Latest Project on the Turbo Brick

"Brewman15" (brewman15) 12/13/2013 at 09:49 • Filed to: Volvo Wagon, Project, Suspension, Turbo Brick

4

8

My motivation at work is lacking, so here's some pics of my latest project on my '93 Volvo 945 turbo.

I originally bought this car as a fun side project, but once my son was born it magically turned into the family-mobile since it was the only vehicle that could haul everyone. However, it rode like shit. I originally thought it was due to the IPD sport coils I put on and the horrible mid-west road conditions. So, I put the stock coils back on and it still rode terrible. Now, I think it is due to the 20-year-old dry rotted bushings and Bilstein shocks/struts I put on. (I'm turning into James May. I put Bilsteins on the Volvo and my Dakota, and I hate them. They have 'tested at the Nurburgring' sticker on them. I'll never buy Bilstein for a road car again.)

Anywho, so I'm ripping out the entire suspension and brakes from the car to replace anything that needs it. Here's the list of stuff I found wrong so far:

Blown and wobbly ball joint on pass. front side

Cut rubber boot on pass. front tie-rod - leaking grease

semi frozen slide pin on pass. front caliper bracket

frozen slide pin on driver front caliper bracket

sheared off wheel stud from driver rear (knew about that from recent tire rotation)

worn out driveshaft bushing

tear in pass. front brake hose (not leaking think it's just protective cover)

tear in pass. front brake caliper piston dust cover (not leaking but still bugs me)

Dry rotted bushings everywhere!

So, I will be replacing some wheel studs, the front ball joints, tie-rods, front lower arm bushings, front strut rod bushings, rear trailing arm bushings, rear torque rod bushings, and driveshaft bushing. I have new OEM-style Sachs shocks and struts. I also got stainless steel brake lines and caliper rebuild kits for all four corners. I will cut one full coil off the front spring and will probably cut about the same off the new 30% stiffer overload springs I bought for the rear to give it a good appearance while still having a decent ride. I also bought an !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to stiffen things up. Wheel hubs, rotors, and brake pads are recent, so they'll be reused. I also already have an adjustable panhard bar and polyurethane strut rod to lower are bushings, so those will be reused. I'm leaving sway bars alone until I can just buy the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . I'm also going to powdercoat the calipers and suspension components. Why? Cuz I can!

And here's the pics for far. I'll update as I get more disassembled.

CalzoneGolem > Brewman15 12/13/2013 at 09:57

0

You going to clean up the control arms and shit while you have it all apart? I always want to do that but it usually turns into me having to get everything back together so I can get to work lol.

Brewman15 > CalzoneGolem 12/13/2013 at 10:05

0

Yep! If you look closer at the control arms you can see paint flaking off from when I used a rattle can on them before. I'm actually at the point where I have multiple reliable vehicles and am not taking any trips anytime soon, so I can take my sweet time on the Volvo and do it right.

CalzoneGolem > Brewman15 12/13/2013 at 10:19

0

Awesome man. I look forward to seeing it.

Bullitt Ride > Brewman15 12/13/2013 at 10:42

0

Along with the brakes, I recently did the drive shaft center support bearing and transmission mount on my 740 turbo. The bearing is pressed into the support bushing and then pressed onto the driveshaft. The dust shields can be hammered on, but needless to say, without a press the job is a bit of a pain to do. Even with a press, getting the dust shields pressed on without bending them all out of shape will require a piece of pipe that fits over the OD of the driveshaft. You'll need another size of pipe to press the bearing as well.

I've definitely been enjoying my 740 turbo as a winter beater so far. It's just too bad that the transmissions on these cars are so fragile. I've read/seen evidence of 3rd gear self destructing if you try to put more than ~220whp through it. I recently installed a manual boost controller and upped the boost from 7psi to 10psi and now the car feels much more lively, probably more like 190hp vs 160hp...how it should have been from the factory IMO. When I really put my foot in it, the low end torque feels awesome, however now I'm suffering from some clutch slip. Unfortunately the clutch is what saves these transmissions from exploding, so putting a beefier clutch in seems like a potentially expensive path to take.

I might opt for a stage 1 clutch that offers mildly more holding power than the stock clutch, but not enough to let it detonate. I also picked of a 15g turbo from an 850 to swap in though... so maybe I'll have to consider the commonly used T5 transmission swap....

Brewman15 > Bullitt Ride 12/13/2013 at 13:32

0

Yeah, I'm dreading changing the driveshaft bushing already. I've actually had the new bushing for a while, but I've just been putting it off. There is a slight vibration from a stop especially when the car's loaded down. I was hoping changing the trans bushing would fix it but no such luck. I'm hoping with most of the rear suspension removed it will make the job easier.

I'm running a MBC controller as well and would eventually want to throw in a T5 for added fun.

Bullitt Ride > Brewman15 12/13/2013 at 13:45

1

Yeah, dropping the shaft isn't hard to do. Your car doesn't look like it's been seasoned by salty winters as much as mine so you shouldn't be struggling with stripping rusted bolt heads like I did. The bolts on the guibo you can get at with a wrench and and impact gun. The bolts on the diff you'll need to use a couple of wrenches because it's too tight to fit a ratchet. Just rotate the drive shaft to the position you want and put the car in first gear with the e-brake on to crack them loose.

Also when you pull apart the drive shaft make sure to mark both halves so you can put it back together in the same orientation in order to maintain the dynamic balance. I just used a hammer and punch to make a small mark on the shaft right before the splines on each half.

Brewman15 > Bullitt Ride 12/13/2013 at 23:20

0

Nope! It's originally a Colorado car. After a few years in the midwest, though...

Thanks for the tips! I'm hoping to get rear suspension and driveshaft pulled this weekend.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Brewman15 12/17/2013 at 06:18

1

I've used bitchumen paint on the rear wishbones for my Jag XJ40. It's usually used for fence posts and gates and the like, so it should be very durable in rough conditions.

We'll see how it lasts, but so far it's done well.

Kickass name btw :)