Part 3 in the saga...

Haroon suggested looking for a tear in the firewall plate through which the clutch cable passes. He was right on the money. The 240 uses two black steel plates, roughly triangular in shape, which contain the cutouts for brake booster mounting, wiring harness pass-through, steering column pass-through, etc. These plates are chosen at the factory according to right- or left-hand and manual vs. automatic needs.

In my case, the steel plate had about a 2" long tear, from the upper mounting bolt down to the crease where the brake booster mounts, and over to the clutch cable pass-through. When the clutch pedal was depressed, the plate deflected about 3/4". That's where all the misadjustment was occurring.

Zee and I looked for a replacement plate at a pick-n-pull yesterday; a good candidate was found which had its motor removed and its dash removed. Problem was, it was held on with torx bolts, and I couldn't remove them. Urgghhh.

I ultimately fabricated a 7" X 4" D-shaped patch which was mounted onto the three plate-mounting bolts to the right (as you face it) of the brake booster. I used a double thickness of Volvo sheet steel cut from doorskins. I replaced those three bolts with longer ones, passed them through the firewall and through the patch and fixed the patch in place with nuts on the ends of these bolts. I then used 'dum-dum' to seal the clutch cable sheath attachment and sealed the edges of the patch with more dum-dum. I'm hopeful that this repair should keep the clutch cable in adjustment.

Anyone else ever seen a tear in these 240 black firewall plates?

Rob