FreeEMSFred
New member
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2009
- Location
- Kiwiland
Hello all,
Some time ago I bought a 1990 Volvo 940 GLE wagon for its B234F heart, quite cheaply. I drove it for a while, but it was unreliable, and running on borrowed time on a dodgy safety inspection. I pulled the engine, cut the front off, and converted the rear half to a caravan.
Today I removed the G80 axle assembly from it and installed my "indifferent differential" in it (no pinion/ring gears, no flange for the ring gear, no nose on the diff, cut/shut. Running Penrite 70w75 synthetic oil for lower friction on the inner bearings, etc. A good weight saving and friction reduction, then!
In the process of having it way up in the air and apart I noticed the frame that the two torque rods bolt to was forward of where I expected, and it was impossible to align the top torque rod bolt (lower removed for weight savings). I pulled the front two bolts and wiggled the alloy piece and bushing out, they looked OK and complete. I reassembled it with a little grease in the front to ease pushing it in and had the same issue. So I poked a small bar in the front and levered off the chassis and managed to push it all back about an inch until the two rear "spikes" seated into the little bushes up under the boot floor. This allowed the bolt to line up and insert easily. However with the handbrake (relocated to right inner guard, just behind pillows) applied, you could push/pull on the whole thing on the jockey wheel and feel it slide forward and back, rotating the diff in the bushes on the trailing arms. The default position of this arrangement was forward with the nose of the diff facing down more than I would have thought normal.
Then I remembered that when it was a car it had a horrible driveline vibration at any speed over about 25mph. The driveshaft had been DIY balanced, so I put it down to a bad job of doing that. However they were trying to balance it for some reason in the first place... Pinion angle! This explains it completely. What has me stuffed, though, is that from diagrams I've seen online, the bush situation is correct. I expected there to be a spacer bush missing from the front hole, but the diagram doesn't show that. Does anyone else have experiences of this nature or knowledge on the correct bush/position situation? I stuck my head under my 740 sedan and the frame is sitting back where you'd expect it to and all is aligned perfectly. Hmmmmm.
The beast in question:
Diagram I mentioned showing only what I saw, and nothing more:
Situation under the 940 caravan with the thing still forward before I stuck the crowbar in and pushed it back 25mm or so:
Any thoughts/comments welcome!
Some time ago I bought a 1990 Volvo 940 GLE wagon for its B234F heart, quite cheaply. I drove it for a while, but it was unreliable, and running on borrowed time on a dodgy safety inspection. I pulled the engine, cut the front off, and converted the rear half to a caravan.
Today I removed the G80 axle assembly from it and installed my "indifferent differential" in it (no pinion/ring gears, no flange for the ring gear, no nose on the diff, cut/shut. Running Penrite 70w75 synthetic oil for lower friction on the inner bearings, etc. A good weight saving and friction reduction, then!
In the process of having it way up in the air and apart I noticed the frame that the two torque rods bolt to was forward of where I expected, and it was impossible to align the top torque rod bolt (lower removed for weight savings). I pulled the front two bolts and wiggled the alloy piece and bushing out, they looked OK and complete. I reassembled it with a little grease in the front to ease pushing it in and had the same issue. So I poked a small bar in the front and levered off the chassis and managed to push it all back about an inch until the two rear "spikes" seated into the little bushes up under the boot floor. This allowed the bolt to line up and insert easily. However with the handbrake (relocated to right inner guard, just behind pillows) applied, you could push/pull on the whole thing on the jockey wheel and feel it slide forward and back, rotating the diff in the bushes on the trailing arms. The default position of this arrangement was forward with the nose of the diff facing down more than I would have thought normal.
Then I remembered that when it was a car it had a horrible driveline vibration at any speed over about 25mph. The driveshaft had been DIY balanced, so I put it down to a bad job of doing that. However they were trying to balance it for some reason in the first place... Pinion angle! This explains it completely. What has me stuffed, though, is that from diagrams I've seen online, the bush situation is correct. I expected there to be a spacer bush missing from the front hole, but the diagram doesn't show that. Does anyone else have experiences of this nature or knowledge on the correct bush/position situation? I stuck my head under my 740 sedan and the frame is sitting back where you'd expect it to and all is aligned perfectly. Hmmmmm.
The beast in question:
Diagram I mentioned showing only what I saw, and nothing more:
Situation under the 940 caravan with the thing still forward before I stuck the crowbar in and pushed it back 25mm or so:
Any thoughts/comments welcome!