This is probably my stupidest mistake on my car to date.
Nate Gundy

I learned lots of these kind of lessons over the years. Just keep trying it'll
bring success. From reading the Bentley and posting for info on Tbricks the
approach seems to be to install the new cam without changing the shims. Then
do a valve adjustment/check. That way you are doing this as separate stages. I
found this made it less confusing. Some of the guys that posted back to me
said that the new cam didn't need any change in the shims. Nice. But, I'm
not counting on that. I recommend the VX cam instead of the A for a fuel
injected motor. Wish you well.

Dave 82 242ti

yeah, I got the A with a re-drilled gear for 40 bucks canadian...if you can find me a VX for that price i'm all over it....

That's a great deal! That's cheap enough to give it another try. My VX cost me
$180US. It doesn't get much better than the deal you got.
Wish you well.

Dave 82 242ti

Bad luck...you paid a heavy price for an easy mistake to make. The Volvo shop manual calls for a special Volvo (of course) tool to hold the cam down while the bearing caps are released or tightened. Haynes advises what you have now learned...loosen or tighten bearing cap bolts in a sequence, a turn at a time.
If it's any solace (misery loves company), I've been wrenching on cars and motorcycles for 40+ years and though I've reduced the frequency of breaking things by forging ahead without digesting all the info, I still do it once in a while. That loud "snap!" noise is just a reminder for us to stay humble, read the instructions.
--
Bob (81-244GL B21F, 83-244DL B23F, 94-940Sedan B230F)

Ouch! That's a hard lesson learned! SOrry to hear about that. Yes, you have to torque the bolts evenly. A bit late for you but hopefully anyone else installing a cam will learn this.
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '86 244DL- 215K, 87 244DL- 230K, 88 744GLE- 198K, 91 244 180K