only problem i see is you have to find the right bellhousing, if you want to swap the trans. plus, the gearing is different between the gas and diesels. the 240 diesels came with aws, but they are hard to find now.

when i was at the dealer during the great zf rush, 85-88, we stocked 3 zfs for the gas cars and none for the d24ts. never had to replace 1, whereas we did at least 1 gas trans a week. never knew why.

on the whole, i agree with chris. wouldn't take 1 unless i had absolutety everything looked at and then it would have to be cheap. how's the compression? when was the timing belt done? the water pump is the timing belt tensioner on that engine, is that ok? plus all the usual 740 stuff to look for. good luck, chuck.

I'm probably gonna anger someone here, but I wouldn't touch a diesel with a ten foot pole, or even a 20 foot pole. Without knowing how it was cared for, you don't know if the fuel additive was used regularly, if the oil changes were done as scheduled, etc., etc. They just aren't the strongest motor that Volvo has to offer.

As far as transmissions...you can put an AW70, or AW71 out of another 7 series in. You'll have to change the tranny, the cross member, the shifter assembly, and the driveshaft. You'll have to run the wiring for overdrive. Putting a manual transmission in would be quite time consuming, and you would basically need a donor car to do so successfully...but I agree, a manual would be better. That way, when the diesel won't start because of low compression, rolling it down the hill and popping the clutch tends to start 'em.

Sorry for the nay sayer attitude, it's just my overly vocal opinion.

Chris

There's a good description on the FAQs about conversion from ZF to AW.

ZF to AW Conversion

Noel