Hi, I just bought a '64 122 SW that's a bit of a frankenstein in that it's got a few bits from a later sedan, reportedly done by a "Volvo guy" that was the owner previous to the guy I bought it from.

I would appreciate any advice anyone has to offer on the following:

(BTW, I'm new to Volvos - but not vintage cars. I'm a VW nut undergoing a conversion.)

Gear ratio(s) - Supposedly this car has the transmission from the later sedan. The car wants you to shift out of first RIGHT AWAY and it doesn't really want to go above 60. To be honest, until I get the brake issue resolved (pls see my other post), I'm not really gonna push it (or drive it much at all for that matter). Since the speedo gear in the trans is not the right one for this car (or at least for the speedo that's currently in it - for now I'm going to assume it's the speedo that belongs in the SW), it must be that the SW and sedan have pretty different gear ratios. Can someone please enlighten me? Or at least point me towards a site (or book) where I can read up on this?

Follow-up: Assuming that either the trans or the rear end should be swapped out, anyone have any advice? I'm not planning on hauling heavy loads or trailers; so I probably don't need the SW ratios. My guess is that I want a sedan rear end. Can anyone please comment on this?

BTW, I have what is purportedly the SW's transmission, but I'm assuming there's a problem with it (otherwise, why the change?). Since the one in the car works fine, I'm not really inclined to swap them just to test it.

One more thing (if you are still reading, thank-you!), assuming it's good, is there any reason I can't swap the speedo gear out of the SW trans and put it in the (sedan) trans that's in the car?

Thanks in advance,

Richard