Hood Lift Support and Timing Belt Marks, 2006 Volvo V70 (P2)

I’ve been working on a 2006 V0lvo V70 (P2 Platform) preparing it to be put back on the road after sitting for nearly two years.  This post details two items I encountered that I thought might be useful to others:

First item:This particular V70 came from the factory with only one hood lift support, located on the driver’s side.  That support was old and tired and didn’t quite hold the hood up, so I purchased another one from RockAuto.com.  That is an “Ultra-Power 4068”, and supposedly is for hoods with only one support.  It does hold the hood up, but only barely.

I thought a bit more support would be a good thing.  So, I “borrowed” two ball support anchors from the tailgate of a 1985 745 and installed them on the right hood hinge, then moved the original gas spring from the driver’s side to the passenger side.  Now the hood has two gas spring supports and stays up quite nicely.

I had to remove three screws from the fender, then spring it outward to access the screws for the bottom portion of the hood hinge so I could lift the hinge up and drill larger holes for the ball support anchors.  I also tapped the holes with an 8mm x 1.25mm tap and screwed the ball support anchors into the hinge, then installed the nuts seen in the above photo.  Tapping the holes was just unnecessary overkill, but I did it anyway.

Second Item:

The official timing belt instructions from Mother Volvo says to align the timing marks as shown in the next photo:Trouble is, there is no timing mark on the harmonic balancer, nor is there any mark on the sprocket, so it was impossible to align the crankshaft per the published procedure.

I consulted with Goodwin’s Volvo, and they told me that there was probably a mark on the end of the sprocket, and that I should remove the harmonic balancer.

So, I did that, and this is what I saw:There may or may not have been a mark on the end of the sprocket tooth; I don’t know because I didn’t bother to remove the spacer seen in the photo.  That’s because the spacer has a “tooth” cast onto it that just happens to align perfectly with the timing mark on the crankshaft seal housing.  That “tooth” is clearly visible in the photo, just to the right of the passenger side of the timing belt.