I heard an anecdote that the Volvo 9447896 is identical to Ford numbers YG-136 or D4AZ-18495-A.

Has anyone tried to save $60 on a quality water valve by buying it from the Ford dealer?

For the same $20-$30 we can get a generic one at the parts store. Yeah that might last a year.

I'm interested if it works.

 

The YG136 fits! It's pretty much a direct bolt-in and my leak is gone.

There are some minor differences to the original part in its construction. The part I removed from the car is all plastic with the two nipples bonded together. The Ford part has one plastic nipple, and the rest of the part is metal which is folded over the plastic nipple and crimped. The nipples on the Ford part are not as long as on the one I removed from the car but this is no consequence.

Here are the "ad hoc engineering' steps to use the YG136 in a 960:

I had to wrap the brass can around the vacuum bellows with electrical (plain vinyl) tape, so the factory bracket would hold the water valve. It's just a hair smaller.

I had to replace Volvo's vacuum hose elbow between the plastic tubing and the water valve with a 3 inch piece of 7/64 vacuum hose.

I paid $30 for the YG136 but it's available online cheaper. The best price I've seen from an online volvo dealer is $70 before shipping. My local dealer wants over $100. The Ford part is a great fitting replacement with no modification to any of the factory hoses and hopefully it will last a long time.