So, to be truthful. I do not own a volvo. But I'm working on a tdi swap into a Suzuki samurai and I need a suitable transmission. After hours of searching on different forums a popular trans swap into it with the stock gas motor is the aw70 due to its size and it being non computer controlled. From my searching also that the diesel's from this era of cars where made by vw. I also believe that the trans is the bw55, I have seen some posts saying you can use a bw55 bell housing on a aw70 but couldn't confirm that and I couldn't confirm that the bw55 has the same bell housing pattern as the Volkswagen diesels. this might sound as a hodge podge of crap but I want to run the 04 tdi with a aw70 behind it. I can find a bell housing to match to a samurai and use an adpator plate, but if the bell housing pattern of the bw55 is the same I could use that and not have an adaptor. Am I way off base or is this possible?

 

The bw55 is a three speed transmission, with what i would call a normal looking bell housing with just the 1st motion shaft sticking out of the front. The aw70 is a 4 speed - 3 plus overdrive - It has an extended bell housing that slides over the additional gear cluster for overdrive, sealed with a couple of large orings.

This page - has a diagram of a aw70/71 - note the long bell housing

https://www.volvopartswebstore.com/p...7/6814812.html

 

Wow I was way off. Thank you. Do you know what transmission is behind the diesel? I'm not opposed to a 3 speed but a 4 speed is ideal. Do you know if the bell housing is the same as a vw? I guess I'm off to other forums to see if I missed something about the which trans they use.

 

In the 1980's Volvo used a 6cyl vw diesel engine and installed it in the 240 and 740 - terrible engine - would usually wear out and not start due to lack of compression with less than ~130k miles. They came with both a manual and auto trans - but that's about all I know -

 

fyi the otherwise identical AW71 from a turbo 740/940 is stronger, it has the same gear ratios and everything as the AW70.

you likely will need to machine an adapter plate to match up the bolt patterns.

isn't the Samurai a 4x4 ? none of these volvo transmissions have any provision for a transfer case.

and yeah, those Volvo diesels were pretty bad. it was basically the OLD VW Diesel used in the early 80s rabbit diesels, with two extra cylinders and inadequate lubrication. Pretty sure they mated with the same AW70 or BW55 depending on the year, or the M45 (4 speed) or M46 (4+OD) stick shifts.

 

Yes same transmissions but with a different bell housing - the starter is on the right side on a d24 diesel, volvo b21-23-230 starter is on the left.

 

but I doubt either of them are even remotely close to the bolt pattern of a late model VW TDI, most all of which are FWD vehicles.