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Hello everyone,
I spent a lot of time around these parts in the early 2000s, but I took a 5 year hiatus from Volvo ownership. But...I'm back. This time around I ended up with an 85 245 manual.
1. Yes I knew about the wiring harness issues before I bought the 85.
2. Holy crap! The manual transmission is so much faster than the automatics - who knew? Completely different car.
3. Yes, it's a Hoopty...but it's my Hoopty, and I love it.
I paid $800 for it, for those who care about such things. I trolled craigslist Denver for 3-4 months looking for wagons (2s and 7s were my main targets, 8s and 9s were options)...finally found this one.
Anyway, on to my questions.
1. I know the wiring is a big issue on the early-mid 80s 240s and mine is no exception. The wiring at the firewall is completely exposed on 4 wires for about 1 inch or so. Clearly something needs to be done. I found Dave Barton's web site (great resource) and am considering going that route. I emailed him and haven't heard back, though.
- Thoughts on repair vs replace?
- Thoughts on retrofitting a used harness from a later (non-affected) car?
2. Manual trans has a hard time shifting int 1st. If I do the old 2nd-then-1st dance, it does OK. Tonight I took a few minutes to change the reverse lockout plate and it shifts a whole lot easier now, but it's still not great.
- It feels fairly sloppy when in gear (lots of left/right movement). Is there linkage / bushings / other wear items that are externally serviceable?
- The clutch pedal seems to start to engage pretty low leading me to wonder if a partially engaged clutch is making it harder to get it into gear. Thoughts? FWIW it slips in more easily when rolling to a stop than when completely stopped..
3. I bought it from a guy who hadn't owned it for very long. He thought the clutch was original (no idea why he thought that). It doesn't slip. It does chatter / shudder on occasion (not sure if it is the clutch or something else).
- With 200k miles on the clock, how likely is it to be the original clutch?
- Whats a typical lifespan for a clutch?
- It looks pretty darn easy to do a clutch job on this thing - am I kidding myself?
4. My first go-round(with the 88) I went all out on suspension (well, maybe not all out, but)...Bilstien shoocks, IPD sway bars + overload springs, all new bushings and ball parts..etc. This time around I'm looking to do it on the cheap.
- Considering the Moog overload springs (cargo coils? something like that) which are significantly cheaper than the IPD ones. Anyone have experience with them? Any sense of load capacity of original springs/Moog springs/IPD springs?
- Thoughts on a decent shock / strut option? I don't want to cut corners on quality/safety, but I'm not building a race car, and I don't plan to keep this thing forever.
OK, that's a lot of questions, so I had better stop.
Thanks everyone.
-Steve
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