Updated 21st October 2009
So I've had the car over in Switzerland for a couple of months and everything has been fine, apart from the passenger window that a friend (who's not used to the ways of the older car) wound down the wrong way and the glass dropped into the door...so for a month or so I've had a bit of brown cardboard wedge in to hold it up. Which was fine in the warmer weather, but now it's getting colder isn't ideal.
So as the car was booked in to have the heater looked at (leaking into the passenger floor-well), I thought I'd do the window at the same time.
Everything went well until about 40mins into a 2hr drive north to the Volvo Amazon specialist (www.scantrade.ch) who was going to be doing the work. I'd be doing 70mph and then any slight incline the car kept losing power, I'd have to pull over and wait a while or keep revving the engine until I felt it could go a bit further.
At least I was heading in the right direction...anyway I made it in the end, a little late but the old girl got there.
It seems it was running on 3 cylinders, we did an engine test and the results were: 137, 114, 17 and 110...at first I thought it might be a case of leaving it there and getting the engine rebuilt, but after a lot of testing it seems it was firing in the wrong order...which is strange as I drove it across France without a problem.
Anyway with that problem fixed, they started the job I was booked in for...the leaking heater, which turned out to be an old/rotten membrane which was quickly replaced. Then the window was repaired too...all in all a good day.
In one of the photos you'll see a 1971 123GT, yes one of the last ones produced...and before anyone tells me production stopped in 1970 (which is true), Switzerland had the model into 1971.
Of the many cars in the workshop there was a pretty original 142 car and a very early Volvo pick-up truck.
Out in the parking area was a 1970 2 door Amazon in dark blue (originally red) for sale...it's tempting...I'll say no more.
And finally, I thought I^d take a photo of the car in the car park at work with all of the new euro boxes that all look alike.
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