I recently picked up a 67' 220 with a BW35 in it. It seems like the trans in pretty bad shape after the previous owner tinkered around with it it. The trans fluid dipstick tube is completely disconnected and managed to leak about 2 quarts of tranmission fluid all over my driveway. I really do not know the condition its in and hesitate to find out since its probably bone dry now that the fluid leaked.

I found an m41 for sale in Austin, and was thinking about going that route until I read on VClassics that it will not be a plug and play swap and requires some mods to fit. I figrued since there was a plastic cap in the tranmission housing, that it would just fit right in.

I have a box of spare parts (gears, bellhousing, fluid pan, clutch, ect) that came with the car that might be good if I decided to go the rebuild route.

Any advice or info on whether to swap (and what is involved) or go for a rebuild on the Borg Warner would be appreciated.

Tyler

I've put manuals in 3 of the 5 Volvo's I've ever owned (1800E, 145E, 245) so you know what my advice is going to be.

GET THAT HORRID LUMP OF BORG-WARNER JUNK OUTTA THERE!!!
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'63 PV544 rat rod, '93 Classic 245 + turbo

John has it exactly right. Do not spend one penny on that piece of crap BW35. A dreadful trans that was quite capable, all by itself, of turning an otherwise classic automobile into a ponderous and miserable driving machine.
Of course there may be people out that like the BW35, as there are those that like diesels and PRV V-6's. Beware of them.....

Where are the BW35s made that you have in America?

I used to see many a nice 164 in the boneyard with BW35 trannys during my days in America. I bet each and everyone of them B30s in them 164s would fire right up if you gave them half the chance.
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...and the bricks keep on rolling

Somewhere in deepest England......by winos living under a bridge....using blacksmithing tools.....

I've only seen made in Australia BW35s. They outlast B20's & B30's. Same box also survives behind 250 cubic inch 6 cylinder Austalian Fords & 265 cubic inch 6 cylinder Australian Chryslers. Neither engine is short on torque, especially the Chrysler, the factory triple Weber version was faster than the local 4V 451C powered Fords. (Low 14 second quarters from a pushrod 6 from the factory) In the last model Falcon to use the box, arround 1987, Ford had Borg Warner reduce the input shaft size downwards & renamed them BW40. These die after 120,000 km & the local auto trans guys would use BW35 pieces during the rebuild to restore them back to BW35 strength.

All I can say is the English version must be very very shitty.

The English BW35's tend to crack the diaphragm spring around the forward clutch apply piston. That makes a lot of metal and takes out the trans. Also the torque convertors are a poor design, and have way too low a stall speed. The vanes come loose too, and cause a great deal of slippage. The Japanese improved every aspect of the Borg Warner design, and then said the hell with it and designed their own transmissions which are among the longest lasting in the industry.

Well, the Brit's Laycock O/D on the other hand, works very well.
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...and the bricks keep on rolling

From a different post:

...It's not a straight swap. Everything that makes a four speed shift will go in, pedals, hydraulics, etc. but there is no accommodation for the trans crossmember; here there will be welding, cutting, brackets...depending on the approach.
I've seen many ways of hanging an M40/41 in an automatic car, all are probably fine. The loudest complaint is that upon completion, there is very little room for a man-sized foot between the tunnel and brake pedal (on the gas).
It's been more than ten years since I did mine, I vowed at that time I would never do another. In hindsight, I should have fixed up the donor car.
Best,
Shayne.

My '66 started out as an auto and a PO made the change to manual. The space for my gas pedal foot is indeed tight, but I've gotten used to it (there are some shoes/boots I know not to wear when I'm going to drive the car). Unfortunately the person who made the trans swap just put in an M40 instead of M41, so that's in my future, but they did a good job with the crossmember support. I posted a pic once in the gallery.... I'll see if I can dig it up and get it to show up here...

Thanks for all your advice. I really did not want to have the borg warner in there to begin with. Your photo easied my mind. It should not be too hard to weld in a new bracket for the crossmember to hang the m41.

Any ideas on a price for a fair deal on an m41 in good shape is?

It would be nice to have a starting point to work with when I pick the m41 up.

I got an eBay junkyard special for my PV for $180 shipped. It turned out to have two broken syncro's. Prices can vary wildly on such a limited supply/limited demand item. You'd need more than just the trans too, the drive shaft, the bellhousing, the flywheel, pressure plate, clutch mechanism, pedals, etc. In the case of my first two swaps, I had access to a great foreign car junkyard that always seemed to have a decent supply of 70's volvos (this was in the 80's).

In the case of my 240, I found a guy (via Brickboard) who buys crunched Volvo's on eBay and parts them, got a complete swap kit for $400 + shipping (5 speed manual M47 trans).
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'63 PV544 rat rod, '93 Classic 245 + turbo

Ah!

Will a driveshaft from a m40 , 4-door sedan, even fit the wagon? I have not seen my parts car sedan next to the wagon, so I have no idea about the lengths. Hopefully it will....

I have the transmission from the m40 parts car in decent shape, so the bellhousing, flywheel, and pressure plate should just swap right up to the m41.

The rear sections are all the same length on 122's, but the front section comes in 3 different lengths, for the 3 different transmissions. The M41 is approximately 11.25 - 11.5 inches shorter than the M40 trans.

I'd swear I saw a 122 once with a long, cone shape auto trans that was the same length as an M41, but most were shorter. When I put the M41 in my PV I just had the PV's drive shaft shortened. The tricky thing is finding flanges that all go with each other.
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'63 PV544 rat rod, '93 Classic 245 + turbo

Many years ago I put a Toyota 5-Speed in my 140. The crossmember for it is a standard one in the automatic trans position.

Hey Paul

Which box did you use ? Did you redrill the bellhousing or use the Dellow bellhousing?

Mike

Hi Mike,

The box I used was the then popular & easy to find 4cyl Celica (W50?) know here as "the toyota steel case". You have to weld parts to the belhousing because the bottom bolts that hold the box to the bellhousing are outside the rear of the bellhousing & the input shaft is about the same length, so there's no rrom for an adapter. I did it back in the late '80's, at least a decade before Dellow made one. Now, I would highly recommend the Dellow bell housing, because they are about 3x thicker than the Volvo original & the Volvo housing is on the weak side.

Dellow make a housing to adapt what they call the 'upright engine' (B18/B20) to the old Celica box, or a housing to adapt the 'slanted engine' (B21, B23, etc.) to the stronger & lighter Supra 5-Speed (Aluminium W55,56,57,58). I don't know if they make a Supra conversion for a B20, but's that's what I want. You, being in the USA would probably be better off with the T5 that seems extremely popular there. They aren't that easy to find here, else I'd go that way eventually.

I'll fire up the camera if you want to see pictures.

Yeah, Paul, I downloaded the Dellow catalog and not much for the B20 besides the steelcase W50. I picked a w58 at a breaker some time back. I have access to a CNC Mill and If I could just find a dimensional drawing for the box's bolt pattern I would be in "fat city". I guess I could use transfer punches and hand fit the bastard. VPD has that project onthe back burner because the T5 is so much more popular. I just hate to cut up the car since my floors are SOOO rust free. Seems a shame to butcher it even if done nicely.

Stripped my B20F core and it turns out to be .030 over in the cylinders and .010x.010 on the crank. Just the faintest bit of wear in the bores... almost impossible to feel any ridge at all after a vigorous cleaning. Parts are the machine shop getting tanked, measured, and inspected. May be pretty straight forward rebuild.

Thanks for the update.

Regards

mike

I think the W58's input shaft is a bit short to fit with just an adapter like the T5. Some of those Supra boxes have ratios that a too wide like Volvo's M45/M46. Put it in to first gear & see if it's around 3.5 which is OK, or close to 4, which isn't much use behind a 4 banger.

I just hate to cut up the car since my floors

My 142 is an early one with the small transmission tunnel, the W50 is a snug fit. Later 140's got bigger tunnels, prop shafts & a bigger cenre bearing rubber.

Just the faintest bit of wear in the bores...

The bores aren't that critical, what really matters is the side gap between the the top side of the top ring & it's groove at the top, that's where the pistons gets the most wear. When the side clearence gets above .005", the ring will smash itself to bits when you rev it, but you can reuse .006" in a pinch provided you keep it under 4000rpm.

Once youe measure it all up, you'll probably find that you can reuse all the bearings & just buy a cheap set of generic rings for it, a camshaft & an oil pump spring.