An aquaintance of mine wants to swap his 1986 245 manual tranny for my AW71 auto. I'm guessing this is an M47 (haynes manual). We'll get together with two racks and do the swap. Is there anything I should consider about this conversion- Seals, driveshaft,flywheel bolts, rearend, etc. He says that the clutch is only a year old. He's not sure whether the front seal had been replaced. I do trust the guy so that's not an issue. He is a mechanic/engineer and will be accompanied by myself(shadetree) and another exvolvo mechanic. I just want to be sure that this will enhance the performance of the car to a great extent. I have installed unitek headers and cam and will do the head mods later. Unitek says that these mods together should produce 190hp at the wheel. Thank you.

I was just told that it is a 4speed with overdrive- I assume that makes it an M46?

Don't forget to put a pilot bearing into the crankshaft of the car receiving the M46. The automatic, I believe, has some kind of bushing too. The rear-end ratios may be different and the M46 car might rev too fast and the automatic car might be too slow. The entire rear-axle can be swapped later, if you want.

Rene

Chip-

If it's a 4 +OD, then you are indeed talking about an M46. This is arguably better than the M47, especially for people like yourself who do performance mods, as it is known to be stronger and without the potential lubrication problems of the M47. The only thing you should really be concerned about is the condition of the OD. They tend to act up at some point and can be hard to diagnose/fix. But I think that most of the problems can be solved with time, effort, and some money. Since the unit you plan to install is in a car, I'd suggest that you take it for a good, long drive on the highway to make sure that the OD engages/disengages properly. Make sure that you're at speed for at least 15-20 minutes to make sure that everything is in order when it warms up. (I had a problem that only showed itelf after the OD had been engaged for 10+ minutes without downshifting.) I can't say anything about the swap other than I wish you the best of luck in getting both transmissions into their respective receiver cars. Personally, I think you are at the good end of the deal.

Tim