I'm in the process of pulling the dash on the 245. I ran into an issue with the upper steering column bolts that hold the column to the dash. These appear to be "head snap" safety bolts, ie no features to grip on with a tool. Beyond drilling these hardened bolts out, is there an alternate solution? Perhaps removing the cross brace from the rest of the dash? Lets just say that when I started this project that I didn't realize Volvo felt it necessary to put a chastity belt on the dash!

Thanks,

jorrell

Yes, you can (after doing other things to clear the way) detach the cross piece and slide it aft off the breakaway plastic pieces the bolts go through. Then you can easily use vice grips to remove the bolts and the intact breakaway plastic pieces from the column.

To pull the dash you don't have to remove those, click on

this link

for a how to.
--
Dave Shannon
Spring Valley, California
'67 1800s
'73 1800ES
'88-240
my pages

Dave:

Thanks for the link! I have already printed it and it will be of great help! I am removing the dash to basically restore the magic heater box with a new heater core, fan, and expansion valve... along with hoses. The reason I believe the steering column needs to come out is that I am converting the pedal set from a manual car to an automatic pedal set and as it seems now, the only way to do this is to remove the column.

Thoughts?

Sorry, never changed one over. I'd get the dash out of there so you can see first. I've followed a few threads on changing to a stick and never heard of having to remove the steering column however.

If you do have to drill out the snap off bolts don't worry, I don't think they are hardened. see this link for how to get the snap off bolts out of an ignition lock, your situation should be similar. Also sorry but that dash is in an '88, your '92 has the knee bolster which is not shown but it sounds like you are past that anyway.
Good luck.
--
Dave Shannon
Spring Valley, California
'67 1800s
'73 1800ES
'88-240
my pages