openinverter forum

I was quite busy the last days and did more work tackling the rust and reassembling all the parts.

First the new subframe bushings got pressed in with my Subframe Bushing Tool (https://www.printables.com/model/634138 ... shing-tool). This tool makes it really easy while it would be a MAJOR struggle otherwise. However after eight bushings, the threaded rod was done. You can see how the threads are curled to the left.
Next up was the steering. In order to make a 180° turn I bought some additional fittings. Also the return line is M18 not M16, so we needed some adapters too. The inner and outer tie rods were replaced and the steering rack got a lick of paint. It will rust again, but that's okay. The passenger side inner wheel wells are done now and received their third and final coat of paint. The drivers side needed some more attention, so they are lagging behind a bit, but that's for the next post...

As discussed previously, there is a rust hole in the rear wheel well on the drivers side. Unfortunately the metal around it was quite thin as well, so the small hole requires a rather large patch.
A friend of mine gave me a piece of DC04 sheet metal, which is very bendable. So with a new set of hammers and dollies (Chinas finest), we got to work: First the old metal had to come out. This was rather tricky because it's such a confined space. For a normal angle grinder, there was not enough space to make most of the cuts. The Dremel was fine for this application, but I only had some crappy cutting discs and used up like 20 pieces...
As you can see, the inner metal structure is fortunately in excellent condition, so there is no need to repair it. To make a metal patch, I first created a paper template that fits exactly into the spot. This was a bit tricky because there is a bit of a depression in the metal which obviously does not transfer to the paper. To compensate for this, the metal was cut out with ~1cm more "meat" on the circumference.
So anyway I started blasting.
In the first two pictures you can see the outer edge where the additional material was left and the third picture is the final patch in it's position.
The metal looks a bit rough because the hammer and dolly set is really missing a hammer with a ball end. Also you can see the result of the depression in the metal, on the lower edge there is a bit of a wave where too much material is present. This wave was cut off though, so it didn't really matter.
A better approach would've been to use a bead roller to create the step and perhaps shrink the metal a bit.
I even have a bead roller and shrinker, but I didn't feel like setting everything up
The next step was cleaning off the Machinists Blue and drilling the holes for the spot welds. The red primer is weld-through primer, but it doesn't weld great, so I cleaned the spot weld holes and the outside edge up.
The welds don't look great in some areas, however the metal was quite thin on the right side and it blew holes instantly, so there's a bit of material excess. Nevertheless I have no doubts that it's stable and durable again.

The welds got covered with seam sealer and the rest of the wheel well was cleaned and painted with Brantho Korrux 3in1. The seam sealer will be painted tomorrow when it is (at least mostly) cured. The rear brakes also got assembled and adjusted, so the rear of the car is mostly done. Mostly because I need new shocks and bump stops and the rear brake hoses have to be changed, but that will be done once I can move the car to the lift.
The front subframe was reassembled as well with the new sway bar and the steering box and bolted back to the vehicle. For now the bolts are still lose, but at least it's back in. The next steps will be reassembling the front suspension so I can get the car off the jackstands and on my lift. Then I can install the motor and gearbox and prepare for a first drive. Maybe
The coupler has to be made and the adapter plates have to be finalized before that happens though.

I've started and test driven my electric Volvo S70 now, and as expected the ABS light is on on the panel, I haven't been able to find any manual to see what the ABS needs to "feel good". How far have you come to crack that nut?

The speedometer works, so that should mean the speed is output via the abs, but the abs light is on, tried running PWM on the tachometer "B21" from the engine management side to the gauge housing, the tachometer responds but still the abs light. Will not be able to read error codes on my car as it is in the break between flashing codes and obd2 port, to read a volvo computer is needed as I understand it.

The S70 should have an OBD connector in the center console under the armrest. Personally I'm not yet at a stage where I would worry about the ABS, but from what I can tell from the Signal Specification, it doesn't need any inputs from the ECM to be happy.

crasbe wrote: ↑Thu Jul 17, 2025 11:34 pm The S70 should have an OBD connector in the center console under the armrest. Personally I'm not yet at a stage where I would worry about the ABS, but from what I can tell from the Signal Specification, it doesn't need any inputs from the ECM to be happy.

You have nothing to worry about either, I found that a rear sensor had failed, after changing to a new one everything worked after a test drive, the light went out when I got over 40kmh approx.

Good luck with your project! I follow you and your project All the best!

The TE CCS2 port arrived last week and I worked on mounting that in the old fuel filler location. This was not super trivial because there is not much space. The TE connector is very slim, but it was still super tight.

One thing to note here is that the lock actuator can be placed in three different locations. It is usually mounted on top, but there's just not enough space to mount it in that configuration.
The lock hole has to be drilled/dremeled out, but that's no big deal. This is not documented by TE and you currently can't buy connectors where the lock motor is not at the top position. Also, you can disassemble the outer frame, which is also not documented by TE. But that makes the connector really slim.
Some slight body modifications were required to make the connector fit, even though my adapter plate was at the absolute maximum of thin-ness.
I really wanted to avoid this, but overall it's not so bad I think. The dent is behind the carpet. This is how the connector sits in the filler port. In the first iteration I wanted to place the connector at the outer sheet metal, but that wouldn't allow the fuel door to close.
To verify that everything fits as expected, it was suggested that I 3D print a CCS connector as a reference.
The only remaining challenge is to make a rubber seal from the outer to the inner sheet metal, because the space inbetween actually goes into the inside of the vehicle and I would like to avoid water to in

crasbe wrote: ↑Sat Jul 05, 2025 9:17 pm Brantho Korrux 3in1

after spending my weekend marinating in POR-15 i started wondering if there are less toxic paints that can still perform well with rust. i just looked this stuff up and it sounds pretty great on paper, does it work as well as they say it does? doesn't look like it's available in USA

So far I can say nothing negative about Brantho Korrux 3in1. I have no comparison on how POR15 smells, but Brantho Korrux is also an oil based paint with solvent, so I wouldn't necessarily paint myself with it. However once it is dry, it would be even save for children's toys I think.

I finally got around to test fitting the servo hoses and cutting them to length. The hydraulic shop is in the south, so I only get a chance to have them pressed when I visit my partner.
The 3D printed servo pump holder was nice, but I was never really satisfied with it and I was not keen to have the servo pump falling out of the vehicle because the plastic breaks, so I redesigned it from metal (and a bit of 3D print). The frame of the vehicle sits at an angle, so there is a 3D printed wedge that corrects that angle, so the bracket sits flush.

The vacuum pump bracket will also be replaced by a metal one:

Long time no update... A lot of other projects came up so this is a bit on the backburner unfortunately.

However in summer I got an MG drive unit for a good price and ultimately decided last month to use that instead of the Outlander motor.
So off to the Laser Tracker we went again to get measurements of the new drive unit as well as some remaining measurements of the old engine block and gearbox: The process was similar to the Outlander drive units by reconstructing the mounting points from the measurements and enhancing the original Volvo motor/gearbox model: These are the new front and rear mounts: The rear mount was tricky because the original Volvo engine mount would interfere with the drive unit, so I switched to a BMW E46 mount.
Big shout out to Esen SKV for providing a technical drawing of all their engine mounts!

This is how it sits in the car, as you can see not a lot of clearance all the way around, but enough:

How wide is the MG driveunit between output seals?

I measured the width with the milled surfaces around the seals: That is 476.3mm from milled surface to milled surface. Keep in mind though that the two CV axles are not totally symmetrical, as there is a shaft sticking out on one side while the other side has a normal style spline.
I took the end of the CV axle cup as "reference" for aligning the drive unit and there we have a distance of 704.3mm from end of cup to end of cup.

My wonderful partner cut out the motor mounts today on the plasma table he has at work: During the christmas holidays we can assemble them and perhaps even install the drive unit in the car already.
The CV axles however have to wait until january because a friend of mine will modify them for me.

Very nice puzzle plate.

Should you not change the thread name to reflect current spec?

I don't think I can change the title myself, can I?

crasbe wrote: ↑Thu Dec 11, 2025 1:29 pm I don't think I can change the title myself, can I?

You can normally just edit the first post to do so.

You mere mortals cannot edit posts anymore after someone went and edited all their posts to say 'deleted' and left a mess.

I've updated it.

My partner and I were busy the last few days and welded up the engine mounts.

It all started with grinding off the (very light) mill scale and redrilling the rough holes from the plasma cutting: I prepared some 3D printed jigs to align everything. I welded some tacks and removed the jig, the PLA would just melt with the high temperatures. Unfortunately I missed a piece during export and didn't notice it when my partner sent me the picture of the puzzle plate.
Fortunately there was a local company that gave me a scrap piece of 6mm plate that I could cut the missing piece out of.
It was a bit annoying that it was 6mm instead of 5mm, so some additional filing was required, but hey, it let me complete the mount nevertheless. Here are some group photos of the completed mounts. I did not weld everything fully to limit the risk of warping. Also it does not necessarily add more strength. Unfortunately I made some mistakes during assembly and one during the design. The stiffener plate was welded in wrong, so I had to notch it to make some space for the engine mount.
Also the spacer for the side mount was welded in the wrong spot.
The stiffener piece in the front engine mount does not leave enough space to take the bolt out (or put it in), so I ground some away, as you can see in the primer pictures. Before applying the grey 2K epoxy primer, we added some thin 1K Mipa Rapid Primer to all the cracks and crevices to avoid corrosion from water that might collect here. All the seams were also seam sealed. This is probably overkill, but I had a tube of already expired seam sealer that has to be used up and it can't hurt. The mounts being made from 5mm steel will probably outlast the rest of the chassis, but I'd also hate to see them rust quickly.
The seam sealer also hides some of the not-so-nice features After seam sealing, we applied a good coat of black 2K acrylic paint so the mounts have some days to fully dry before assembly.