Howdy all,

I know that many people have never worked on a car before getting involved with an old RWD Volvo. Because of the relative costs of maintenance and repairs compared to the value of the car, many people are trying to learn how their cars work and what it takes to keep them running. I applaud your efforts. And, I want to help you keep your car on the road.

There are literally thousands of years of experience doing repairs and maintenance on older vehicles here on the Brickboard. Many of us want to help you solve problems. However, we are not, at least I am not, clairvoyant. I understand that you may not have a clue. But you must make some rudimentary checks before you ask for help.

When asking for troubleshooting help you must be more specific than, "My car is running badly. Any ideas?" Such a question will go unanswered simply because no one knows where to begin.

It takes four things to make an Otto Cycle engine run. Air, fuel, compression, and a properly timed spark. That's all. Suck, squeeze, bang, blow.

A transmission is just a box of gears. Some gear boxes are hydraulically coupled and shifted; those are called automatic. Manual or automatic, the sole purpose of a transmission is to match engine RPM to road speed.

The differential has but one mission: to convert rotational motion in one plane into rotational motion in a perpendicular plane. That is all it does, regardless of the particulars.

The suspension dampens dynamic forces acting on the car. It does nothing more or less.

The steering system accepts driver input and outputs directional control.

The brakes convert torque into heat.

I could go on but I think you get the idea; your car is a system composed of subsystems, each with a specific task. Subsystems are comprised of assemblies constructed of components. Once you know how a component works the functions of an assembly can be resolved. When you know what the assemblies do, you will know the functions of the subsystems they comprise. Understand the subsystems, and you will understand the car.

If you cannot determine what a thing does, ask us; if you haven't noticed, most of us here are technogeeks. We love to figure out how things work. We may or may not have a complete understanding but we can certainly figure it out together.

The time to learn how your car works is before it fails. Open the hood. Make sure you know what everything under there does for a living. Remove a wheel and identify everything you see. Put the car on jack stands and put your hand on everything you can reach from below. Learn what all those things do.

Get a shop manual and read it like a novel. When you've finished it cover-to-cover, go back and study the subsystems. Take measurements while the car is running properly and write them down.

Read the 700/900 FAQ even if you are working on another model (or even another make). Some symptoms are common to all four cycle engines. Powered air causes high idle and rough running. Weak spark causes a miss or skip. Worn rings cause blowby.

If you spend the next six Saturday mornings studying your car by the end of that time you will be able to solve 90% of any faults on your own. That is not much effort considering the payback.

If you have a problem you cannot isolate, when you post on the Brickboard asking for help you will know enough about the subsystem involved to tell us what the fault is not, which is a huge leg-up on getting the problem solved.

--
Mr. Shannon DeWolfe -- (I've taken to using Mr. because my name tends to mislead folks on the WWW. I am a 51 year old fat man ;-) -- KD5QBL