Woo-Hoo! I now own a Volvo.......

Surperb car, IMO one of the best they ever made, despite only being offered in the states with an automatic transmission. Keep up on oil changes and replace the timing belt on time (though no damage will be done if it breaks you'll be stranded) and the car should run reliably for many years.

Lucky sod! A friend of mine picked up a 940-T at the same time I bought my Mercedes... I was -and STILL am- very envious of his new girl. I'd love one of those things... congradulations and enjoy your brick-on-a-rocket-sled.

-Mike

A couple of minor issues, but nothing serious.

1: replace the front lights with glass OEM European ones. 2: re-wire the front lights with relays and heavy gauge wire. 3: replace the struts if worn 4: never reset the trip odometer while the car is moving 5: there are half a dozen accessory gauges that fit in the dash. I recommend adding a large tach instead of the small one. (dep on model/year/etc)

Mostly typical stuff - the lighting upgrade is huge - double the useable light. The large tach is nice, too.

snip

Thankyou,

I pick her up Saturday morning and I've got a near 300 mile drive to bring her home. I've got my AA road atlas out to plan a nice mixed route with some motorway, A road & B road. I'll post Saturday night to let y'all know how it went.

Skin

You won't hurt anything by resetting the trip odometer while it's moving, this is only a concern with the old mechanical speedometers in pre-'86 240s.

They come from the factory with relay(s). If you turn the headlights on, and then take the key out of the ignition, the lights will turn off.

I don't think this was ever a problem on the 700/900 cars with their electronic speedos.

All 700/900 cars (that I've seen) have a large clock and large speedo. Only the old style dash has spots for additional gauges (four or so in the cluster). The newer style 700/900s don't have any factory sanctioned place to put additional gauges.

- alex

'85 244 Turbo

Ahem!!!!!!, ......Sorry, but there seems to be some "misinformation" here, my 240 series is an '83 and the trip odometer works just fine "after" resetting while moving, on more occaisions than I could possibly remember. I've owned this car since new. Herman '83 282, 5.0 H.O. formerly 242 Turbo intercooled.

I have the same experience, however in theory this *could* damage it if exactly the right circumstances take place, but my point was only that in the electronic speedos used starting in '86 there's no chance of this happening since the odometer is driven by a teeny little stepper motor that lacks enough torque to strip gears even if you do jam it somehow.

The wiring is still tiny and weak, if you install European headlights put relays under the hood, connect fuse holders right to the alternator output post, use heavy guage wires (#10 or better yet #8) and mount high quality relays in a place free of road spray and excessive heat. I used a pair of the relays used as the power relay for K-Jet injected 240's but 700 series cars use similar ones for foglights. To power the relays, connect a wire from each headlamp plug and tie both sides together, this prevents the bulb failure light from coming on when using relays, yet retains it's function for the rear lights where it's actually very useful, with the headlights you can tell easily if one is burned out.

Yep, every 700 series car has a tachometer as well as a large clock, at least up to the point when they updated the dash. After that I'm pretty certain all the 700 and 900 cars still had the tach, don't recall if they had the large clock still or not. There's an unfortunate lack of places to add guages, 240's are much nicer in that respect.

I hate to disagree but that little motor is responsible for many stripped gears in both 240 and 700 series speedometers. Check out the pic at the bottom of

I know it will strip gears asI didn't make sure the odometer number wheels could turn freely the firsttime I replaced the gear and stripped another one when the tooth off thefirst gear got lodged in them. Dave Shannon daveshan_at_spamsoneonelse_cox.net (Spring Valley CA)

1988 240 DL 19X,XXX 1984 245 DL 20X,XXX 1984 245T 19X,XXX '01 Jeep Wrangler Sahara 14K

I'd still swap it for a large tach if it doesn't have one - because the radio has its own clock.

As for the lighting - it is a huge difference - the stock equipment isn't robust enough - and the Euro assemblies are glass - they last forever and have a better pattern.

Lighting is good advice for any of our cars but his is a '92 740, there is no space for additional gauges and he already has a large tach and speedo'. The 5 extras was a 240 option and the earlier 700 non turbos could add two in the upper spaces in the cluster. Dave Shannon daveshan_at_spamsoneonelse_cox.net (Spring Valley CA)

1988 240 DL 19X,XXX 1984 245 DL 20X,XXX 1984 245T 19X,XXX '01 Jeep Wrangler Sahara 14K

Oh My God!!!!!!

What are you lot doing to Mr Skynrd?

Despite the pseudonym and end tag line. I believe I read somewhere that Mr Skin abides in the UK.

Doesn't that mean that it will already have the Euro standard lights. God knows what I have on my 740 but I rarely need to use main beam. My standard lights are more than adequate to cope with even the muddiest 'B' roads.

I don't think that "Mr Skin" would want to be messin' with his lights and wires having just purchased it!

I maybe wrong. I have been many times in the past!

Personally I like the quad lights that I have seen on the US models. Obviously for aesthetic more than practical reasons.

There's only one tach available for the 700 series and it's a large one, the large tach and large clock straddle the speedo.