Found an old Yellow 245, brown nice leather interior, AC, and power windows. Runs but the radiator split, leaked a ton of coolant into the auto, plus i just happen to have an m46 transmission. So against my better judgement i bought this old thing 86, and am going to do my best to turn it into a manual, and keep it on the road. just barely saved it from the JY...


there are plenty of good write ups about this swap all over the net, I just want to share my experience..

Hope everyone had a great memorial day.

BBman

 

should be fun!

 

Hey dude, that's my car! LOL, just kidding; mine is in the garage torn to pieces ( replacing the blower motor). But mine is an '86, the same "solid yellow" color and the optional blacked out roof rack, and brown "leather-like"
interior. Mine however came optioned with the M46 with OD, the big turbo-style tach instead of a clock in the left of the cluster, and a voltmeter and oil pressure gauge to the right of the cluster. Oh, and lets not forget the IPD swaybars added by the PO early in its life.
Sounds like you have some fun times ahead of you. If you live anywhere near Sacramento, I'll come over and park next to you- really freak people out.

 

If you haven't already found this: https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...nd-swap-73389/

It my brother's transmission swap. It's got a lot of pics and he tried to put all his relevant experience into it. He'd love to answer any questions that you may have. Come join the manual side!

 

Titan, just was looking at your brothers thread, very good with tons of great pics.
I managed to find an old volvo shop who was willing to let me come in and use some lifts and tools in exchange for some help doing oil changes and such when they are swamped. Its really been great its a volvo only shop, I've been drooling.

Stag, your Yellow brick sounds awesome! I'm in Sonoma county, Petaluma. not too far from sac actually. it would be cool to meet some other volvo owners. This one came with a 23mm sway bar off a turbo volvo that i need to install.

Spent a day down there and got the old tranny off. got the new clutch and brake pedals in, put a new bearing on the driveline shaft. slammed in the new pilot bearing, flywheel and clutch. there is definitely going to be some wiring work that needs done, i have a different gauge plate with tach that i am planning to install. it will be fun to try and get all that working properly. I was trying to read Snakes thread about how he wired up the reverse and neutral. i only managed to get a few pictures sorry guys.


I did see a bit of rot once it was up on the rack, a little disappointing here in CA, but should be easily repairable.

 

240's rust more easily than 740/940's do, not sure why, maybe better galvanization or something?

 

Yeah that's true. The "automation" of parts of the assembly lines was done by a group of people which included one of my college professors and he made frequent trips to Gothenburg. Apparently, the 240s were built in a separate part of the plant by itself and the 740 & 940s were built in same area (different lines but shared stuff in between them). The lines were much more modernized and the treatment as you say for the sheet metals were a lot better for them.

 

Any tips for repairing this, there is also a bit near the windshield?

 

my experience is, once you start getting rust bubbles, if you try and de-rust it, you'll end up with holes and you'll find there's a lot more rust than you thought. probably the best thing you can do is slap some por15 over the top of it to slow it down.

 

Proper fix is to cut out the rusted sections and weld new metal in. That looks pretty nasty which is surprising for a California car. Mine doesn't look like that and I live in the rust belt where they use salt liberally. Mine is a '90 though and I believe they improved the corrosion resistance in the later model 240s.

I would chase down the cause of the rust. Do you have wet spots on the carpet after it rains? Do you have a sunroof? I have heard that if your sunroof drains get clogged it will leak water onto the floor of the rear seat.

 

on a 240 sedan, sun rotted and cracked tail lights fill up with water thats run down the channels on either side of the trunk, then fill up with water, then it dumps into the interior of the trunk via the bulb socket opening. temporary fix is to drill a pair of small holes in the lower corners of each rectangular lamp cell, so this water can drain out the back. better fix is to replace the whole light fixture

 

Thanks for the tips guys, No sunroof in this one. I believe i have tracked the leak down the the lower left corner of the windshield. Im hoping that once i have someone take the old windshield out clean up the rust, putting in a new windshield will stop any further leaks...?

Drove the 245 around with the manual transmission today! I completely forgot the rear detent lockout piece at the JY so i need to go back tomorrow and see if its still there i hope i can find it. Also need to correct the wiring so that the OD works properly, hard to tell but i believe the OD is stuck on, at 45 Mph it accelerates easily. all told I'm pretty happy, the tach even works after burning through and sucking up all the tranny oil that got in the radiator i didn't even need to switch that out, radiator works fine.

she really needs a cleaning though, and the engine wiring harness needs some attention.

happy wednesday!

 

those J unit OD's don't like too much torque. if its stuck on, go VERY gentle in 1st, 2nd.

our old TR6 had the same J overdrive, they were wired to work in 2nd, 3rd, or 4th, just disabled in 1st. 2nd OD was a half gear between 2nd and 3rd, quite nice for cruising slow in town.

 

Ok will do, hopefully i can get the OD figured out friday, or on tuesday by the latest..

This 86 has power windows, the switches are not is the door but in the dash, it has 1 left Up/down, and 1 right Up/down, plus one switch that says rear window lifters On/Off. i believe that the left and right switches control both the front and rear? anyone have experience with these type of window switch? the fronts are working fine but the rears won't budge, I'm thinking its either a bad connection or switch perhaps. any ideas?

 

huh. The Volvo wiring diagram for a 1986 240 shows a quad switch in the driver door and single switches on the other doors... It shows the same on a 1985 4-door. and on a 1984, the same. ditto on all the 740/940's I've seen.

in fact, the only Volvo I've seen with center console window switches was my 1996 Volvo 850.

 

Yes i know, same thing my gently manual says. I will try to get you a picture before the weekend. Its entirely possible that it did not come front eh factory this way but perhaps someone adden them later? none-the-less is my assumption correct, rear window lifters switch on, should let me use the front switches to open and close the rear?

Thanks

 

I have no idea how thats wired. the standard ones, there's 4 switches for the driver, both front and both back windows all on their own switch. if there's only two switches in front, I'd expect the back windows to go up/down with switches in the back.

that other switch, on virtually every power window car I've seen, be it volvo or mercedes or vw or toyota or american, or whatall, that disables the rear door switches so kids can't play with them.

 

Got the overdrive wired up, mainly just by paying close attention to where it was situated when i puled it out of the donor car. Any year relay for the M46 will work. Shifts all the gears good, no slipping or poping out of gear, and the overdrive works perfectly. Yay!

i did manage to get a picture (not a very good one) of the window switches in the dash. Ill try to get a better picture this week.

 

Welcome to the M46 club! Glad to hear it is all working properly for you.

I'm looking at your photo... and just not seeing the windows switches. Can you put an arrow to them? Or are they on console next to the defroster switch/cigarette lighter, &c?

 

Thanks, I'm excited to finally be a member. I had never actually driven a manual 245, or 240/2 before completing my switch... ha. Yeah thats the window switches for the front right there, next to the defog, Emergency blinker switch.. Spent some time at the car wash station today and played in the interior for quite a bit and did locate some switches for the backseat, only one was in place, still worked and everything. Tomorrow i will try to replace the old busted center console and put an armrest in place.. i have to keep my eye out at the JY for a replacement switch.. It is really coming together, i will take better pictures tomorrow.

I have to figure out the suspension, the back is real low and the front is kinda high. The PO gave me a pair of front struts and springs, he says were from a 244 Turbo and thats what he put on the back also. recommendations, for what should be done in the front?


Happy sunday