Volvo Maintenance Hints for 7xx/9xx - Bill Garland's Nuclear ...

of lesser quality; buy aftermarket for better quality and lower prices from reputable suppliers
such as IPS, FCP, IPD, RPR.
Online Maintenance Manuals. For online 960 Volvo maintenance manuals, see: http://caunter.
ca/volvo960/
960 Flame Trap Maintenance. See Flame Trap in B6300 Engines for more information.
Serpentine Belt. [John Shatzer] Just a cautionary note to check your serpentine accessory belt
for inside edge fraying. Apparently when you begin to accure higher milage (in exess of 100K),
the tensioner begins to sag, it will cause rubbing along the inside edge (toward the engine) of
the belt surface. Replacement of the tensioner is called for. We've heard about at least one
(rare) instance of a broken serpentine finding it's way into the timing belt housing, and the rest,
as they say, is history.
Timing Belt/Tensioner Changes. See 960 Timing Belt Change for important information
regarding the timing belt change interval - which varies by model year for the 960 series - as
well as the tensioner and idler pulleys which, upon failure, will destroy the belt and the cylinder
head at great cost. More and more reports of pulley and tensioner failures are being heard, even
as low as 95k miles. So the importance of changing these components cannot be overstated.
960 B6304 Cam Gear Timing. [Inquiry: JT] I removed the cam gears from the head of my 960
and now can't figure out how to get the gears back on with correct alignment so the cams and
valves are timed right.
[Tip: Tom Irwin] Make sure and scribe the bolt positions on the gears before removal. There is
an awful lot of adjustment in there.
[Self-Diagnosis: JT] I took a look at the 960 again last night and I cam up with a way to solve
the problem. The problem was that I took the cam gear off of the camshaft and did not know that
it was not pinned or marked. This meant that it could go on the camshaft one of 3 ways at 120
degrees out of phase. With the intake manifold and exhaust manifold off I could see the valves.
Had to use a mirror for the exhaust side. The spark plugs were out also. I set the timing marks
and hoped for the best with a 1 in 3 chance of getting it right. I did not get any interference when
I slowly turned the crank by hand, so feel will not work. I checked the firing order and compared
the exhaust valves openings to the intake. Used a flashlight to shine in the plug holes and look
in the ports to see when the valves would open. I found that the cam gear was off, making the
intake and exhaust valves open and close at the same time. This is why there was no
interference. So the intake valves were opening to soon. So I went back 120 degrees to the next