I am putting my 1990 245 back together and it is looking good, or at least a heck of a lot better than it did before the paint job. I know pictures. The one thing that I always wanted with this car is a limited slip differential. From what I understand this is not the easiest thing to come by. Does a LSD from a 740, 940, 760 or 960 fit? How available are they on these cars?

 

the main problem is, the 240 and 740/940 use different thrust-arms. 240 are on either side, 7/9 are above/below. also the 240 and 7/9 trailing arms connect differently.

I think you would have to transplant the guts of the locker pumpkin to your 240's axle, and I really don't know how feasible that is. another complication is the speedometer pickup has different speeds for ABS and non-ABS, and honestly I dunno if they are simialr between 7/9's and 240's.

 

You can swap the internals.

You can buy them new or used.

Edit:

http://www.kaplhenke.com/collections...p-differential

http://www.ringpinion.com/b2c/PartsL...RWD&DiffID=119

there are more out there.

 

note these are not true limited slip diffs, they are lockers. at speeds below 25mph, if one rear wheel spins, the axle will lock up and drive both together. on pavement, spinning a tire hard on the gas doing a sharp turn from a stop, this is pretty harsh and abrupt. I think my 740T wagon, which was supposed to have one, no longer does, as the rear axle has some yellow pen on it like its a junkyard special. it was like this when I got it, and honestly, I don't care that much, it doesn't snow here.

this is contrasted with something like the contemporous Mercedes ASR system used on W124's in the late 80s, early 90s. THat system was a hydraulic beast with brakes on each axle, rather than just locking the two togther, it used a seperate axle brake to slow the slide that was spinning, this is much smoother under pavement conditions. of course, to do this, Mercedes needed a 2nd hydraulic pump circuit on the power steering pump, a hydraulic fluid reservoir, the computer control system, 2 sets of hydraulically actuated brakes, a separate set of wheel speed sensors, etc etc. The Volvo (really, Dana) locker is a simple centrifigual system inside the pumpkin.

you're more likely to find it on an upscale 760/960 (but of course, 960 sedans were IRS, so forget them)

 

Thanks guys. I will keep an eye out for a LSD axle and talk to some local people to see who is good at setting up axles. I hope they don't tell I need new gears, just because there are 375,000 miles on it. It sounds fine. No whining, no backlash that I can feel.