Volvo RWD 444-544 Forum

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Overdrive Conversion 444-544

Anybody have a junk 122 or 1800 they'd be willing to cut the tunnel out of for my 444 overdrive conversion? Also any help on fabricating a new tunnel would be nice.


Kenny








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    Overdrive Conversion 444-544

    Go to www.vclassics.com. You'll find quite a bit on tunnel surgery there. An 1800 or 240 tunnel is, of course, the way to go if you are going to use the short stick, remote shifter. If you plan to retain the long shifter, fabricating something from sheet metal and welding, riveting, or screwing it in to give you some more room for the "football" is, probably the simplest way to skin that particular cat. Also check out www.volvoadventures.nz, quite a bit of helpful stuff there, if I remember correctly.
    Bob S.








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      Overdrive Conversion 444-544

      I just spent some time poking around on the Volvo Adventures site, and discovered that the articles including information on OD installation and tunnel modification aren't as easy to find as I thought. Furthermore it's "volvoadventures.com" and not "nz". Sorry about that. The following two addresses might help a bit:
      http://volvoadventures.com/544PVHans.html
      http://volvoadventures.com/amazon2.html
      Bob S.








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    Overdrive Conversion 444-544

    I started off with a 122 tunnel, and found that it was a couple of inches too shallow - apparently the floorboards are higher in relation to the drivetrain on a 122 than on a 544. I had to cut off the lip on the tunnel (that mates with the floorboards) and make some fairly wide angle iron shaped sheet metal strips to extend downward from the tunnel to the 544 floorboard height. All in all it took 3 or 4 angle grinder discs and a spool of MIG wire to get mine together.

    To keep thngs simpler I didn't mess with the existing trans crossmember mounting locations or the junction of the tunnel to the firewall. I just cut downward at the midpoint of the shifter hole on both pieces of sheetmetal, then bent the 122 tunnel inward at the front until it mated with the narrower 544 tunnel.

    An 1800 might very well have a lower floorboard height (not a huge concern really) but another consideration is the rearward 'short' shifter placement. While it would certainly be a nice featuer, by my estimation it would put the back end of the tunnel into conflict with the hand brake lever. Not an unsolveable problem though, possibly not one at all. Of course, not an issue with a 444 and its dash mounted hand brake.

    Also, I've heard that D-type OD's are smaller and you can get away with some 'adjustment' of the existing tunnel and not need the massive chop-n-replace procedure.
    --
    I'm JohnMc, and I approved this message.








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      Overdrive Conversion 444-544

      I haven't noticed that the D-type is narrower than the J... if it is, it's not by a lot.

      Not all 1800 tunnels are created equal. The P1800/1800S tunnels are much narrower than 1800E/ES or Amazon tunnels, and certainly not any taller.







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