Everyone,

I've always wanted to switch my '89 auto 244 to manual and I now might have a chance.

A local '88 245 manual roller (no motor or trans) came up for sale cheap (300.00). What's left would be the firewall w/cable hole, peddle box, clutch cable, cross-over member, stick shift assembly and drive shaft. Plus of course all the electronics.

My question is what is usable from the '88 245 for my '89 244? I'd need to find the trans itself and clutch assembly, but would everything else switch over? What about the electronics? Should I switch out the electronic control boxes?

I'd prefer to take all the components from a single donater car, but here in the NE manual cars with everything to switch over are getting harder and harder to find. Most have been salvaged for some of the components.

I know this question is hard to answer because it varies by region, but is 300.00 too much? The body is good for other spares, but too far gone for re-powering

 

your 89 uses LH 2.4 fuel injection, while the 88 used LH 2.2, so the engine management is considerably different. leave your electronics alone. anyways, these transmissions are entirely mechanical (or hydraulic in the case of the automatic), there's no electronics involved, beyond the overdrive relay.

a 240 can use either a M46 4-speed plus overdrive, or a M47 5-speed tranmission. the M46 is considered the stronger transmission, but would require wiring and relay for the OD (manual OD is different than automatic OD, you can't use the same relay or wiring).

a stickshift 240 probably has an 'upshift' indicator, and a 5th/OD indicator if its the M46. the upshift indicator is controlled by a small computer module, frankly I'd leave it out as those are nag-lights.

I'm not sure, but I suspect the stick shift cars have a different final drive ratio in the rear differential than the automatic cars.

 

oh, looks like by 1988, 240 stick's were all M47 5-speeds. the m46's got used with turbos mostly, including 740T (I don't believe any 940 turbos got imported to the USA with stick shifts).

ALSO, an LH 2.4 car requires a hole in the edge of the bell housing for the crank position sensor, and it requires a flywheel with timing notches, so you'd best get your transmission + flywheel from a 1989+ car, NOT from a -1988. note that the flywheel is attached to the motor, so when you acquire the transmission you'll also have to remove the flywheel from the motor it came with, and use that to replace the 'flex disk' on your automatic.

 

Thanks for the replies. So for the trans and flywheel a +89 car. Electronics should stay the same on my '89.

What about the peddle box, firewall with cable hole, cross member for the trans, and drive shaft? Will those specific components from an '88 245 work on my '89 244 for the swap, or do I have to get all the change components from a +89 244?

Thanks again!

 

that stuff should all be the same. afaik, the rear half of the driveshaft is the same between auto and stick, its just the front half thats different (but thats from memory, and I've never done a conversion or even driven a volvo stick more than once or twice, they weren't a very fun stick, nothing like my old jetta gli)

 

I would get the whole driveshaft from the donor car as it is balanced as a unit (front and rear together). You can mix and match front and rear pieces but you will need to get it rebalanced.

You might want to take a look over at turbobricks as this type of conversion is more common there.