Hello Everyone. I don't yet own a 240 but I'm interested in acquiring one in the next year or so.

Can anyone tell me if there's a simple way to give the car maybe a 25mm suspension lift. Can it be done with longer springs or pads without altering the alignment too much? Just looking for enough lift to fit slightly bigger snow tires and get a little better ground clearance. Not looking for one of those radical 75mm lift kits I've seen advertised.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

Something like this, maybe?

 

How much lift are we talking here? Please tell me more!! I'd love to see a profile side view picture of your lift. Thanks for your reply.

 

Hey Sambar. I checked out the thread on your lifted wagon and appreciate the useful information. Seems that a slight lift is a bit involved. I can live with stock ride height if I can find some good snow tires that fit.

I own a US market Mercedes 300TD W123 because I love Euro built wagons but I'm attracted to the Volvo 240 because I lust for a 5 speed manual transmission for the fun of it and a limited slip differential for better performance in snow conditions. I can find a good 5 speed 240 wagon and there are some direct fit LSD units for the Dana 30 rear end. Much less hassle than doin a manual tranny and differential mod/swap in my Benz.
Thanks for your time and I hope you have some fun adventures in your wagon!!

 

Hello. Snow tires in a 14 '' size are available; finding 4 matching wheels for the car will be a little harder. I assume you want your tires mounted so you can just swap them over in the winter. Get a set of chains while you are at, it to have in the car. I have done research on the the whole LSD or Eaton locker diffs. There seem to be issues with fitment on the 3.51 :1 diffs that are found on my and other manual transmission cars. The 740 and 940 cars are RWD and some had the Eaton locker...but the rear ends are not compatible with the 240's. 240 LSD's are scarce as hen's teeth in this area. The Eaton lockers are highly sought after by the Jeep crowd for putting in the front diffs; good luck finding one here in Northern California

 

OK. I gather that the limited slip differential is not as straightforward as I thought. What about for 373:1 ratio? Probably tach pretty high at highway speed.

 

As I understand it, the 3.73 rear end was fitted to some turbos and to the automatics. Those are doable for the Eaton lockers I believe. With larger diameter tires, the shorter rear end will just put the car back close to a stock feel.

 

OK you are considering purchasing at best a 30 year old car. (93 240) And want a higher suspension?

What I have seen that customers did is put is the spacer blocks shown below. ( and this was 35 years ago when it was reasonable to spend extra money on an older vehicle for stuff not really needed)

Certainly you could source some springs and shocks that could cost more installed than the value of the car - For a limited slip - I installed a factory one in a 1978 242 I owned - It was a lot of fun - even with the stock ~98 hp! Just reused the existing ring gear and put the factory limited slip center section in. Easy and was great fun to be able to do donuts in a Volvo! (when the streets were wet)

 

Maybe these would be useful?

https://www.ipdusa.com/products/4921...lvo-IPD-101013

Jeff