740 Mini-fix coming up this weekend...

[JamesT5]

So my good friend, who some of you met at the Swedish Day on Sunday, is kindly entrusting me with his 1989 F reg 740 this week to do a few jobs on it. I'll be having it Thursday morning if all goes to plan, and I thought I'd kick-start a thread on it to show and map my progress. I'm not doing anything too drastic to it at this stage but it will be having some TLC and some a couple of shiny new parts. I promise I won't show it the angle grinder.

Watch this space this weekend for all the updates including the 'Before' and 'After' stuff.

[stribo]

Will be watching this with interest.

[merc85]

hope its not a oil change lol

[Harvey]

Mini list of dont's.
1 no angle grinder.
2 silver paint on suspension parts.
3 no 0w20 oil.

[JamesT5]

Mini list of dont's.
1 no angle grinder.
2 silver paint on suspension parts.
3 no 0w20 oil.

Oh Harvey, I was going to do all of that, what a bummer.....

[JamesT5]

hope its not a oil change lol

It's ok, I'm going down the local chippy to see if used chip fat will do the trick.

[stribo]

To be fair, if it's naturally aspirated, you'll get away with 15w40 mineral oil in it.

[JamesT5]

I love the way the flack has been primed before the job has started.

[JamesT5]

To be fair, if it's naturally aspirated, you'll get away with 15w40 mineral oil in it.

Actually, an oil change is not on the cards - not yet anyway, although I did tell my mate it needs doing soon.

[JamesT5]

The mini-fix candidate has arrived, this is my 'project' for this weekend....



I've got a few jobs to do on it including a tidy up of the the external body work as much as possible and some other bits and piece that I will reveal as I go along. My mate couldn't work out why the jet wash wouldn't get rid of the scratches on the boot, I did explain. Should be a fun project, so watch this space.

Some more pictures....

[JamesT5]

So part 1 of the mini fix today has been completed, and the job was.........

Anti-roll bar bushings and front drop links (not an Angle grinder in sight either).

As you can see the bushings in the drop links were pretty bad and it was agreed that it was a better option to just replace the whole drop link rather than the bushings only. Good job too, as one of the drop links physically snapped! The ARB bushes themselves were actually not too bad but for £1.30 (ish) per side it seemed silly not to change them for some brand spanking new ones.

I gave all the bolts a damn good squirt with the Plus Gas and it made light work of the rust and muck......







17mm for the top nut, 19mm for the bottom one and apart from the nearside top which snapped, the bolts came off without too much bother......







Broken one....



Cracked off the 14mm bolts for the Anti-roll bushes, removed the bracket and took the old bushings off.





Fitted the new parts and, hey presto......

[stribo]

Good going so far.

[JamesT5]

Good going so far.

Cheers Steve, funny though how the drop links on my P2 were only 18 months old and I had all those issues with getting them off, yet these ones on a 24 year old 740 came off almost without a hitch. I'm sure the DL's aren't 24 years old but judging by the state of the bushings they've still been on a while.

[V70 Graham]

Looking good, remember to have the alignment checked when you've finished.

[JamesT5]

Looking good, remember to have the alignment checked when you've finished.

Anti-roll bar bushes and drop links won't affect the alignment Graham as they're not connected in any way to the steering. But thanks for the suggestion all the same.

[stribo]

Looking good, remember to have the alignment checked when you've finished.

Droplinks and anti roll bar bushes won't change the alignment mate.

[V70 Graham]

Oi Miss Daisy.....droplinks and anti roll bar bushes won't change the alignment so no need.

[V70 Graham]

I have mine checked yearly anyhow.....just so I know it's all as it should be.

[JamesT5]

So today was more of a fact finding mission and it really did test my patience at times. The bonnet release on this 740 is U/S and the offside catch (behind the headlight cluster) wouldn't release even pulling directly on the wire. To cut a long story short, after trying to take the headlight cluster off in bits only to find it was not feasibly possible with the bonnet down, I manage to get the grill off on the one side and reach in to release the catch. I did try the grill option initially but gave up and went down the headlight route before returning to the grill option again. The grill is held in by two clips which are a right PITA to try and get out unless the bonnet is up. Somehow I managed using some long handled screwdrivers.

The wire from the passenger compartment runs around the side of the engine bay and along the front, through a 'threading eye' in the release catch and then it's tethered to the N/S catch. The cable had detached from the red lever and although it was run through the threading eye on both catches, the drivers side wouldn't pop up. This will need a new release cable because the old one has kinked and is no good anyway. They're about £20 - £30 from the Stealers.





More worrying though, was the problem on the rear of the car. My mate told me he was getting a 'shudder' as he pulled off although he described it as a "knocking". Having done a test drive or two I decided the problem had to be from the rear or center of the car and I had 2 theories........

1) The brakes are sticking and it's causing vibration initially on pulling away, until they release.

2) There is an issue with the drivetrain, in this case on the rear as the car is rear wheel drive.

So out came the video camera, the rear end was raised off the ground and the wheels taken off. I wanted to 'troubleshoot' the problem to see whether it was more or less of a problem with or without load bearing in place. Taking the weight off the rear end actually made the problem worse and the video footage revealed some shocking stuff.

The vibration seems to be coming from the propshaft or drivetrain, I assume there is a propshaft bearing in the rear drive axle although the shaft does seems to be jumping up and down significantly at low rpm and particularly in the middle of the car.

Incidentally, there's also a strange mechanical, continuous 'squeaky buzzing' sound coming from the middle of the underside as well as lots of old oil and grease. I wonder if this sound is the oil pump running dry although the engine oil level looks ok. The oily stuff could well be hydraulic fluid, a very likely possibility in fact.

The rear nearside brake rota was definitely on a wobble and the rear brake carrier pins were loose in the calipers on both sides, the N/S being the worst. I wonder if an issue with a worn bearing (or two!) in the rear drive axle/propshaft system, has caused vibrations to place premature wear on the rear wheel bearings and then the rear brake system.

This is a video showing various clips I've strung together from my 'diagnostics' session on the rear end today. There is some commentary on bits of the video, I'm sorry the commentary didn't come out too well as there was a lot of background noise. I'd value opinions on whether you think I'm more or less on the money with the diagnosis, either way this can't be good news for the car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZun...ature=youtu.be

Edit: There was a couple of times I tried it in 'drive' with the handbrake still on. It's an Auto box as well by the way.

[graemewelch]

Possible worn joints in diff..but if in doubt leave it alone. Its one thing doing thing in your comfort zone but when its not your car your treading on dangerous ground.