Thanks, Phil

You're absolutely right about necessity being the mother of invention. For those of us who want to hold onto and drive our older Volvos, creativity and invention are starting to become an ever increasing need....I mean I...a complete amateur mechanic know more about how to keep my car on the road than a 97 dollar an hour professional mechanic. But now, even that isn't enough. It's getting to the point that we need the collective creativity and inventiveness of the whole Volvo community. I'm just glad that I am able to finally start giving back to all you awesome people!

Art, before I answer your question, I have to tell you that you are amongst the top ten people who have been of so much help to me. I am thrilled that I now get the opportunity give something back. Now, let me tell you why I needed to disassemble my airflow meter. About 80,000 miles ago, I had a "professional" mechanic change my fuel filter. Although I was unaware of it at the time, the "professional" mechanic did not change my fuel filter...he just turned it so the clean backside was facing out...so it looked like he changed it. I was, of course, charged for the part and labor. About two months ago, my Volvo started bucking and hesitating. Of all the things that crossed my mind, a filthy fuel filter didn't compute....for the reason stated above. Before I could get the car to a shop, it died while my wife was driving it. My wife told me that the car was bucking like a bronco and that she was sure she had whiplash. I thought she was exaggerating. I was inclined to believe her when she told me that she tried to drive the car home while it was bucking! Needless to say, my 28+ year old Volvo was shaking and bucking so hard that it damaged or broke just about everything that could shake loose. I won't go into the details, but as you can imagine, the list was extensive (this is where love comes in).

Nevertheless, through a series of major and minor inpatient and outpatient procedures, I came to find out that my wiring harness was still original, and that all the shaking and ham-handed mechanics had exposed the fire-hazard bad condition of my harness. I had purchased a new harness several years ago in preparation for the day when the wire coating would turn back into a crayon. As I removed the intake manifold and various other assorted items, I figured that I'd replace the whole flame trap assembly from the breather box on up. In order to get to the flame trap breather box, I had to remove the airflow assembly. As I undid the nuts holding the airflow assembly, I noticed that the rubber airflow assembly mounts were completely broken through - all three of them. Apparently, when my wife continued to drive my fuel starving car, the shaking not only broke the main engine mounts, but also the rubber mounts for the airflow assembly. This is basically how I came to remove the airflow assembly. I figured that as long as I had it off, I'd check it out and see what was what. As I checked, I noticed that the venturi-plate was lopsided...there was more on one side than the other. I knew this was not right, so I began taking it apart to clean it and adjust it. I remembered reading a post on this site that talked about using postit-notes to help get the proper alignment for the venturi-plate...one thing led to another, and before too long, I was using an aluminum soda can as a venturi-plate alignment tool.

Oh, and the Bucking and hesitating was directly related to the fouled fuel filter...which in turn put additional strain on the pre and main pumps...which caused them both to fail....it overheated the pump relay which melted to the relay socket....it caused the injectors to clog and froze the plunger in the fuel distributor..clogged the WUR screens...broke the diaphragm in the fuel accumulator...knocked everything loose in the 28+ year-old catalytic converter, and broke the exhaust system from the downpipe to the tail pipe. Oh, and it also broke all my U-Joints.

I would sue the mechanic, but he's in Arizona, and I am in Georgia, all I have is my own knowledge that the filter was not changed. My wife and I were driving cross country and I decided to stop in AZ. and get an oil change and fuel filter change. That started the long chain of events that led me to where I disassembled the airflow meter. Man, that was a mouth full.