About a week or so ago I posted a message dealing with lack of clearance between the AW70 and the underbody after replacing Engine and transmission mounts. Exhaust system was uptight against the unibody and driveline would strike the tunnel when driving over bumps.

After several days of comparing my other 240's with this one I have finally solved the problem. Seems when I replaced the soft and sagging mounts, the engine and tranny were lifted up about 1/2" TO 3/4". Normally this would not be a problem, however from what I am able to ascertain, someone or some garage had been lifting the vehicle by placing the jack pads under the tranny crossmember bolt heads. This puts all the weight on the bolt heads and does not spread it out over the jackpad surface area. consequently, over time the unibody channel has been pushed up about 3/4" which also lifts the rear of the AW70 and driveline up. It also forces the exhaust header to stress at the 90 degree point and possibly lend to stress cracks (opinion).

This coupled with new tranny and engine mounts may compound the problem by lifting the tranny rear up to high at the cost of driveline to tunnel clearances. After some forethought and a few of Wicked Petes special brews (actually a six pack and a pound of moose jerky), I decide to make a couple of spacers simular to the ones that mount between the unibody channel and Tranny crossmember. I used 5/16" steel cut into two strips that are 2 1/2" x 5", then drilled them to match the holes in the Volvo spacer. Them mounted them between the original spacer and the crossmember. Used four new 10 mm, grade 8.8 bolts that are 1/2" longer than originals.

After installation completed, vehicle test drove and functioned opps norm. Everything lined up perfect and exhuast dropped into normal position. Curious if any one else has run into this situation before, if so what did you do to correct the lack of clearance.