78 244 DL B21F Cold Weather

I would appreciate your opinion on a few cold weather issues.
Apologies for not know much about the vehicle.

1. Idle has gone beserk. Actually, it's stuck in high idle. Starts
great, idle continues to rise. Is this rig's idle vacuum controlled?

2. Throttle Pedal sticks. Might have a little water in the cable? Any
suggestions on "fixing" a sticky cable? Could even be the pedal
itself.

3. Junk tires. Ok, I know how to fix this one! If someone has some
spare wheels/tires though, shout.

4. Temperature selector sticks. For a while I didn't have enough
antifreeze in it. (Been really cold). Now I have the antifreeze
fixed, but until it's at operating temperature, the temperature
selector still sticks. Thoughts?

5. A lot of the door handles are flaky. Anyone have suggestion on
finding replacements? Passenger inside handle is missing (always has
been during my ownership).

6. Seems to have a lot of slop over bumps. More pronounced in the
cold. I have replace nearly the entire front end, not sure what else
could be wrong: ball joints, bushings, tie rods. Certainly shocks
need replacement, but I don't see that as causing the steering slop.
Could be the steering gear? Biggest problem here is, the guy before
me ran it without the power steering, so I have it disconnected and am
just strong arming it. Car isn't worth $100, so I don't do much.
Probably have to find a donor car that I can steel the whole front end
off of?

Thanks,
edg

 

Most of them used a simple thermal valve, a heater in it is powered when
the ignition is on, as it heats up, a bimetal valve closes and gradually
drops the idle. It sounds like you have a vacuum leak, it would be good
to replace all the vacuum hoses and in fact all the rubber hoses in the
car, they're old and deteriorated and driving around with them is asking
for a breakdown.

It could be any one of those things, or a sticky kickdown cable if it is
an automatic, or the cable may have slipped off the throttle spool.
Disconnect it from the spool and work the pedal and spool separately to
isolate the problem.

Might want to post your location. IMO nothing looks better on a 240 than
a set of Virgos, the OEM 5 spoke "turbo" wheels.

Not much to it, a cable and a nearby heater control valve. Either the
cable or the valve is binding, figure out which then repair or replace.

Location? Several good salvage yards in my area, no idea about yours.
Door handles and related hardware from any year 240 will work, 1975-1993
are identical.

I've seen the steering shafts fail at the collapsible joint. With the
car parked, have someone wiggle the steering wheel while you look under
the hood. You should be able to tell if the slop is in the steering rack
or the shaft. As for the other slop, bushings will be shot for sure, so
will the rear trailing arm bushings, you need a special tool to replace
those but plans are out there to build your own which is what I did.
Don't get bushings of any sort from a donor, they'll be just as worn out
as the ones you have. As for the value, you will get more than $100
worth of transportation out of it won't you? IMO the resale value of a
car is irrelevant unless you are trying to sell it. There's nothing
wrong with putting $1000 into a $100 car if it will serve for long
enough to get $1100 of use out of it. How many payments on the cheapest
new car you can find will be covered by that? I've probably put $3,000
into my $500 car, but I've been driving it for almost a decade so the
annual cost has been negligible.

 

Do you have a good source for hose? I'm, sure all the fuel lines need
to be replaced as well, but none of the local (Helena, MT) carry a
suitable hose for the high pressure fuel. I end up having to order
most my parts from IPD or FCP Groton. Not much in the way of salvage
here either: a few hundered miles the closest slavager of size.

Helena MT.

Thanks, the years will help out a ton.

Yeah, I agree, I had a momentary "the grass is greener on the other
side of the fence." Thanks for all the suggestions and your time.

 

Don't mess with the fuel lines unless they've been physically damaged.
The high pressure lines are not rubber, they only have a rubber sheath
over the internal hose, and they are all custom parts which may or may
not be available still. This is assuming of course that this is a USA
spec car with K-jet injection. The hoses you want to change are the
vacuum lines, available from any autoparts store, and then the upper and
lower radiator hoses, expansion tank hose, and most importantly due to
how hidden they are, the two hoses behind the engine that route coolant
to the heater. Nobody ever changes those, they split and dump all the
coolant down onto the road so you never see it and then the engine
overheats. FCP Groton is my favorite source for this stuff,
alloemvolvoparts.com is good too.

No idea then, but someone here might be near you. Could also check
craigslist, ebay, and the iPD classifieds.

 

I once had a sticking cruise control cable on a Ford with very serious
problems when it jammed open the throttle on a steep hill then when I went
over the top I couldn't shut it off .I placed a balloon with synthetic oil
at one end of the cable after cleaing it through first .Then worked the
cable back and forth till the oil went through and out the other end .Never
again did it stick .
You can clean it through first using a balloon full of degreasing agent .

 

Yes that's my experience, I have two fuel lines that need replaced:
One is on the low pressure side, from the pressure regulator return to
the fuel tank, so it's not as critical. The other goes from the fuel
filter to the fuel distributor. Any thoughts there? I haven't been
able to find this line. Been thinking about using Aeroequip
Socketless hose:
http://store.summitracing.com/partd...&N=700+4294733687+4294923289+115&autoview=sku

It looks like it should spec, but I really don't want to have to mess
with the fuel line from the filter to the distributor. It's messed up
near the filter, so if I could just replace that end, and then extend
it about 6-8" it'd be back in business.

Agreed I'll keep an eye on it.

 

Shoot, I threw away both of those when I converted my 242 to Megasquirt,
didn't think anyone would need them, but then the hoses are longer on
turbos because of the fuel distributor location. Are there any salvage
yards near you? Any K-jet 240 should have those.

 

Yep, found the leak, and works great now. When it gets warmer out I
plan to do more hose replacement. Fine for getting around town for
now. Any tips for getting to the heater core hoses? Take the
manifold off?

I checked out the steering system components, and I think they're
fine. So my guess is suspension, and probably just horribly worn
struts? I replaced all the bushings in the suspension except for sway
bar. Replaced inner and outer tie rods, and ball joints. Only time I
really notice the slop is when I drive off a sloped curb at work. I
get a clunk when the angle gets most acute, and then a clunk back when
the car levels side to side again. Make sense?

 

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. Only sticks at WOT, which I only get
during starting, and hasn't done it lately as it's been a little
warmer. It was below 0 for about 5 days, and hovering around 20 below
at night, and that's when it stuck. I find WOT, with a quick hit on
the ignition to let the pressure build to help her cough a little
quicker when it's that cold. Anyone else have cold start tips? Might
have to get a block heater one of these days. Hasn't been this cold
for quite a few years though!

 

Small hands? I hate changing heater hoses, it's a real pain.
Removing the intake manifold does help greatly though, not that it's any
fun to do that either.

A clunk is probably a broken strut cartridge, I had that happen in my
240, when I pulled it out of the tube, the bottom cap fell off. The
symptom was similar.