With updates on Iain’s Dodge camper, Rob’s VW camper, Mike’s Stag and Will’s Lowlight Morris Minor Tourer.
Giving the Acclaim a check over recently before one of the kids borrowed it for a long run, I was surprised to notice that one rear tyre was quite badly worn around its outside edge and was now close to the legal limit. I might have expected this more on the front wheels if the tracking was out, but was concerned that on the back wheel it could mean structural problems and misalignment.
Fortunately, upon reading up on the subject I discovered that the tracking of the rear wheels on an Acclaim is adjustable too – who knew! So I rolled the car over my Trakrite gauge and found that the rear wheels were indeed toed-in by 0.6 degrees. Since I wanted two new tyres fitted as well and we needed everything done by the weekend, I decided to wimp out and have the adjustment made by my local classic specialist,
Hall’s Garage, at the same time as they changed the tyres.
With the car up on their ramp, spannerman Earl cleaned all around the trailing arm pivot nuts, which revealed markings to indicate the positions of the eccentric bolts. After spraying on penetrating fluid, it was then a matter of trial and error to adjust these until the wheels were pointing dead ahead. Finally Earl replaced the two worn tyres, taking care to clean up the rims of the steel wheels and even spraying on some paint to protect them and prevent rust forming that could allow air to leak out. Excellent service all round, and the Acclaim was fit for action once more in time for its big trip.
Meanwhile, the Volvo 340 has been giving brilliant service since all the initial niggles were sorted out, but of course things never stand still and once you have tackled the most obvious issues, then your attention can turn to those that are less urgent. Mind you, being less urgent does not mean they can be ignored, because small problems have a habit of rapidly growing into big ones and it is always best to nip them in the bud if you can.
In the Volvo’s case, my next concern was a slight water leak. This had revealed itself after a long run with just a drip or two of fluid appearing under the engine. This looked and felt like coolant, and exploring all around the engine bay with hands and eyes suggested that it was coming from the water pump. I couldn’t be sure whether this was from a weeping pipe or the pump itself, but since the Volvo is destined to fulfil the role of sensible family wagon, I didn’t want to take any chances – if the pump
itself was dripping, then it would only be a matter of time before this got worse.
I wanted to drain the coolant anyway, because I had no idea what type of coolant technology was in there and so I could only top it up with clean water in case conflicting antifreeze technologies reacted badly with each other. By taking this opportunity to drain and flush the system, I could then refill it with a known mix. An added bonus of doing the job promptly and properly was that I also discovered the fan belt was quite badly cracked, so I replaced this at the same time.
The water pump itself is a fiendishly complicated casting on these late-model 340s, but a brand new one complete with the steel backing plate and two gaskets was a reasonable £46.79 delivered. The pump itself was secured with six M6 bolts with 11mm heads and I was concerned that they would snap off, which seems to be the usual way of things with water pumps and thermostat housings that have been in place for decades. A six-point socket, plus careful manoeuvring back and forth rather than trying to undo them in a single go did the trick, although all six had picked
up plenty of alloy corrosion from the casting and added in a bit of surface rust of their own. They soon cleaned up on the wire wheel though, and I ran a die up and down all the threads for good measure.
In fact the hardest part of the job was cleaning up the mating face on the engine – I think this was the original pump which had not been disturbed for over 30 years and the old gasket really did not want to come off. However, if I didn’t get the mating face scrupulously clean, then I’d only have to repeat all the work to cure another leak. Eventually a combination of razor blade, wire brush in a drill and a Scotchbrite pad got the mating face back to shiny metal without scratching it.
I flushed through the entire system – radiator, heater and engine cooling passageways – and was very impressed with how little rust and muck came out. I remember buckets of rust coming out of the cooling system on my old Trabant 1.1, but on the Volvo there was only a momentary flow of orange water before it ran crystal clear. I really do think I have landed on my feet with this car, (dodgy plastic fittings aside!). Replacement then really was a reversal of the dismantling process, and these later 340s are self-bleeding so a fill with fresh antifreeze and a run up to temperature had the job done. I then parked it in the garage over a clean piece of cardboard, and the next morning this was bone dry so it was job done.
“The water pump is a complicated casting on these late-model 340s”