Also, media dump from the drift event:
Also, media dump from the drift event:
damn, that looked fast. It must be the mean sound of the car lol...My videos are all quiet and look slow....
I'll bring a sawzall to the next event and we'll louden' that thing up for ya!
#uglyvolvo is still alive and better than ever. At some point this winter I realized I hadn't driven it for a couple months, so one day I figured I'd take it to get groceries. It was early and the roads were cold, which makes for some fun driving on the county road going out from my house. On the way home, I pulled out from a stop sign, ran it through first to limiter, popped second... and broke an axle. On my way home from getting groceries. On a cold road. With 6 year old Cooper G/Ts. I got home, called the local junkyard (Peer's Used Auto Parts - good people, they like racing things, too) and picked up a 4.10 Traction Lok 8.8 from a 97 Explorer for $150.
The plan is to do the typical shortening of the driver's side to accept a passenger axle and re-welding of mounts. This will make for an axle that's about 1.5" wider than stock, way stronger, and has a proper limited slip. I went at it with the cut off wheel and angle grinder and cut all the Ford mounts off, then tried to grind through all the pitting. It was pretty rough to the point I almost abandoned it for another housing.
I actually bought a second 8.8 from a local guy for $150. LSD, 3.73. That gave the extra passenger axle I will need, and eventually it will go into another Volvo project I have.
I built a jig to help place the Volvo mounts onto the axle. I also took lots of measurements to double check myself, but the jig ended up working almost perfectly.
I went back and forth on how I should cut the axle. I have a portable bandsaw, but it's notoriously hard to get a good straight cut with. I was going to take it to a shop down the street and have them cut it with a big bandsaw, but I'm a DIY kind of guy. I went with the cutoff wheel. It's pretty accurate, and I figured that any method wasn't going to give me a perfect cut anyway. 2 7/8" came out of the driver's side tube to accept the passenger axle. I made myself a guide with masking tape, measured, re-measured, and measured again at 8 or so points around the axle, and cut it off.
Note the black line - this was a clocking mark so I could put the tube back on in the same orientation.
I don't have pictures, but to align the axle again I used 3 pieces of angle iron and clamped them 120 degrees apart from each other around the axle. I used a couple large hose clamps to hold them in place. I took a light and looked inside the tube to make sure I couldn't see a lip anywhere, which would signify they weren't lined up perfectly. When I was good, I placed 4 tack welds on it and removed the angle.
I broke down and took it to a fab shop to stick weld it. I figured it was something best left to a professional. That doesn't mean I didn't stand over them and ask a million questions about how they were going to keep it from warping. I'm one of those guys.
I chopped the Volvo axle up to make sure no one would ever use the miserable thing again.
Really, it just made it way easier to cut the mounts off with the ends off. The Ford axle is 3/4" larger in diameter than the Volvo axle, so 3/8" had to be ground out of the Volvo mounting brackets. They also needed contoured for the larger diameter. I measured 3/8" at a couple points around the inside of the brackets, then used the chunk of axle tube I cut out to trace the area that needed grinded out.
I clamped my jig on and centered it on the axle (the Ford pinion is 3/8"? I think offset from the Volvo), tacked all the mounts on, triple checked all my measurements and welded them up.
I installed new seals and a pinion crush ring and put the pinion, diff, and axles back in. The measurement from the hub to brake flanges were spot on, so I must have done a good job on my measurements. NOT BAD.
Onto brake lines. For anyone reading this who may be doing it in the future, the Ford fittings at the hose from the caliper are 3/8-24 and the line is double invert flared. The Volvo fittings under the car are M10x1.0 and the line is bubble flared. They are close enough in size and pitch that most of the fittings at the store will thread together seamlessly, but those are the right sizes. Hopefully that saves you 30 minutes at Advance Auto. I welded small 3/16" tabs onto the front of the axle and drilled and tapped them to bolt the end of the brake hose to. I actually did buy new steel line, but after remembering my experience trying to bubble flare steel line before, I opted to reuse the line that was on the Volvo axle. It was copper and still in good shape.
#uglyvolvo finally got an axle that hopefully won't break.
I did run into a few hangups: 1) The panhard bar hits the diff cover. I put a few washers behind it, but I need to come up with something better 2) I broke a bleeder off a caliper. The second axle I bought was in really good shape and the calipers looked great. Sadly, whoever put them on it thought bleeders needed cranked on. I used on of the other calipers for now, but the car is going to get brake upgrades all around soon. 3) I ordered a MOOG 353 conversion u-joint. From all the measurements I took, it should have been correct but wasn't. The "Volvo" side of the joint was too wide for the Volvo flange on the driveshaft.
Not the best set up, I know. I've seen it done on non-serviceable BMW driveshafts before from back when I had E30s. Oh well, good enough for a test drive. I'm figuring something out to fix it - probably a different yoke to bolt to the pinion flange. The car feels way stronger with the 4.10s. Third pulls pretty hard now, even with the terribly geared M46 Volvo trans. Speaking of:
I scored some T5s with a buddy. We're going to rebuild two of them and one is going in this car. I have a few other things to add, but I need to work on the car today.
People are getting nervous. Now to beat you we actually have to drive faster rather than just waiting for you to break the car 
See you Sunday!
As a local, for future reference, who'd you have do the stick welding?
Sure it feels stronger with 4,10.....just imagine how strong it'll feel with 4.88... And those T5s, you are going to go for a 2.95 first gearset, aren't you...That makes a good 1st thru 4th...and leaves you reasonable rpm in 5th for long distance cruise.
And since you can saw things and weld..shove in some towers like these and move the shock to the back of the axle:
Then get some nice long travel rear coiulovers, now you can trade some travel for grip and go even quicker.
I went through and re-uploaded all my photos to imgur, so this build thread is worthwhile again!
In reply to janvanvurpa :
That's exactly the plan for suspension! Still deciding on trans stuff. I'll get around to it this winter.
You better. You and Jeremy aren't allowed back to the farm with that Subaru bull plucky!
In reply to bluej :
Luckily we just came to Panthera with a different Subaru. Lol.
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