J.Sweet: question on 92 Volvo 740

Re: the water temp gauge issue: You were right. The gauge on my

740 turbo is just designed to stay at mid-scale as long as there is not a problem with temp. I disabled the fan, and let it heat up above normal a bit, checkng carefully with an IR temp gun. Sure enough when it got to 215 deg. or so, then it started climbing towards the red. So it is really working OK. 2nd....I still have a lot more brake pedal travel than I would like...but then the 740 sedan I used to have also had a lot of brake pedal travel, too...always did. So I was hoping you can give me an idea of how much pedal travel your 740s take to begin the grab. I recently changed brake pads on front, although none of the pads were really worn out, then bled the brakes a lot, and the travel is about the same before and after...quite a *lot* of travel. They don't feel mushy when you step on brake, its just a matter of a lot of travel before they begin to grab. Since it has ABS, with I think four lines going to the controller on the left shock tower, could air in those lines also mess up braking? Since they don't have any bleeder provision like the brake lines I am assuming not, but I wonder. Also I asked about the voltage drop I was getting across a dual-diode- type battery isolator I installed. I have now learned that there is no way to get around having the voltage reduced about .8 volts or so with this "passive component" type isolator. So since I can't tweak up the alternator votage a bit, I will not be able to fully top off either the car battery or the camper battery with this device. The solution is to install an "active" type isolator which uses series pass transistors, and they have virtually zero votage drop. The drawback is they are about three times the price.

Thanks, Geronimo

I don't have the car near me at the moment but it does have more pedal travel than my 240, and the brakes do not feel nearly as firm. I don't know whether this is by design, or if I have some air pockets in the lines somewhere. Loose travel is ok, but if it feels like you're pushing on something spongy then there might be an issue. Air in any lines will cause an issue, but bleeding the calipers should get it all out. Make sure the car is level and the calipers are bled in the correct order. My '87 has the ABS modulator in the trunk well, so that may change things compared to the later cars with it under the hood.

So is it a Denso alternator? If it's Bosch, you can buy an adjustable voltage regulator. In theory it should be possible to modify the Denso but I haven't looked. You could also replace it with a Bosch, they're physically a bit larger but I think the mount is the same. I'm considering swapping the other way around on my 240 Turbo because the space is so cramped, the 100A Bosch alternator I put in there to replace the little 55A unit just barely fits.