- The Blue Bess Scrapbook -

January - December 2025

The year begins with efforts on Red Ness's brakes which seem to have become locked on, at least at the rear. Hence the drums are removed and copper grease reapplied to the backing plate and the self-adjusters are wound fully in. Still it is very difficult to get the drums back on and when the are back on, they are still very much stuck. Puzzling stuff.

 

So the plan is to disassemble them a bit more to see what is going on, hopefully.

I end up thinking that there is something wrong with the hydraulics since the brake pedal is completely immovable, but it does move when I bleed the front brakes. However, the rear brakes cannot be bled at all - no fluid comes through and the pedal won't move even when the rear bleed nipples are loose. So I am thinking it is the brake pressure splitter which is then removed for a look-at.

 

A bit of dismantling suggested it was locked up inside, although, with a bit of tapping with a drift, the removable parts came out.

 


The shiny-looking washer thing at the bottom of the hole was not moving, but with a bit of judicious tapping it came out. These are the bits for the rear brakes.





And that is about as much as I dare to dismantle it since removing the innards for the front brakes would mean removing the clip which seems to be holding in a black rubber jobbie. I can attempt it if it is really necessary. Time will tell. Anyway, after refitting the brake splitter and successfully bleeding the front brakes, it still proved to be impossible to bleed the rears. More confusion and half-baked tesing has convinced me that it is the copper pipe running from the splitter to the rear brakes or the rubber hose connecting the copper pipe with the rear brakes. Attempting to remove the rubber hose, ... yes, you guessed it, ... proved to be a bit difficult - indeed this was one hose which I left in place a few years ago because I could tell that removing it would wreck the long copper pipe since the connecting nut is so rusted. So, yes, we are going to need a new copper pipe and connecting hose so efforts at removing both are in progress. 



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The footnote that says it all... It's a classic: The Volvo 300 series from the Independent on Sunday, 16th May 2004, page 41.

Volvo's first attempt at a small car was the 300 series, unleashed on an unsuspecting public in 1978 (it actually started life as a Dutch-built DAF which, on reflection, should have given us ample warning). With looks that only Ernest Borgnine's mother could love; lethal pendulous rear-wheel-drive handling; feeble engines that sounded like dying cows when revved; and dipsomaniacal thirst, about the only positive you can say for the 343/340/360 was that they lasted forever (although most owner's undoubtedly ended up wishing that they didn't).

These days, judging by the websites dedicated to them, there are an awful lot of sick people around who actually rather like them. "The first time I drove it I couldn't stop laughing at how much guesswork is involved with steering," writes one owner.

Another has managed to convince himself of the brighter side to 340 ownership: "Due to its truly, deeply unfashionable nature, a 340 will never get stolen, vandalised or stopped by the police." Quite.