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Project Amazon Updates
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31
July 2005 - Our situation has changed and the Amazon
would have had little use in the future. Therefore we have
decided, reluctantly, to let her go. She could not have
better owners I believe, the new owners are local Volvo
Club members with a long history of Volvo ownership. |
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24
Nov 2003 Alloy Wheels - Finally I purchased the
Minilite type alloy wheels for my Amazon. Although I quite
liked the widened to 6"steel rims that were specially
made for me locally, I love the look of the new
alloy wheels, they suit the car very well.
These are the Superlite type made by Performance
Wheels in Australia, they are also 6" wide with an
offset of 24mm=1" which is the standard offset for
122 wheels. My steel wheels originally were made with zero
offset, that did't work, too much bumpsteer and the wheels
were redone with 20mm offset. Although I quite liked the
look of wider wheels with zero offset, the car behaves
best with on offset as close as possible to standard
1". The new mags weigh 8.7kg and the steels 10.3kg |
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15
Jan 2003 Not a lot has been happening with the Amazon,
of course I have been using it and enjoying it but no
problems at all, however there have been some noise coming
from down under somewhere and it has been irritating me
because I couldn't get rid of it, it was a sort of
clunking noise at low speed from the rear-axle area. I had
the Amazon on stands a number of times but couldn't find
anything. All the bushes had been replaced during the
restoration. After reading some postings on the Brickboard
about clunking noises was motivated to solve the problem
this time. I had the car up on stands again and found that
there was a little play in the upper trailing arm bushes.
I removed the arms and checked. The bolts and bushes which
were all in excellent condition and I came to the
conclusion that there must have been play between the bolt
and the steel inner tube of the rubber bush. Only
tightening of the bolts would stop that. I put everything
back together with some very heavy washers and tightened
the bolts very well.....and yes the annoying noise is
gone. You wouldn't think that this could create so much
noise in the body of the Amazon. |
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22
Oct 2002 On a evening return trip from visiting
friends, we noticed that the dashboard lights were not
working (I couldn't see how fast we were going :-) I
stopped to investigate and found that the tail lights
weren't working either and found that the one of the four
fuses was blown. It started to rain and it was also
getting dark, not a good condition to drive without tail
lights. We drove to a nearby fuel station and parked under
the dry canopy with plenty of light, a much better
situation to sort out an electrical problem - we had an
100km trip ahead of us over rural roads and highways.
Quickly I had blown my two spare fuses but the petrol
station had plenty new ones for sale, so I bought 10. With
faultfinding one has to be systematic, which is not always
easy when under pressure to get home, so I disconnected
several connectors and tried and tried. It was clearly a
fault in the light system because the fuse blew whenever I
switched the lights on. The main lights and indicators
were OK. I had established that the fault must be in the
wiring under the dashboard somewhere. I had removed and
checked the dashboard light fittings but they looked fine,
(my little torch was handy) I just couldn't find the fault
without having a wiring diagram. In the meantime petrol
station staff were preparing to close for the night, so I
had to act quickly and looked through the shop for items
that could help me getting home, and there it was: two
torches and a packet of sweets in a red plastic bag.......
the bags were cut to provide red lenses over the torch and
presto.... two working tail lights. So my wife was
positioned in the back of the Amazon pointing the two
torches through the corners of the rear window, that
worked really well and in the end we only switched them on
whenever there appeared a vehicle behind us. And we had
quite a bit of fun with it too. However while driving, we
found that the brake lights were working as normal and it
occurred to me that I could have just put a jumper over
the two contacts on the brake switch, installed on the
fire wall with good access........instant tail lights.
Anyway, the next morning I found the fault very quickly
with the circuit diagram - it was a faulty dashboard light
for the heater controls, the one I didn't check. The wire
connection inside the fitting had failed and caused a
short circuit (photo). These light fittings are not the
best of design. Well this is a long story for just a
failed light fitting, but maybe you can learn from this
too. I carry a circuit diagram in my 122 from now on. |
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23
Sept 2002
We all
have read stories about broken 122 ignition keys, but this
a slightly different story. My wife who has never driven
our Amazon and therefore didn't know that the Amazon has
one key to unlock the door and one for the ignition, used
the ignition key to open the door to get something out of
the car while we were at a motorsport event. The ignition
key looked very much like the key to unlock her 240. I
could see from a distance at her body language that
something was wrong. She had forced the key in the lock to
open the door, which she achieved, but the key was broken
in the process and we couldn't start the car. My wife
managed to get a ride back home to pick up a spare key and
we were off home again in two cars. I spent many hours to
get the broken key parts from the lock with all sort of
tools, even a vacuum cleaner but in the end I had to
remove the door handle which was a major job and the key
parts came out very quickly after hitting the handle on
the workbench a couple of times. I now have access to
spare keys wherever I'm going. |
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10
May 2002
A Volvo friend lent me a 5-blade, plastic, Volvo cooling
fan. These cooling fans are more efficient than the
original steel 4-blade fans, because the blades are better
shaped, there are 5 of them, and the fan is installed
slightly closer to the radiator, so close in fact, that I
had to drain the cooling system, and remove the radiator
to install it, there is no room to bolt the fan in with my
3-row radiator core in place. The first impressions are
that it certainly moves more air, the temperature doesn't
increases when stopping for a traffic light and also when
shutting down the engine in the garage, the temperature
rises only a quarter on the scale and the needle doesn't
go into the white (hot) area on the temperature gauge. I
still believe that a thermostatically controlled electric
fan of the right size is the way to go, however I haven't
been able to locate the right fan. My
"emergency" electric cooling fan is too small
and too noisy and because of the space available, there is
only room to fit an 12" size electric fan in front of
the radiator. |
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12
Feb 2002 All
the engine problems were sorted and our Amazon was ready
for the big test, a trip to the South Island of New
Zealand. We live in the Bay of Plenty area on the North
Island. The idea was a camping holiday to keep the cost
down a little, so the car was packed with a small tent,
foam mattresses, blankets, gas cookers, and all the other
usual stuff for a holiday. The Cook Straight Ferry was
booked a week earlier so the only worry was to have fine
weather because it can be very rough in Cook Straight, we
had booked the Lynx, the fast ferry, which only takes two
hours for the crossing. Click on Photo for more details. |
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 21
Jan 2002 On the return trip from a Volvo club meeting,
I found that the indicator control light wasn't working
and I fiddled the wiring under the dashboard to make it
work again, however I must have caused a short circuit
because all panel lights, overdrive ceased work. I found
the little 25 Amp fuse in top of the fuse board had blown.
NO spare of course for this unusual fuse, so I made one up
at a petrol station using another fuse link and the
original holder which worked very well (left photo). In my
efforts to make the Amazon more reliable I modified the
top contact in the fuse box to take the standard type of
25A fuse by bending the contact out and drilling a new
small 3mm hole in it to fix the fuse in position. This
works really well and takes only a few minutes to do. I
recommend you do it now before it happens to you on a
cold, rainy day. |
Worn webbing |
 18
Jan 2002 The webbing in the backs of the seats finally
gave up after 34 years, not bad that it lasted that long.
I found that the old webbing material was brittle and
disintegrating. It wasn't hard to replace it, and they are
fine again. Huke
Basart, in Holland is selling new bands of very
good quality. He actually sent me a set of bands over a
year ago, he knew I was going to need them sooner rather
than later. I also found that my seats have the mounting
hardware for headrests in place, see photo. |
Electric fan |
4
Jan 2002 Although the radiator was upgraded some time
ago, my 4-blade mechanical cooling fan is not very
efficient, a more efficient cooling fan is the 5-blade
plastic fan. I haven't been able to locate one in NZ,
although they are available from volvoworld.com. In the
meantime I have installed an electric (blowing) cooling
fan, in front of the radiator, just in case I need it as a
back-up. I have wired it from an existing fuse with an
on-off switch under the dashboard, a simple manual
control. The water temperature gauge points to the hot
area just after the engine is switched off (no forced
circulation when engine/water pump is switched off) At a
later stage I may control the electric fan by a thermostat
and delayed switch off after shutting down the engine. The
electric fan came off a Nissan Exa (US$10), it's a very
compact 11" fan and installation was very simple by
using the existing mounting brackets, drilling 3 holes was
all that was required. |
Distributors |
30
Dec 2001 Fine-tuning of distributor was necessary
because I'm still using the original distributor from when
the engine was a B18A with only on carburettor, now it is
a 2 Litre with two SUs and B20F (fuel-injected) head.
During a Dyno test we found that the ignition advances too
much too quickly, so the springs of the centrifugal
advance unit needed adjustment (by bending the spring
attachments out a little), it was a matter of adjusting,
installing, trying, testing the ignition advance with the
stroboscope at different revs, etc, over and over again to
get it right. There is a lot more to distributors than
most people realise. I think I' have got it right now,
good torque and power, although I haven't revved it over
4000 rpm as yet. Basic timing is now set at 10 BTDC at 800
revs. No pinking at any speed and no dieseling after
shut-off. Vacuum advantage has been disconnected. I have
also tested an electronic distributor out of a 1975 Volvo
244. |
Headlight flasher relay |
24
Dec 2001. Faulty foot dim switch, replaced the
existing flasher relay and foot switch by a step flasher
relay out of a Volvo 264, this is a relay common to all
Volvos built after 1975. Photo shows relay installed in
Amazon. This 6-terminal relay is slightly larger than the
original 3-terminal relay. The relay has two sets of
contacts, one is a change-over contact to change between
high and low beam when the lights are switched on, the
other contact flashes the high beam lights when lights are
switched off, a very smart relay and reasonably easy to
wire if you have a wiring diagram. |
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20
Dec 2001. Engine has been rebuild, cylinders
de-glazed, new piston rings installed. Although the actual
cost of deglazing was only NZ$40, when you add up parts
such as rings, gaskets, labour for putting the engine back
together again it was a costly exercise. Gearbox/overdrive
unit bolted onto motor and put back in the car as one
unit. I do that on my own in my own garage. Engine started
straight away and sounds good, no leaks. I had a leak in
the Overdrive unit which was very difficult to locate, it
was the actual coil that wasn't screwed-in properly, I
needed a very thin 1" open spanner for that, so I
made one out of 22mm open spanner that I attacked with my
angle grinder. Now I'm running-in the engine again. |
Engine out again |
3
Dec 2001. Taken the engine/gearbox out again, to solve
a few problems. Engine was burning too much oil. probably
glazed cylinders caused by too rich carburettors during
the running in period, also oil leak between bellhousing
and gearbox (M46). I'm getting quite experienced now in
taking the unit out on my own, the key is patience and
preparation. I use a trolley jack under the cross member,
remove front wheels to create more clearance to get the
unit over the front of the 122S, slowly lift the unit and
push the car back. The fact that I have a removable
gearbox tunnel is a plus. I can remove the driveshaft
bolts from inside the car and support the gearbox from the
top (hanging from the floor) while removing the gearbox
support underneath. Tomorrow I will deliver the engine to
the engine builder, I can't wait to find out what the
problem is. |
Tandem master Cylinder
Brake Diagram |
Nov
2001. Replaced the single circuit brake master
cylinder by an original second hand but re-sleeved tandem
brake master cylinder out of an US market Amazon. The 122S
has now two brake circuits, one controlling the front
brakes through the booster and one for the rear brakes
with no booster. This will make the car a bit safer. This
system was actually used on some of the USA/Canadian 122S
in 1967/8. The Diagram is from a Volvo manual.
Had the exhaust system raised by the Tauranga Pitstop
(excellent service) workshop, some cutting and welding was
involved to get it right, now I can safely drive over the
traffic humps without hitting the exhaust pipes. |
New Coil
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Oct
2001. Removed the original ignition coil, and replaced
it with a standard coil, readily available from any NZ car
parts supplier. The reason was twofold, first to prepare
for the installation of solid state "contact
points" (PerTronix Ignitor) and secondly to make it
considerably easier to replace the coil if it ever fails.
It is quite a difficult job, I cut the armoured cable
completely at the coil and removed the coil, it is hard
metal, two layers of armouring ! Then I cut the armour
only without damaging the electric conductor inside, half
way the cable under the dash while leaving the lock in
place, and extended the coil wire to the new coil
installed on the fender (just a standard coil from any
autoshop) and connected the wire from the ignition key to
+ of the coil. The existing wire from the distributor was
connected to the - of the coil, that's all. The armour is
very hard to cut with a hacksaw, very hard metal, it was a
security cable ! Then I made a cover plate and
installed with a seal over the hole where the coil was. On
Ebay I saw a new original coil, ignition key and cable set
advertised for over US$600, so unless you are an
"Original Freak" it is not really an option.
Installed new bands in the driver's seat, much better now.
The original seats are actually quite comfortable but I'm
still on the look-out for other seats with built-in
headrests. |
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