Hackster's Lifted T56 swapped 940

[hackster]

Originally Posted by culberro

This is a cool idea!
Working on an open deck trailer is definitely a step up from the garage floor. It's a very underrated work area

Hahaha, glad I am not the only one that thought that.

Originally Posted by Vol242vo

I think doing the work on the trailer was a perfect setup for it's first test...Once ready, take a hard right and drive her off the trailer, see what this thing can do!

I am not sure its up for that given no run room or a working clutch =)

Originally Posted by Duder

Looks like fun to me! Cool that it has a Power Lock already, but arguably you may not even need it anyway, if both rear tires stay on the ground at all times. An ARB air locker would be sweet though if you want to do anything that requires articulation.

Do you have any fire roads, rally stages, or other fast dirt roads close by?

ARB would be killer, never seen one for a 1031 though. Asher and I were looking at gears the other day, wow they are expensive.

I have thousands of miles of gravel, two track and rally stages less than 45 mins from my house. I wouldnt say close but I have been venturing on them for the past 20 years so I know them well and frequent them often, less in recent years as my road hobbies have become more than my off road hobbies.

We have some amazing wheeling out here, both TSF and Mt. Hood area's finding places to have fun would be a non issue.

Glad some peeps find it intriguing.

Sean

[culberro]

Originally Posted by hackster

ARB would be killer, never seen one for a 1031 though. Asher and I were looking at gears the other day, wow they are expensive.

I have thousands of miles of gravel, two track and rally stages less than 45 mins from my house. I wouldnt say close but I have been venturing on them for the past 20 years so I know them well and frequent them often, less in recent years as my road hobbies have become more than my off road hobbies.

Depending on what you see as "expensive".
You can get 1031 gears for ~$600 right now.
http://www.sellholmshop.se/transmiss...tvaxlar-1.html


Bak Axel has them for a bit less as well: http://bakaxel.se/utvaxlingar-till-s...olvo-9065.html

[hackster]

Originally Posted by culberro

Depending on what you see as "expensive".
You can get 1031 gears for ~$600 right now.
http://www.sellholmshop.se/transmiss...tvaxlar-1.html


Bak Axel has them for a bit less as well: http://bakaxel.se/utvaxlingar-till-s...olvo-9065.html

I was looking at the ones from Sellholm shop. I am going to get it on the road and see how it goes then make the call. If first gear is a 2.95, Might need like 5.13's with the little 2.3 in there. Couple more days and we will know more.

I appreciate you sending the info. I am a little surprised our paths have never crossed in person yet. Someday I would like to meet you and shoot the ****.

Saturday was spent up in the woods wheeling and playing in a couple feet of fresh powder that fell the night before. Good time.

Finally got around to unloading this thing off the trailer as the weather was not codusive to what needed to happen. To my surprise the brake pedal was really, really soft. Still had enough brakes to unload and get it in the garage.

First time I have let it run for more than just onto the trailer, runs surprisingly good actually.

Found the leak after a few mins......puddle of brake fluid from driver rear wheel. I had a hunch of what it was. Tore it apart and found that one of my blows of the hammer to try to remove the wheel spacer may have inadvertently hit the caliper.....well when it hit the caliper it cracked it and was leaking a lot of fluid.

Made a quick trip to sherwood and they had one 93 940 turbo, snagged the caliper, swapped it on the green machine and had the wife help me bleed brakes after lunch. All good again.

Onto my other stuff

Spent a fair bit of time sanding and buffing the headlights back to pretty usable, not new but so much better.

Before



After



Installed some new repop turn signals from IPD. I couldnt see needing OEM for this thing. Front end looks a lot better now.





Spent a little time in the engine bay cleaning things up, checked and topped off all the fluids, tidied things up a little bit.

Car is exceptional under the hood.



I trimmed the back edge of the front bumper to gain some tire clearance and surprisingly things look like they clear pretty well.

I really dig how this thing is looking.









Clutch is supposed to be here Tuesday. I have a little oil leak to look at as well and some interior work to tackle as well.

Sean

[culberro]

Originally Posted by hackster

I appreciate you sending the info. I am a little surprised our paths have never crossed in person yet. Someday I would like to meet you and shoot the ****.

I'd be down. My shop space is about 5 blocks from Asher's new place. So I think we're not too far apart. Meet at Harald' house and drink beer in his front yard?

[Harlard]

Man I wanted that thing bad when I found out about it. Didn't think to ask the seller whether he would separate it from the rest of the lot. Looking good, Sean!

[hackster]

I picked up a set of less ****ty door panels from Roy a few weeks back and had an evening free to tinker so I began the interior clean up on this turd.

All of the door panels upper material had began to pull up and had these terrible wrinkles in them so I began on my mission to swap the door panels with newer ones, clean everything up and get the interior back in OK condition.

This is about what I started with.









I forgot to snap a drivers area before I started but it was the worst with a totally destroyed pocket and filthy.







Its not perfect but its a hell of a lot better than it was.

I need to track down a few pieces, passenger side sill plate and 2 good front door speaker grille's and some factory Carpeted floor mats.

Its getting there, clutch should be here today so hope to get it installed one day this week if possible.

Sean

[patrickstar]

This is awesome, I passed over it because I saw "Hackster" and "T56" and assumed it was your 242. Hoping to see it one day once I'm finished moving out your way

[Stiggy Pop]

that's odd. I've had a lot of 940's come through and never seen a door panel all curled up like that. Hot climate thing?

[hackster]

Originally Posted by patrickstar

This is awesome, I passed over it because I saw "Hackster" and "T56" and assumed it was your 242. Hoping to see it one day once I'm finished moving out your way

Haha, I should have titled it something else I had no idea you were moving out this way, whats the plan? I see Washington plates in your profile pic now. Vancouver? and when are you going to be here full time?

Originally Posted by Stiggy Pop

that's odd. I've had a lot of 940's come through and never seen a door panel all curled up like that. Hot climate thing?

From what I have been told its all 1995 models, apparently they did something and its very common for this to happen....just on 95's.

I have not seen a door panel do this ever, maybe they came from the same factory as the early 90's chevy pickup paint =)

Sean

[patrickstar]

Originally Posted by hackster

Haha, I should have titled it something else I had no idea you were moving out this way, whats the plan? I see Washington plates in your profile pic now. Vancouver? and when are you going to be here full time?

Im out in Walla Walla right now, I'll be moving to Vancouver in about a week! For now I'll be leaving the two Volvos at my shop in Walla Walla, I'll bring my 242 out in a few months once I'm settled in. Its so close to being finished, I need a final push over the finish line. I'd love to check out your 242 some time, it would be all the motivation I need

[hackster]

Originally Posted by patrickstar

Im out in Walla Walla right now, I'll be moving to Vancouver in about a week! For now I'll be leaving the two Volvos at my shop in Walla Walla, I'll bring my 242 out in a few months once I'm settled in. Its so close to being finished, I need a final push over the finish line. I'd love to check out your 242 some time, it would be all the motivation I need

Right on man. I moved down here from Seattle in 98 and have zero regrets. Hit me up anytime always happy to help out a fellow enthusiast and I dig your car.

Well, managed to get a fair bit of work done on the **** box.

Pulled the transmission out on Thursday night after work, actually dropped the transmission off of the tranny jack and onto myself. Foolish mistake, didnt put a ratchet strap on it and the jack slid out the front and trans landed on my arm pinning me down till I could wiggle out from under it and get it slid out from under the car. It leaked fluid everywhere including soaking me in some random Mobile 1 fluid.



For such a small car it has a little tunnel in it. Trans is a tight fit.



Clutch and pressure plate were hammered.





Flywheel wasnt great, took some roloc discs to it and got it cleaned up as much as I could. got a little grip to the surface.



Asher came over Friday night after work and we got to it, Installed new Pilot bearing, Centerforce Clutch and Pressure plate and slammed the trans back in before dinner.



With that out of the way we moved on to replacing the carrier bearing rubber that was trashed.

It took us longer to deal with that than it did to put the clutch and transmission in.

Once we figured out how it goes together and comes apart it wasnt bad. The splines in the slip got very tight though, took me a few hours to clean it up to go back together but its tighter than I would like it to be.

Aftermath of Thursday and Friday late nights.



Saturday morning I drained the fluids from the trans refilled it with Mobile 1 synthetic ATF and got the Clutch hydraulics bled.

I modified the lower endlinks for the front sway bar and got that all bolted in and functional as well.

Drained the oil, attempted to fix a leak at the oil cooler/ oil filter but it had been leaking so long it looks like it needs all new seals and hoses, those will be here tomorrow so I can tackle that then.

New oil filter, new oil and lets see if it moves. Success!!!

Little adjustment of the pedal but we are mobile.

First test drive around clutch works, doesnt slip. Car definately needs more gear for the t56 as well as it has some bad shakes under load, acceleration and decel are different.

My Nephew and his girlfriend were down and everyone wanted to go for the test drive. We did a few laps around my neighborhood and there are a few of those big like 4' long speedbumps we hit them about 35 and jumped the car more than a few times. 4 grownups fit comfortably in the car and they were laughing the entire time we were in it. It slides good, jumps good and already has people dying laughing.

Its a riot to drive aside from the shake.

All that done before lunch time =)

Back at it this afternoon and decided to see if I could tackle some better torque arms as the stock ones allow no pinion adjustment and are super soft squishy bushings.

Only thing I didnt have was a couple of the bushings and the sleeves but Baxters had them. GM leaf spring bushings and sleeves =)

Start.



All welded up and ready for some paint. I am not in love with the threaded end but I dont see these things taking a huge amount of load as they share the load and will mostly see a push pull loads.



Painted up, bushings installed (Energy Suspension Poly Bushings and sleeves) Larger end is 3" width, small end is 2" width. Assembled them with some copper antiseize and a jamb nut.



Upper got extended about 3/4" to get the angle back and have a starting point.

Its much much better but still shakes on hard acceleration. I think I need to work on transmission height and carrier bearing and get things all in line then mess with pinion angle.

Ill keep dinking with it the next few days and hope that it can be a driver relatively soon, seems like it will be dumb fun.

Sean

[2manyturbos]

Originally Posted by hackster

I picked up a set of less ****ty door panels from Roy a few weeks back and had an evening free to tinker so I began the interior clean up on this turd.

All of the door panels upper material had began to pull up and had these terrible wrinkles in them so I began on my mission to swap the door panels with newer ones, clean everything up and get the interior back in OK condition.

This is about what I started with.









I forgot to snap a drivers area before I started but it was the worst with a totally destroyed pocket and filthy.







Its not perfect but its a hell of a lot better than it was.

I need to track down a few pieces, passenger side sill plate and 2 good front door speaker grille's and some factory Carpeted floor mats.

Its getting there, clutch should be here today so hope to get it installed one day this week if possible.

Sean

I forgot to ask you what you meant by a sill plate when you were at my shop. I probably have one. Text a pic of what you need.

[hackster]

Funny story....I had a hell of a time getting the slip on the driveline put back together but was certain that it was correct in orientation. Last night while under the car, I saw that the slip yoke was sliding in and out of the trans a lot and almost burried in the trans against the seal at ride height.

So I pulled the driveline out again and tore it apart. I cleaned up the splines and did a little looking in the yoke and slip and tried and tried at the same orientation. Finally I cleaned up the splines with a scrub brush and could see there was one spline that had no wear on it and there is one missing spline on the female side.....

We had the driveline 90 degrees out of phase.

Rotated it and lined up the non worn spline up with the missing one and boom slid together perfect all the way to the bottom.

Learn something new everyday right?

Shimmed up the transmission about 3/8" and removed the spacers from the carrier bearing to get things to line up much better. We are not talking in small increments here we are talking about getting close.

Its 80% better everywhere except the low rpm high load where it still has some shake to it but my changes made a huge difference.

The car is pretty fun to drive. Got insurance on it today so now I can actually drive it a little bit on the roads.

Picked up some new hoses and fittings for the oil cooler to try and get it to stop leaking oil there. Once that is buttoned up it will need an alignment and I can put a few miles on it.

Has anyone ever noticed how high you sit in these cars? Is it better with non power seats? Even with the seats all the way down I sit really high in the car, like my head is close to the ceiling....stupid sunroof doesnt help either.

Cheers!!

Sean

[Harlard]

No, the driver position is terrible on them, sadly. Your best option would be to get an aftermarket seat on manual 740 sliders.

As for the steering wheel, it's pretty much the same story, too big, too close to the dash, almost constantly gets in the way of your legs.

[white855T]

I know the manual seats have adjustments to lower seat(I installed them on my car have them set on the lowest point). I'm pretty sure power seats don't have any adjustment because of the seat motors.

[hackster]

Originally Posted by Harlard

No, the driver position is terrible on them, sadly. Your best option would be to get an aftermarket seat on manual 740 sliders.

As for the steering wheel, it's pretty much the same story, too big, too close to the dash, almost constantly gets in the way of your legs.

Its just too high in my opinion. I want to keep the couch like look of the interior so Ill keep the stock leather. I am thinking of a manual setup and chopping down the foams and having my upholstery guy make some modifications.

Steering wheel doesnt bother me nearly as much as sitting so high.

Originally Posted by white855T

I know the manual seats have adjustments to lower seat(I installed them on my car have them set on the lowest point). I'm pretty sure power seats don't have any adjustment because of the seat motors.

They will go up to touch the bottom of the steering wheel....I mean who would ever need the seat that high???

Thanks for the input fellas, looks like Ill start looking for a 740 manual seat track.

Sean

[Harlard]

I used some manual S70 seats on my 940. You keep most of the plushness and bring the H-point way down that way.

[patrickstar]

Yeah my 940 had me sitting at a weird height too, even as a shorter guy I felt way too high

[hackster]

I am glad I am not alone in this sitting too high thing.

So I got home before the sun went down for the first time in what seems like ages, also the first sun we have seen in some time now.

I took this **** box for its first actual drive on city roads.

What a riot. I have a small vibration at takeoff still to work out but its pretty smooth everywhere else. Clutch is nice and smooth no chatter or slip, pedal feel is good, probably needs a little more bleeding still and possibly some additional pedal stop adjustment.

Tried out the seat heater and it works like a champ.

Manual, Turbo cars are just so much fun, its a bigish car but doesnt feel super big and heavy to drive. The lift and bigger tires give it an even cushier ride than stock.

Cranked up some tunes and had a great 5 or 6 mile cruise.

Now to tackle that horrid oil leak.

Dude at the gas station was like, are those just massive tires or is this thing lifted?? He was stoked.





Gotta get the lights mounted up and then move onto some stereo improvements, maybe build some stuff this weekend.

Sean

[itlksez]

That thing is sweet.

[soclosenotnear]

Cloth seats are a huge difference in ride height. The leather makes me feel like sitting on top of a chair, but the cloth is more of a normal seat feel.

[122power]

Non sun roof cars have more head room also, but harder to find.

[hackster]

Originally Posted by itlksez

That thing is sweet.

Thanks!!

Originally Posted by soclosenotnear

Cloth seats are a huge difference in ride height. The leather makes me feel like sitting on top of a chair, but the cloth is more of a normal seat feel.

Hmmm, glad I am not the only one that feels the seating position is weird. Cloth seats seem really hard to come by.

Originally Posted by 122power

Non sun roof cars have more head room also, but harder to find.

Yeah I get that and totally agree with that, I couldnt really pick the options on the car =)

Managed to get a little mid week shop time after work yesterday.

Decided on a design for the front light bar, I wanted something to hold the lights and look proper, follow the contour of the front bumper but not look like a giant front bumper that doesnt belong on the car.

I started with some 1.75" .120 wall DOM tubing and took it to my small 25 year old press to see if I could get a gentle curve all the way across. A little time and patience netted me with a pretty good result. Not dented or crushed, just a nice easy radius.

I then came up with some simple flat plates that I TIG welded onto it to get the layout and a spot for the lights to land. Added some caps to the ends and the bar itself was close.



You can see the radius in this pic, I think it matches the bumper pretty well.



I wanted the mount to be sturdy but super clean. I took some 3" .25 plate and drilled holes in it. I then drilled through the bumper cover and into the aluminum support behind it in the corners of the flat for the license plate recess. Four more tabs and a buddy to help me align it and we have a light bar. I tapped the holes into the aluminum support to hold this thing.





Threw on some Matte Hammered finish paint on it last night and started getting lights on.





And the Final product. Also first commute to work in this ****box today. I have Orange Covers for the lights, just didnt get a chance to put them on before leaving this morning. I really want to see it with the orange covers on I think it will be much more era correct.



I also managed to get the o ring replaced between the oil cooler and block adapter, looks like it took car of most of the bad oil leak, still has a leaking pan but seems like more of a seeper than anything else.

Really gotta work on the stereo situation if this is going to be a daily driver, some insulation for the shifter area and heavier weight tranny fluid, its loud and a little rattly, I hear that happens with the 4 cylinder to a t56.

Sean

[brendon_ak]

Yess! Keeping it LH2.4 when you go to the bigger turbo?

[hackster]

Originally Posted by brendon_ak

Yess! Keeping it LH2.4 when you go to the bigger turbo?

Yeah, I dont see a reason not to. My other options is just an LS Swap. For the first time ever I think the LS Swap would be the cheapest way to go on this. I could keep the 3.73 rearend and T56 and just swap a cheap 4.8 in it and it would have much more torque down low.

Managed to put almost 100 miles on this thing yesterday. A few things to note.

Transmission is loud with the 4 cylinder. I need to get some foam for the top of the transmission and try to quiet it down. Ill probably go with a thicker fluid as well to help with the gear noises transmitted into the car and build a proper shift boot as well.

On 5 lbs of boost its actually pretty fun to drive around. Its not fast, but its not slow either. running 70 mph is right about 3000 rpm in 5th. 6th is useless with the 3.73 gears.

I love 240's.......this thing is much more civilized and modern than any 240's I have been in Its pretty comfortable to drive and be in. I like that things are better assembled and easier to work on.

Stopped in at Stereo King and picked up some better than OEM quality gear to install. Nice Kenwood head unit with phone, bluetooth, good processor and 4 volt preout. I had some new in box Hertz 5" separates for the front so I got a set of matching 6x9's for the rear deck and a single 10" sub for the boom.

Managed to get the deck and separates up front all installed last night. Sounds 1000x better than the stock crap that was in there.

Couldnt sleep last night, woke up at 2:30 showered and got ready and spent a few hours in the garage before heading out to Eugene at 5 am.

Managed to pull the rear seat and get the 6x9's all installed. Sound deadener on the rear deck, fixed the 3rd brake light and hopefully reduced its rattling and got the rear deck and headrests installed before heading out. Only have the sub and amp left to deal with, should be able to get the lights wired up too.

not 100% sure if Ill build a custom sub enclosure or go with the prefabbed one. Custom ones always sound better.