I found an industrial sewing machine on Craigslist, a Juki DDL-555.  It’s now in my workshop.  With three Volvos needing interior work I figured it was time to learn a new skill.

A bit of cold weather made working in the garage less than satisfying so it was time to order parts and wait.

Finally did get the rear end jacked up and, after ordering and receiving a drum puller, get to the rear brakes.  They were in the same condition as the fronts but were cleaned up with spray cleaner.  I pulled the wheel cylinders and gave them a good cleaning.  They were frozen up but seem to be in good shape now.  I initially thought that rebuild kits were unavailable but have since found a lead.  If these don’t leak I’ll go with them for now.

Next up is to pull the front wheel cylinders and clean them up to.  I have the rebuild kit for the master cylinder so I’ll give that a shot when I pick up a hone for it.

I also started cleaning the engine compartment.  I removed the voltage regulator, inspected the inards, which look fine, and cleaned up all its contacts.  Simple Green is doing a good job on the firewall.  I removed the battery and took a wire wheel to its compartment and removed a bunch of rust.  I’ve got some POR 15 to use in recoating that area.

Since it runs, the temptation to take it out is big.  The lack of license doesn’t bother me but the lack of brakes does so it a day of brake system fixes.  I sprayed the front-right brake assembly with brake cleaner.  It was really dirty, between years of road grime and the years of sitting.  I used about a whole spray can before it looked presentable.  Dan took on the same task on the left-front, removing the wheel, pulling the bearing, spraying and scraping.  He also repacked the bearing for both sides.  We reinstalled to brake fluid reservoir and while it didn’t leak we sure weren’t getting any action from the master cylinder.  Dan removed it just before he headed for work and I disassembled it and found, not surprisingly, that the piston was frozen.  There was a bit of rust and gunk involved.  Long story short, I scraped, soaked, sanded, etc. and ended up reassembling it.  I think I’ll go ahead and buy the rebuild kit and just hone the master cylinder.  It wasn’t scored but the surface rust needs to be removed.  I did the best I could with crocus cloth but honing would be better.

I reinstalled the master cylinder and poured Dot 3 into the reservoir.   No leaks, so far.  I opened the bleed valve on the front-right wheel and pumped the pedal.  After about 20 pumps I heard a big splat about the same time as I felt resistance in the pedal.  OK, I think we’re good to go.  When Dan is available we’ll do a proper bleeding.

It was a pretty good day. Actually, it started yesterday when I went to the O’Reilly warehouse and picked up some spark plugs. They are Autolites that are listed as substitutes for the original Bosch plugs.

Today I started by gapping and installing plugs, pulling the cap and rotor and cleaning them up, and filing the points. Then I pulled the ignition cable and reworked the end that goes into the coil. It’s a pretty bad patch: a straight pin inserted into the carbon center of the cable and then bent into a U-shape along the side of the cable. I gave it a good filing to remove the corrosion, cut off an inch of the cable and reinserted it. Then I sprayed some electrical contact cleaner in the top of the coil, lightly ran a file in it and then soaked up the mess with a paper towel. None of this is pretty, but that’s not the goal at this point. I removed the wire from the coil to the points and cleaned the surfaces of the connections.

After I buttoned up the ignition I put 3-1/2 quarts of 10W-30 oil in the crankcase and I put about 4 gallons of gas in the tank. I pulled the gas line off the pump, hooked a piece of gas hose to it, and poured some gas down the line. I then put the gas hose on the pump and poured gas into it while pressing the priming lever on the bottom of the pump.

OK, it has gas, ignition, oil, coolant, and a battery. It’s time to give it a go. I used the remote starter to crank it but all I got was a click. I checked the battery voltage and it read 6 volts. I put my charger on it for a while while I ran an errand. When I got back I tried again and got the same click. At that point a memory from 25 years ago came back. I used to have to rock the car in gear to get it to start occasionally so the starter pinion is not engaging the flywheel properly.  I grabbed the fan and gave it a little tug which turned the crankshaft pulley a little. I hit the start button and this time it cranked. I let it crank a bit, hopefully to get gas flowing to the pump, which it looked like it was. The ignition was still off.

While cranking I noticed a spark coming from where the ground cable attached to the firewall so I disassembled the connection and made everything bright and shiny.

Now I turned on the ignition and gave it a crank. It immediately cough to life, a rough one, but life it was. A huge cloud of blue smoke filled the driveway, undoubtedly from the oil I squirted down the cylinders the other day. I shut it off and took a look. Gas was leaking from several places around the carbs so I re-tightened everything there. I also noticed that the slides in the carbs were sluggish. I pulled the pistons out, emptied out the oil and re-installed them without the damper pistons.

I looked underneath and there were no puddles, so I tried it again. It started right off and settled down to a bit of a fast idle but I was amazed how good it actually sounded.  (I was filming this with my camera and the video is here.) I increased the RPMs and it sounded even better. I let it run about 5 minutes and then shut it off and considered myself quite lucky so far.  No massive leaks!

Since I have the front end off the ground I gave the wheels a spin. The front right is dragging heavily. I pulled the wheel and the drum off. I think it is only a brake adjustment. Since the braking system doesn’t work I thought I’d try to diagnose that next. The brake fluid reservoir has a crack in it so I sealed it with a 2-part plastic epoxy.  Tomorrow we’ll see how it hold.  At that point, I called it a day.

When Dan came home from work, the first thing he wanted was to see it run.  While we were out in the garage, Nick showed up.  It was a Resurrection Party!

I picked up a 6-volt battery at Sears. I hooked it up without any expectations and I was not disappointed. The only thing that seems to work is the front right headlight. Oh, and the fuel gage, which pegs when the headlight is on. Must have something to do with the fact that I did not reconnect the wire for the float when I put it back in the tank.

I tried to engage the starter solenoid (screwdriver method) and got nothing so I decided it was time to drain the oil, not just because it was time but because you have to remove the oil filter to remove the starter.

The oil flowed out nicely although it was extremely dark. The filter came out fine as well.

Pulling the starter was no big deal and, as I suspected, none of the electrical connections were “bright and shiny” anymore. I cleaned them up and, with the starter on the bench, hit the solenoid with voltage from the battery and the pinion moved right out. Great! I reinstalled the starter, fitted a new oil filter, and reconnected the wiring. The dangling push-button starter switch under the dash (an add-on I made years ago due to a stiff ignition switch, had no effect, but when I connected my remote start button (a Harbor Freight special) the starter engaged and bumped the engine. Since there isn’t much oil left of the cylinder walls, I pulled the plugs, gave each cylinder a shot of oil, and decided to crank more on another day.

Next phase: Can the ignition system produce a spark?

Next was to attack the fuel system. I pulled the carbs and the fuel pump. The carbs were dry but the pump contained what looked like walnut wood stain. I pulled the gas tank and drained it of a few cups of the same slop. The tank went to a shop where the cleaned and relined it.

I pulled the carbs apart and gave then a good cleaning in parts cleaner. Since I’m on a fact-finding missing to answer the question “Is this whole thing worth pursuing?” Ijust put the carbs back together using the same parts. If all goes well they’ll eventually get a true rebuild. I did use a bit of Permatex to ensure that the cork gasket sealed.

The fuel pump was an easy disassembly but as it contains too many non-metallic parts, it was cleaned in gasoline, not parts cleaner, except for the glass bowl which now looks like new. The diaphram looks fine and the valves seem to work.

The messy job was flushing out the fuel line from the engine compartment back to the tank. I tried to run gas through it by gravity, but that was a “no go.” I ended up applying a bit of compressed air from the front end and it blew out chunks of nasty stuff in the rear. (This was before I reinstalled the tank.) I then ran gas through it until is came out clean.

I reinstalled the tank with a hose connection to the filler pipe and new hose to the vent line. I reinstalled float assembly and did remember to reinstert the drain plug. Next I rehung the carbs and fuel pump and connected up all the lines to them.

Next it’s on to electrical issues.

The old 544 has been living in my car part which is in the rear of the property.  While I have space to work out there, all of my tools are in the garage.  To make life simpler, I decided that it was time to move the 544 to that garage.  This entails some shuffling since we only have a two gar garage and we have 6 cars.  There is no question which of the two get the garage though.  The 544 does since it’s the “project” and the Volvo 1800 does, well, because it’s the 1800.  That means that the Scoupe heads for the carport, the pick up stays on the street and the Suburban and Volvo 240 wagon get to share the driveway.

The move went well, eventually.  We found that the 544 was a bit reluctant to roll easily, even with three of us pushing.  I don’t know what the problem is but I didn’t hear anything dragging and it was out of gear. We ended up hitching it behind my pickup and dragging it up the alley and around the corner to the driveway without incident.  From there it pushed easily.

You can read a brief history of the car on the main page and see photos on the gallery page. This poor car has been neglected for so long. I do feel somewhat guilty about it, but also feel redeemed as it could have easily been sent to the scrapyard long ago.

The first step was to empty it out (it had been used to store boat and motorcycle parts) to where all that was there was Volvo. A quick wash made it a bit more presentable.

Next we had to start an assessment of the systems. We decided that we would deal with the cooling system first. It had been parked without anti-freeze in California. It found its way, on a trailer, to Montana, and went through a winter before I remembered that it had H20 in the cooling system. I was afraid to look and when I did I found that a freeze plug and dropped out. A good thing, I hope. I drained it and pour in some anti-freeze and then it sat, for maybe another 15 years.

I went ahead and flushed the block and radiator, cleaned up the freeze plug and set it back in the block. No leaks so far, but I know that bringing up to temperature will bring out the truth of that matter.

As we attempt to bring our ‘59 Volvo PV544 back to life, we’ll document the progress here. Feel free to contribute.