VOLVO 240 SPORTS HANDLING © by Anthony Hyde, Australia 1/2001 - latest update Nov 2007

Pic -Mike Saccone ITB 242

The road and track handling of your 240 can be enhanced significantly. Volvo's R-Sport division proved this years ago suppling enthusists with upgraded items like hard-rubber bushes, gas shocks, stiffer springs, large diameter swaybars, steering wheels, chassis brace products. Volvo GpA machines sported alloy suspension components, carbon fibre composite diffs, light-weight panels, but these are specialist track items. IPD, SAM and many Privateer manufacurers continue to invest in making Volvo aftermarket products supplying parts using modern designs and materials such as polyurethane. Even Volvo dealers still stocks 242GT springs and swaybars .... at a price. Reward for the sporting driver is less bodyroll for flatter cornering, and increased steering precision. The aim of this article is to fill the 'literature void' with relevant Volvo sporty type information for all experience levels.

Improvements cost money, and in most cases are worth it. Improved handling is welcome and very noticeable if you have just replaced worn out bushes, bars and springs with new components. To assist you, a number of new part suppliers are listed in this article. Also keep an eye out for R-Sport & IPD 2nd hand parts through private sale and recyclers - you might find a bargain!

Enhancement is achieved with upgrades to : Front & Rear Coil Springs, Front Struts and Rear Shocks, Strut Tower and Bracing, Swaybars and End Links, Negative Camber, Upper Strut Bearings, Trailing Arm Bushes, Panhard Rod, Torque Rods, What about the Driving position? And more.

WEB SITES for Volvo 240/740 products mentioned throughout this article:
IPD (USA), MVP (USA), Energy Suspensions (USA), shox.com (USA), EuroSport Tuning (USA), SAM (Sweden), and your local Volvo dealer for small diameter bushes, Kings Springs (Queensland, Australia)

FRONT COIL SPRINGS:
Standard height - Volvo's sit rather high, ready to take on all terrain, so if you wish to retain ride height, less 15 mm, and improve handling, then genuine Volvo heavy duty front springs #1229337-9 being 35% stiffer than stock are hard to beat. In a number of cases, the faint part # can be found near the start of the first ring. In use, myself & others found the spring-rate matched front Bilstein struts very well indeed. A similar spec spring was used in the 1979 242GT.
Lowered - If you rarely venture off the tar and are keen to lower your 240's ride height to more modern settings, or desire a more aggressive look, there are plenty of suppliers that sell them. By reducing ride height, you lower the centre of gravity of the 'sprung mass' (mass of car above springs), always beneficial. With the McPherson strut 240 front end, ensure the lowered front springs minimum free length is near 335 mm so as to be fully captured when the wheel is raised off the ground. Some suppliers are IPD in the USA (35% stiffer), SAM & Eibach in Europe, and Kings Springs in Australia. Expect these to lower your front end between 1"-1 1/4".
Coil-over small diameter springs are mentioned further down the page.

700/900 series Volvo with big wheel and lowered spring can cause a factory defect to be revealed - ARTICLE courtesy of Turbobricks.

FRONT STRUTS: (Dampers/Shock Absorbers)
Many users agree Bilstein are the premier after-market choice for 240, 740 and 940 McPherson strut suspension, being noted for keeping the heavy Volvo front end under tight control. They combine oil and gas with quite firm valving, are rebuildable with long product life. Although non-adjustable (to the user), specialist dealers can revalve bounce and rebound settings or de-stroke for lowered suspension (eg to 'Sprint' settings). If you already have a lowered car, then 'Bilstein Sprint' struts feature a shortened stroke to reduce the possibility of bottoming out on road dips. USA suppliers - IPD and shox.com. In Australia, Sydney Shocks with SPA Shock Dyno, and Quadrant Suspensions are Bilstein specialists.
Koni is also a very popular after-market choice offering an enticing 5 way adjustable 'Koni Sport' (yellow version) for the 240 front strut, #8641-1245 Sport, (sourced from Holland). All struts and dampers are oil based and adjustable on rebound. 240 owners with Sport Konis' report the harder setting being the best for front end handling. In Australia, Koni distributors are Toperformance Products (Melbourne), Proven Suspension (Sydney). For those seeking a standard strut, KYB seem a popular inexpensive alternative to Volvo (Boge) units.
Rear Shocks are covered further down the page.

FRONT STRUT UPGRADE:
For performance driving and motorsport, the 1982-on struts feature a larger diameter stub axle and are recommended over earlier 240 model years. How to identify: Stub diameter for the outer bearing (the Small one) increased from Ø19 to Ø22 and the inner bearing (the Big one) from Ø31.8 to Ø35 - the transition diameter from stub axle to strut body (the most important dimension for strength) increased from Ø42 to Ø45 - therefore all changes feature a diametrical increase of 3 mm. The 82-on strut tube also features a reduced inside diameter, meaning the strut insert is a lot tighter fit compared to earlier versions.
Split Pin for stub axle Nut (wheel bearing adjustment) - For best fit use only 4 mm (5/32") diameter split pins.

ISSUES WITH LOW and ADJUSTABLE HEIGHT SUSPENSION:
Volvo 240/740/940's use McPherson strut suspension, also known as a 'coil-over-strut' system.
A) If you lower a 240 MORE than say an IPD lowered spring height or 1.5", you will need to reduce the strut length, as the strut's piston and valve body will also sit correspondingly further into the strut body. As road dips appear on the horizon you will breath-in as the strut suspension travel might not be enough to prevent momentary bottoming out. For struts that can be modified, shortening the stroke will overcome this issue. The following web page link to ALUFORM shows the components inside a front Bilstein strut.

B) Further lowering requires fitting an Adjustable Ride Height system, usually with smaller diameter springs, essentially a custom fitment typically used in motorsport. The basis of a 'coil-over-strut' system is a screw threaded collar welded onto the outside of the strut tube replacing the fixed lower perch, and then fitted with a smaller diameter coil spring. The stiffer the spring you select means the higher the chassis will sit up again as stiff springs reduce little in height. Choosing the length of a spring becomes an issue because you want the final chassis height to be well within the range of your threaded collar, plus ensuring adequate clearance ( approx 10mm) between the bottom of the spring adjusting collar and your tire.

C) By this stage you could be keen to fit an Adjustable Ride Height front end and have researched the spring length issue. With a Volvo 240 the situation gets more difficult due to the long length of the thick walled steel outer strut tubes. You soon notice as you adjust the chassis down there is equally less suspension travel available.
It's time for major strut surgery - more suspension travel needs to be created ! The Volvo thick wall outer strut tube needs to be reduced in length or height - (eg around 2.125" or 54 mm). For example, one strut modification procedure a specialist might perform is to cut the thick walled tube well below the existing top threaded section, then cut-out a length of tube (eg 55 mm) well below the thread. The threaded top section piece can then be TIG welded back to the tube, (tack with strut insert in place). The coil-over threaded collar is then slipped over the shortened strut and welded into position at either end to give a strong reinforced tube.
An alternative method might be to cut the strut tube as required and arrange for a new thread to be cut (tapped) inside the tube to suit a new threaded collar. Only a specialist will have the large diameter fine pitch tap to cut the thread, but any weld must be far enough away from the proposed re-tap area, otherwise the tap will blunten fast.
Next step involves shortening the eg. Bilstein strut's 'outer tube' by the same amount as the outer strut tube holder, (let the shop select the removal point). Your struts will require revalving, and repositioning of the internal bump stop to suit the new short springs (more new springs - not again). This modification will then enable the front end to be lowered properly. Other issues for consideration are bump steer, tie rod angles.
The astute reader might notice that if you started with A then moved onto B & C you would have been through a few sets of springs and had your Koni or Bilstein strut length changed a few times as well. Plan as best you can from the above advice, then seek a specialist opinion.

Strut tube with welded threaded collar

Coil-over-strut system Adjustable Ride Height - Benefits of adjustability - allows you to set ride heights eliminating ride height differences between passenger and driver sides; to fine tune heights for optimal corner weight distribution; and to setup additional negative camber as much smaller diameter springs are used. SAM in Sweden can supply Volvo specific kits, with more general kits being available in most countries from good suspension shops but expect some mods to suit your Volvo. Noltec, Australia, has Coil over hardware Kit #N44502. With reference to the hardware chart, none of the threaded tubes (internal diameters) comes close to the Volvo 240 strut tubes odd size at approx Ø52.6 to Ø53, so a sleeve or custom made collar will be required to build up to Ø54 ID, the ID of the closest coil over threaded collar. Coil-over spring inside diameter is typically around Ø65 mm. Eibach springs are smaller with inside diameter of Ø61 or Ø63. Small Diameter Springs - There is typically a choice of spring rates for road and track use from world suppliers. Kings Springs in Australia have a massive 'website range' of ProSport coils to choose from. I have experience with linear springs # KPS135 - 300 lbf/in @ 200 long, Inside Diameter 65 mm, coil spacing 20 mm, 5.5 active coils, 11 wire dia, compressed 84 mm. Helper springs are required. Also tried (175 lbf/in - good on road, too soft for track), stiffer 225 lbf/in, and 300 lbf/in (stiff on road, good on track). Ride characteristics can be altered with strut valving changes inside a rebuildable strut like Bilstein & Koni. My 2005 choice is Eibach springs, based on their ERS system of a main spring plus a tender spring. The tender is strong enough to hold up the car and to give a little suspension movement before going to block. Main #160-60-70 (400 lbf), Tender #60-60-60 Link: Additional pics and info on a MVP coil over-strut installation is found on Dave Barton's web page.

UPGRADE: For the 240 and 740 a good example of an adjustable camber and caster kit is made by Noltec Australia, and one or two other suppliers around the world. The Noltec unit seem well made and I estimate they increase negative camber adjustability to around -2 deg. This is a good head start to reducing outside tire scuffing, but for regular track use around -3 to -4.5 deg is req'd for even tyre wear. They are a sports item, so expect a bit more feedback and clunk through suspension. Three Noltec pictures below supplied by Ashley Saunders (Australia).

Noltec Strut top mount Click all to enlarge

Noltec Bottom

Noltec Strut parts

MOTORSPORT: GpA racing 'offset centre' strut bearing mounts are available from SAM to enable a -2 to -4 deg negative camber setting. Group A rules specified that the original mounting points must be preserved - these mounts achieved that. The SAM catalog details them for the 240, being normally combined with a smaller diameter spring in a coil-over suspension. Coil-over has been discussed in the Front Strut section. Bare in mind when SAM say their upper strut mounts give -2 to 4 deg negative camber, -2 is the lowest angle you can go back to. There is no rubber or poly bushes to absorb loads, just a strong spherical bearing.

Top View 'offset centre' left hand strut bearing mounts GpA	Underside View -2 to -4 deg

Koni (Made in Holland) are a popular performance alternative to Bilstein, and offer a 'Koni Sport' rear shock being yellow (not the red standard type). This YELLOW type is 3 way adjustable #26-1129Sport. 240 owners prefer the 1 or 2 softer setting. Your specialist suspension supplier will need to order them. A web article comparing Koni Red vs Yellow models is at the Tirerack site (search Koni). A Koni distributor in Melbourne, Australian is Toperformance Products.

REAR SHOCKS	BILSTEIN (blue/yellow)	KONI Sport (yellow)
Shaft diameter	11.0 mm	9.7 mm
Body diameter	50 mm	40.4 mm
Weight	1,520 g	1,320 g
End welds	fused	superior quality
Width of mount bushes	34.5 mm	42 mm

I own both brands and currently favour the Koni Sport for the REAR on bitumen road & track.

KYB brand is often mentioned by owners as a good inexpensive standard replacement unit.

Shock Absorber BOLT(S)
(Lower) - Do you hear a rattle type noise at the rear? - really pay attention to the bottom shock absorber mounting - the steel spacer sleeve next to the shock can indent into the inner wall of the trailing arm, or the spacer sleeve can bruise on the ends, which means there is a tiny bit less length and hence play - resulting in a rattle. A thin shim washer or an undamaged replacement sleeve can help solve this issue.
Pay attention to the screwthread condition on the long fastening bolt (screw) (and locking nut) as the bolt's thread is often damaged from knocking through the trailing arm holes during shock removal and fitting, or from over-torquing. Tech hint - use two bolts to assist aligning either end, and a small trolley jack to raise the trailing arm so the bolt pushes through without damage. New Volvo Bolt (screw) #970986, Lock Nut M12 #971084 (same M12 lock nut is used for top and bottom shock mounts).

(Upper bolt) - take a look at your shock from the rear. Is it tilted outward ? If yes its screwing your shock bush at both ends, & if your fastidious, skimming around 2mm of the bolt outer flange will correct this.

REAR COIL SPRINGS:
With lowered springs from sources such as IPD, SAM or KINGS a reasonable height reduction is achieved. Even with lowered rears, the rear end sits higher than the front which is a pity as on a 240 as a low rear looks aggressive, and if cornering hard reduces load on the front tires.
If you require a standard height rear spring, Volvo have three wire diameters (hence stiffness) to choose from, see your dealer.
The 240 rear springs are only secured at the bottom of the pigtail, the top sitting free around a cup/hat. This means changing a rear spring/s can be done in minutes.
A longer spring = more compliance. A short stiff spring gives a poor ride and control over bumps. Author's favourite rear spec: 2" lowered, 20% stiffer - suit 240 Volvo from ALLSPRINGS, Moorebank, Australia. Go too low and the tailshaft universals complain as the diff nose angle goes down with the suspension. If lowering more than a set amount you will need to raise the front nose of the diff - achieved by adjustable Torque rods, and fit an adjustable Panhard bar (more info in the subject sections).

Motorsport & Ride height - at the track you are required to have an empty boot, so after removing the spare tire/tyre, toolbox & jack, the rear ride height rises. - More again with a minimal fuel level - So we are now looking at the rear being up at least 1/2" (12.7 mm) or more - far from optimum. Under hard braking, the front springs compress down and correspondingly the chassis rear pitches up even higher which upsets handling and braking balance. Stiffer front springs will reduce this 'nose-dive' and if your car is lowered springs this is of benefit as well.
Like the case with the front coils, to keep captured, aftermarket suppliers are restricted to a minimum spring length. One method used to safely fit shorter rear springs is to fit a strap (eg. seat belt material) so when the axle assembly is raised, droop is reduced to keep the spring located. With two holes at either end of the strap, they can be securely attached under the hat at the top, and at the base under the trailing arm secured by springs bolt, washer and retaining nut. This will also remove strain from the shock absorber shafts, that on a standard car the welds on the shaft ends are the only component that hold up the enormous weight of the rear-end when off the ground or on a hoist.

Coil Spring Rate Conversions:
To Convert lbf/in to N/mm (Pounds-force per inch to Newtons per millimetre)
lbf/in x 0.175 = N/mm, Example: 100 lbf/in x 0.175 = 17.5 N/mm
To Convert N/mm to lbf/in
N/mm x 5.714 = lbf/in or N/cm x 0.5714 = lbf/in

For road registered cars, bear in mind a combination of stiff front springs, large dia. swaybars, performance struts (eg Bilstein/Koni) and low profile tires/tyres will give a harsh ride.

Swaybars and handling - To quote a Volvo enthusiast Balu Vandor "In general, adding roll stiffness (stiffer springs and/or swaybars) to the rear end will bring handling closer to oversteer, while adding roll stiffness to the front brings it closer to understeer. The stiffness of a swaybar increases with the 4th power of diameter, so even a small increase in diameter should bring noticeable results. The handling balance can also be fine-tuned by changing the tire pressures in the front and rear tires in comparison to each other."

Big Front Bars in AUTOCROSS - Contributed by Jon Rush, USA
In the Stock class in Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) autocrossing, the rules restrict you to only front anti-roll bar changes. Springs and rear bars can't be changed from what is factory supplied. To improve autocross handling, we frequently install a large front bar alone. A large front anti-roll bar does several good things and one bad thing.

The large bar keeps strut suspensions out of the bad portion of the camber curve, keeping the outside-front-tire contact patch flatter to the pavement. This keeps you from wearing out the shoulder of your tire and can improve front grip. A big front bar also makes the car much more responsive in side to side transition maneuvers. For rwd and awd cars, the big front bar helps put power down too. The big front bar shifts more of the total roll resistance work to the front and keeps the body flatter. Therefore, the inside rear tire has more loading and it will be less likely to spin or lift off the pavement.

The downside is that you will get more understeer in steady state cornering. In autocross, so little time is spent in steady state and so much of your time improvements come from being able to transition quicker and put more power down sooner, that the tradeoff is well worth it.

Spacers optimised (SEE PICTURE) - pay attention to the angle of the 'End Link' where it mounts into the control arm relative to the above sway bar hole, as I found it positioned best with a thin spacer one end, thicker the other, rather than equal width spacers.
On good road surfaces, slower corners could be taken at higher speed. i found the difference quite noticeable, with ride and tracking being uncanny in smoothness. Took me days to understand the change, it's as if the swaybars exert more control, being consistent with a reduction in play, and the improved end link angle. On rougher roads there seems to be a small steering reaction on bumps. As there is no lower rubber bush anymore, more road vibration is transmitted.
So far as finishing off a swaybar upgrade, this optimum positioning is to me fine tuning, the icing on the cake. As mentioned in Swaybars, poly doughnut bushes are ideal. MVP are a source of Endlinks.

TORQUE RODS (REACTION Rods / Upper trailing arms) and BUSHES:
240 series rear suspension is very similar to a four link design being quite reasonable for differential control. Newer style - later model torque rods when fitted with stiffer poly bushes do give increased security on higher speed corners, and offer better diff location control when accelerating out of corners.

Two types of Volvo torque rods exist and function to keep the rear axle/differential square to the chassis and to limit diff windup or rotation. The older type rods, (1975-83?) are fitted with very flexible small diameter curved bushes (also called butterfly or dog-bone due to shape). Replacement butterfly bushes are expensive and very tricky to press in, but the problem is, there's far too much bush compliance for performance use.

Newer style torque rods feature a round and larger rubber bush of stiffer design. For further bush upgrades, IPD offer an excellent two piece polyurethane unit that features generous side wall diameters, ideal for keeping the axle better located in dynamic use. Noltec, Super Flex and Energy Suspensions also offer poly torque rod bushes. An option to fitting poly bushes is much harder rubber bush for newer torque rods as used in Volvo Cup competition (x4 req'd) are available from SAM #1273622RF
It's really worth upgrading to the newer rods, 1984 onwards - a parts recycler being a good source.

Adjustable torque rods - If lowering your car more than usual, the diff nose will be pointed down more than is acceptable for efficient rear uni joint function (do you hear a grumble sound when de-cellerating). You will need to shorten the torque rods to bring the nose up again - an adjustable thread section is the solution. Under sudden acceleration the diff nose rises a (disturbingly) large amount.

For more precise side positioning of the chassis-to-tire location, an adjustable panhard rod can be fitted that uses a L&RH thread system (eg. 3/4" dia) sourced from a suspension manufacturer/shop, (in Australia - Whiteline #KTB180). Before modification, do your math then hacksaw out a section on the large dia tube (eg 80 mm length), suggest near LH end for adjustment accessability. Machine 2 off supplied nuts on the O.D. for most of their length so they press into ends of rod tube (27.1 mm dia) and have welded-in professionally.
A suggested adjustment reference point is the chassis-rail near the top of rear spring hat, measure inside of tire/tyre to square chassis rail (not inside of guards), make equal, and if required obtain a thrust wheel alignment.I tried a 4 mm shorter rod length and noticed a handling improvement. The Dana diff centre offset is to the right with an offset from chassis centre of approx 32 mm (don't centre the diff, leave as is and use the tire to chassis rail left to right comparison).

SPORTS SEATS: There are several brands to choose from e.g. Recaro, Sparco, Cobra, available in either a one piece or reclinable design. If your going racing the seat must be a one piece. Some have brackets to suit a Volvo, others need to be adapted. Since I required adjustability, the very low in height Volvo seating rails were ideal, enabling new seat securing brackets to be attached on top. Position the L shaped seat brackets in a position to suit your seat width and drill new holes in the L bracket. Volvo R-Sport offered quality seat covers with high side bolsters to keep the driver well positioned. On the 2nd hand market these are sought after items, and are still available new from Volvo but at a premium price.

STEERING WHEEL: A large diameter wheel has added mechanical advantage when turning, but your arms also rotate further around on the large arc. A smaller diameter wheel requires less exaggerated arm movement, and I believe less movement enables more precise driver input whilst cornering. Most Volvos have power steering, so to turn a small steering wheel requires little effort.

FOOT REST: Most modern cars have them standard, but I'm yet to hear of one standard in a 240! Its worth fitting one to place your left leg on as this can reduce twisting of your upper body whilst cornering. Instead you can focus on accurate steering input.

Hope you enjoyed the content of this article.

© Anthony Hyde, 2001- Updated 9/2007
* I have no links with any of the companies listed, other than having purchased some of their products.