Volvo RWD 444-544 Forum

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Quick Questions: 444-544

Well, my mechanic did pretty much all of the fabrication, so I don't know the full details, but basically he swapped the left and right control arms and drilled new holes for the larger U-clamp needed to hold them to the axle. I believe that it was an offset differential as well, and he had to shorten one side of the axle, but other than that it pretty much worked out just fine. Also, he had to weld the bracket for the panhard bar on, I believe.

Right now it has an open differential, and I'm not sure what the gear ratio is. I thought it was 3.65 or something like that (whatever is used in the mustangs and rangers standard) but my speedometer is off, so I think someone might have switched in a 4.10 gear set or something. I still need to look into it so that I can fix my speedometer.

The Ford rear drums seem to work fine with the Volvo brake system, although some custom work was done with the emergency brake, I think. And right now the panhard bar occasionally rubs the differential on hard bumps, but hopefully the sway bar will help make that less often until I get around to modifying it.

Keep in mind also that I am using the Ford transmission and a shortened Ford driveshaft.

Here are some pictures of the rear end and the sway bar:

Picture 1 - The rear end of the car (currently on jackstands).

Picture 2 - Closer view

Picture 3 - Closer, with flash

Picture 4 - Endlinks closeup. I need to re-adjust the tightening nut on the endlinks and the clamps once I get a chance to get the car back on the ground again and leveled out. I had to lower the brackets on the axle slightly to clear the differential and axle itself, so I also made my endlinks slightly longer using a longer grade 8 bolt and some leftover suspension bushings from my 300ZX that were the right size/fit.

Picture 5 - Reinforcement plates with Nissan bushings.

Picture 6 - Closeup of reinforcement plates.

Picture 7 - Closeup of spacers on axle brackets. I had to use 3" muffler clamps (although I think that 2.75" would have fit better if I could have found some) rather than the 2.25" clamps that came with the bar. They fit the brackets and axle OK with a little bit of coaxing.






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New To those of you with IPD sway bars... [444-544]
posted by  jnshk  on Sat Nov 26 17:14 CST 2005 >


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