Hello Everyone,

Just wanted to give a brief follow up to the towing adventure with the '86 245, I will be posting a picture of the cars as we were leaving Hopkinsville, Kentucky a little later, and writing about the trip on our website: http://www.willdallas.org.

With the exception of a broken alternator wire in Nashville, Tenn. the trip was without incident. I towed with the automatic transmission through the Great Smokey Mountains in the near tropical storm conditions of Frances all day yesterday. The trans shifted in and out of overdrive at 60 mph. I assisted when the speed dropped below 50 mph on the grades. Even on the 7% grades it did not drop below 40 mph. While I am not one of those that worships at the Volvo shrine, I have to admit that there is very little to improve on as far as the suspension engineering in these cars. The 245 maintained speeds in excess of 60 mph for most of the 10 hour tow and was over 65mph when the wind storm dropped below 40 mph gusts. We saw folks in the ditch and upside down. The Volvo stayed steady! It used no oil or tranny fluid for the entire trip up or back, (1000+ miles). This car is bone stock with the exception of the modification that I made to the OD solenoid,(slotted), and the trans cooler,(largest Hayden), and works fine for this duty. The only thing that I will change before the next tow is to put a set of 4 ply rated tires on for sidewall stiffness.

Thanks to everyone for the advice and encouragement especially the oil cooler tip for the trans., I think it helped. I now have another 240 in the drive which is a good thing, isn't it?

Will