Well... I don't know who said this would be a easy thing to do... but this has been one of the biggest pains in the ass I have ever seen. Right now I am dealing with the pedals. I think someone skipped telling me the part about removing the dash to do anything with the pedals I started this stuff thursday night at about 11:30PM and called it quits today at 5:30am. This is what I have done:

Removed the dash from my 91 245, and took out the old pedal assembly. Took the dash off of my 82 245 to remove the pedal assembly. I don't think this job is even possible without removing the dash on the 89-90+ 240's. The way the cruise control and different computer boxes are mounted everywhere, you don't have any access to the bolts that remove the different assemblies. So far this has bee more difficult then replacing my heater core on my 80 244. This just plain sucks. I think once I get the holes drilled in the firewall for the pedal mounting bolts and the clutch cable passthrough, everything will be easy from there. I will try to take some pics of the things I had to do, and put them up on my site for anyone that wants to know how to accomplish this swap on a newer 240. Besides the firewall not having the holes pre-drilled for the clutch, everything has been completely smooth. At least I will be able to say that I actually did a m46 swap.. AND took out 2 240 dashes in the same day

I will update this as I continue, but I don't think I will get to swapping the trannies this weekend, since I currently have only 2 jack stands, and no torque wrench. My goal is to finish the pedal assembly, and remove the driveshaft from the 82 245. I will hopefully have everything ready to just swap the trannies and be done with this.

The items I bought for this swap are : new clutch kit, flywheel, clutch tool thingy, tranny mount, and soon to be drill bits for the hole cutting totaling about 175 bucks so far

http://www.uwm.edu/~keobrien/swap/

Kevin

Someday I hope to have a late-model stick SOMETHING Volvo. I've got a clean 1992 wagon with that in mind for it. But this conversion sounds like a serious struggle.

Would it go any easier on a 700 or 900? The 900 went up to 1995, yes? That would be three more years of useful life.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Doug Harvey

I don't think you'd be able to find an appropriate center console for it in this country so you'd have to invent something or import something. I've actually never seen the interior of a 940 stickshift, since they weren't offered here. I don't know for sure what is the same or different compared to the US models but I can't imagine how a 5-spd gearshift would be integrated with the big late model center console.
Perhaps one of our European friends could provide pictures of the interior of a 940 5-speed.
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '86 244DL- 215K, 87 244DL- 230K, 88 744GLE- 198K, 91 244 180K

You really had to take out the whole dash? I did the pedal swap on my 87 244 last weekend and only pulled the instrument cluster and heater duct work out. But I do have to say that was the worse part. I feel the rest of the job is going to be cake. I used a 1/2" drill bit and really rounded it out, to get the clutch cable hole made. I will be buying the trans kit next weekend. and figure 2 more weeks I will be doing the real work. Have to find a trans jack and stuff.
Good luck with the project.

Patrick and Caroline
1987 244DL Turbo sways, Virgo rims, 245 rear springs, turbo gauge cluster, BmW side markers, M46 swap in progress. 213,000+++ miles

The under-dash knee bolster on the airbag equipped cars (90-up) makes this job a much bigger challenge than it used to be on the older ones.
The mechanical side of things is really quite straightforward. The pedals and firewall are the worst of it.
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '86 244DL- 215K, 87 244DL- 230K, 88 744GLE- 198K, 91 244 180K

how doe it make it a bigger challenge? I actualy found it to be MUCH easier, since after you remove the knee bolster thing, and the bar that suports it, you have more room to move around things then otherwise.

Kevin

Yeah, but removing the knee bolster is a pain and it's in the way of everything under the dash. I think it definitely makes replacing a heater fan a lot more work.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '86 244DL- 215K, 87 244DL- 230K, 88 744GLE- 198K, 91 244 180K

When I did my swap I cut a piece of 3/4" plywood about 14" square, drilled a hole in the center of the "saddle" on my floor jack, threaded the hole, and screwed the plywood onto it as a platform. I then put the tranny on it and used bungee cords to keep it from flopping around and small wood blocks at various points between platform and tranny to get it sitting the way I wanted it to. This worked fairly well...

Justin B.
83 Turbo

Mannnn, that sounds even more frustrating than some guy who coincidentally has the same name as you asking me to email him, which I finally do, one night when I rolled in after a 12 hour day and was so crosseyed from staring at the computer that I couldn't even see right, and then after that, he never even said THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.

It must have been a different Kevin, I guess.

Anyway, if I can make a small, but possibly valuable suggestion: Since you have gotten ALL of that stuff taken apart, replace your heater fan. The worst part is done (which you know having done a heater core). Unless it's been replaced, or you're really strapped for cash. It could always be done later, but it would be SO much easier to do it now. Besides, taking the dash out isn't that bad.

Congratulations on the project, despite how much of a PITA it is.

I'll look for you around the 'hood. You'll have the only M46 240SE I've ever seen.

--
Chris Herbst, near Chicago.

could you repeast that first part about the emailing thing? I couldn't figure out what you were talking about :-/..

I am almost done with putting all the crap back in, and I am not gonna deal with removing the heater box this time around. I figured that it was easy enough to remove the dash, so I will just do it when the thign breaks.

Kevin

You know exactly what I'm talking about.
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Chris Herbst, near Chicago.

I know exactly what Chris is talking about. Chris is a passive-aggressive son of a gun who needs his pound of flesh from everyone. Including you 6 Volvos. Don't give it to him. Him and a few others give this board a bad smell.