Hey Everyone,

I had an appointment for the 940T to go into Bert & Jacks tomorrow (Monday the 24th) for a bit of servicing but sadly it appears that the flooding has done them in for a while (so sorry that happened Paul). I didn't want anything major done, just replacing the exhaust manifold gaskets, replace the oil cooler seals and do a camshaft swap (Stock Volvo cam for a ipd turbo cam). I have one of Matt & Dale's adjustable timing cam gears that and wanted the timing advanced on the cam. I was really hoping to have the work done at B&J's because I know Paul understands how Matt & Dale's adjustable cam gears work and could rely on them to do the work correctly.

If Bert & Jack's are shut down for a while, who else would people recommend I take the car to. I know Erv at Mr. Volvo and he's an old friend of mine but he is pretty expensive and I don't think he'd be that accommodating to the idea of using Matt & Dale's cam gear to advance the cam timing. I'm also a bit averse to using Swanny's because I know what Swanny did to rip-off Erv when he worked at Mr. Volvo many many years ago (major theft). So who does that leave?

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Roger

That's the entire group of indy garages as I know them...you could drag it down to Lethbridge to have it done at Elis Autodrome. Perhaps one of the tuner garages could take a stab at it.

I might second the Ellis suggestion, however... make sure you have all of your ducks (and necessary parts) in a row. My wagon has been there since 2 weeks before May long, most of the hangup is on me for getting the turbo swap screwed up (Garrett - Mitsu - 15g - clock 15g etc.) however, if it's not straightforward mtce. work they tend to push it to the back burner for awhile. If you have everything you need for the work Jack is more than capable and advancing a cam isn't that big a deal. They are also usually at least a week out on appt's. so you won't be getting in till after this long weekend.

I'm always happy to plug Uzzi at magnum on Manchester road. He's worked on my car and knows his stuff. The cam timing is very straight forward and I'm sure he could sort it out.

Thanks for your suggestions.

I ended up taking it down to Parkdale Auto a couple blocks from my place, more for the convenience than anything else. I had all the parts pre-purchased and gave them a very specific list of what I wanted done and I provided them with my Volvo 940 repair manual in case they needed some info from it. They seemed to do a good job and now the car is running very well and I'm reasonably happy with their work.

It's great to have the 940 back on the road. Got very tired of driving the 4Runner around all the time!

How do you think they would fare at installing aftermarket suspension in a 98 volvo s70?

I'm sure they could do it as could a lot of other places. I don't know much about the FWD Volvos but I don't suspect there's anything too mechanically difficult about replacing the suspension in an S70 unless maybe there's some special tools required for the job that a normal garage wouldn't have. But Volvos aren't BMWs which require a special proprietary tool to do just about every single job on the car. At least they didn't used to be like that. They may be more like that now but I don't think they were like that when the S70 was designed and manufactured.

Someone who knows more about the S70s would be more qualified to answer this question than I am.

Well the 850 has a special nut at the top of the strut to remove the spring retainer, but any half-assed mechanic can fashion something to remove this. I assume the later cars have equally special equipment "needed".