Suspension upgrades on 89

I'm thinking about putting a set of turbo sway bars on my N/A '89 245. I'm new to Volvo performance, wondering if it's a worthwhile upgrade. Also I'm thinking about getting some aluminum wheels from a donor volvo if I can find one. Does anyone know which wheels I should be looking for, are they off the Turbo's? Also are they the 15"x6" ones?
Thanks a ton!

yep.

240 Turbo sways are 23mm front and 21mm rears... they are SUPERIOR to stock! I mean it wont be as far out best as the pricey Ipd's (25/23 or 25/25) but its a major improvement over stock... much more fun to drive!

now if you're looking for more suspension, then i'd reccomend to start with Bilsteins, the turbo sways, GT braces (firewall to tower and subframe to body) (either from a GT or from IPD...) or Cherry turbo's tower to tower and lower brace (same as Gt brace but better) and the upper GT brace... all that will improve your handling tremendously with little decrease in ride (from new stock, not worn out stock... worn out stock is alot more comfortable but lousy control!) if you want more... there's B+G lowering springs, poly bushings, yadda yadda...

but to me, turbo sways and bilstens and a brace or two will be great

turbo sways rock for their price (you will get them cheap right?)

as for turbo wheels, they're 15 inchers and are very good looking (better than yucky steels w/ broken hubcabs)... make sure you dont change the diameter of the tire too much... your speedo will be off!

Def going to be cheap. I'm looking to do the wheels, strut braces, sway bars, etc. for under $300, so these certainly won't be new parts. I would love to get some IPD parts, but alas $$$ is limited.

well 240 turbo sways are def a start! you're junkyarding them right? shouldnt be much more than 30 or 40 bucks for the pair... you'd need bigger middle bushings in the front... ones in the junkyard are usually worthless (rubber distringerated) but you can get them nice and poly from IPD for something like 30-40 bucks... i'm sure there might be somebody who has a good set of used rubbers... (no pun intended... dont even think about it guys!)

I'm sure somebody would be selling upper or lower GT braces... shouldnt be more than $35 each (sold on ebay often for about that)

As for wheels... thats a small budget but you might just get lucky! I havent done wheel shopping as my wheels came with my car (they're ok but original... small... but good looking at night and from afar )

please feel free to email me and i'll help!

Get turbo sway bars from a 2 door or 4 door. The turbo wagon has a smaller rear bar, but that may be what you want. The smaller rear bar will make the car understeer the way it does now.

FWIW, IPD rear bars are 22mm or 25mm (not 23).

only 22? ew.

sure they'd want to advoid the inner wheel loosing-traction problem but 22?? my GT's got thicker bars... sure the 23mm rear bar isnt as common... only the 79 GT had it... (not many else I'm sure) and its a tiny bit more thicker than turbo's 21 rears... but still!

I'm getting either 25/25 or what i really want, 28/25 bars. I'd be happy with 25mm front and my 23mm bars... anybody got a spare 25mm front bar?

My friend and I will be offering cheap strut and gt braces very soon. The prices are 10 for GT, 25 for strut to strut. Our prototype needs to be refined more... It didn't fit on a flathood :shock: If interested email me.

weezilusa@netscape.net

No, it's only 22mm because it's meant for otherwise stock cars, or very slighty modified. They try to keep the balance of the car the same, but increase lateral grip.

My car still understeers with 25/25 bars, but I won't go any bigger. I'd rather control roll with stiffer springs and keep my tires planted for flater cornering. With really stiff bars, you will load up the outside tire with a lot of weight. There are different ways to setup the same suspension and get the same result, but eventually tire wear and traction will suffer with oversized sway bars.

On a side note, I would be interested to see a test to compare stiffness between the IPD 22mm rear bar and the '79 GT 23mm rear bar. The IPD bar has the end pieces welded on, and the GT bar has bends on either end because it's one piece.

FYI, a 1mm increase in diameter should equate to approximately 25% more roll stiffness. Ever 4mm increase is like doubling the bar (twice as stiff, or 100% stiffer).

Monkey wrench got thrown into the works last night.
One of my brake lines sprung a leak I guess cause my brakes lost preasure last night. I pulled over pumped em a bit and viola preasure returned. So first order of business, steel braided brake lines. The brakes have felt weak for a while but I'm not sure if it's just the way the car is or if there is really a problem with the brakes.
The brakes seem to feel stiff, but the car doesn't respond like they are stopping it very well. Not sure what to do, I guess I'm going to have to have a pro look at it, but I really don't want, actually I believe HAVE is a better word, a lot of money to drop on the car. Arg what to do?
Any way it just snowed here in the Boston Area, a LOT. So I can't even get the car on a jack to take a look. Does anyone know where I could find a good tutorial on brake work? I'm guessing I should take it to a pro, but I would like to do this myself, both for the sake of $$$ and to learn something new. Any help at all is appreciated.

Haynes manual does an ok job of explaining what to do... They can be kinda inacurate sometimes, but detail enough to get the job done.

l8r
Ben