240 performance

Flush your brakes. Use about 2Ltr of fluid from sealed containers NOT bulk fluid. Check pad Ect. (I would replace. It can be hard to get decent pads in AU. Bendix are not upto the job in my experience.) A bad shock can make a huge difference to your car. Replace as sets and I would look at doing the whole car of you need them. Check bushes.

I have done shocks, springs, bushes, bars, brakes and quite a few other things. A 240 can handle and stop very well indeed. It depends on how much money you can spend and what your after.

AJS

How are the tires? That's the first thing I thought of reading your post...

I've read that the 240 series is a better handler than the 700/ 900 because its weight distribution is 50/50 front and rear.

!? It was? They made the 240 up to '93 tho' !

The tyres are brand new - they are Bridgestone - 195/65/R14.

On a 142S, fitted rubber coil blocks in the springs, two each side, and heavy duty shocks off a Transit van. Ditto, nice and hard. Can't buy these blocks any more, unfortunately.

The present 245 is also down in the back, especially with a load, so it's going to get the treatment too.

Cost in each case, half of bugger-all.

Get it right and they scoot round corners. Cheers.

Perhaps the brake ballance is off somehow? I know there's proportioning valves, I've locked up the brakes on my 240 several times and the back end has never tried to come around. From the factory they tend to understeer, including under heavy breaking.

The usual cause of this is shot bushings in the back, change those before you mess with the springs.

On a Volvo that has lost one of its braking circuits, the car only has brakes to three wheels the two in front and one in the rear. In a panic stop the rear will tend to want to come around because the rotating wheel will have more traction than the other three. The wheel with the greater traction will always try to go to the front of the mass ( the car)