Just joined up there as i should hopefully be a volvo owner come the end of the week!
planning on taking a look at this tomorrow with every intention of buying it, should be able to knock him down a few quid too

http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/vintagecars/3973336

Will be using it as a daily as my fiesta is gettin wrecked on the shitty roads, especially as its just back on the road!

Sorry if this isnt the right section for questions i havnt really had a look around yet as i said id throw up an intro first!
what are the 1.7 engines like reliability wise? economy?
tbh i dont even know what they are like to go power wise so would be great if someone could give me some insight into them as tbh i have never had anything to do with em or either have my mates so its a whole new ball game for me

look forward to seeing some of the site

Hi mate and welcome.
What part of ireland are you in?
Cheers Mark.

Co.mayo buddy

welcome dude it looks pretty cool there reliable i reckon i never really had a problem with both my 1.7s get the diff welded and just have some fun!

Thats good to hear! Hopefully picking it up on friday
Whats a welded diff like being used daily in one of these? A few of my mates has had cars with them welded and it does vary from car to car in terms of usability i find

Apart from coilovers what are my options for lowering the front on the standard shocks?

Any advice would be appreciated as im spanking new to all things volvo!

lowering blocks on the rear, cut springs in the front?
or you can get the leafs lowered by a specialist, and buy some lowering springs to the front from dai
lowering blocks on the rear isnt that bad of an idea, if you dont over do it, so the bottom of the damper hits the road or something and get bent..

Welded diffs are ok in these cars, I'm running super grippy toyo proxies on the rear and although not ideal (I wish I had cheaper tyres to throw on... but these were all I had in the shed) I'm still able to use the car comfortably. And I have to parallel park!

Right, sorry to drag up an old thread but here seems like a decent place to ask. Basically, is it much harder or cause any other problems by welding the diff without taking it out the car? Do people usually take them out to weld up or just take off the back plate, drain the diff/box and making sure you clean out any mess afterwards?

The problem is the rear axle gets in the way of the backplate, not really enough room to fit a welding torch in.

In a 340 you could disconnect the prop, undo the diff mounts and angle the diff downwards for better access, but you risk damaging the front mounts.

In a 360 you don't really have a choice and it's going to have to come out (undoing mounts and angling down will bend the torque tube and put strain on the engine).

Basically the best method for both cars is to take the diff/gearbox out together, take off the back plate, spray some ethanol cleaner in there, burn it all off when done, weld the diff.

940s are a lot easier, you can just do them on the car

You can weld the diff in situ, I've done it a few times and all have held perfectly. I did them on ramp and with the pit jack just lift to give you the clearance. I dont think you could do it on a 2 post

Hmm, maybe on a ramp. I'm assuming the poster doesn't have access to one though

You could probably do it with some car ramps or raise the car on suitable blocks.

Why not drop the axle? 5 minute job

Thanks for the immediate feedback everyone. It's actually someone to weld it that I'm lacking but I do have access to lifts. I have no welding experience myself which is why I'm trying to see what the options are for someone I find to do it. It doesn't sound like too much of an issue though so consider me suitably helped here. Expect to see me rearing my head elsewhere at some point, thanks guys