lasercowboy;87720 wroteM90s are very rare over here, and mostly get shipped from Europe. However, at some stage the Yanks decided they were hot shit, and that drove the price up a lot for the ex-Euro export market.
Hence T5s are a more common swap down here due to availability and price.
All true. The M90 was a Getrag box, with one of those stupid integrated bellhousings, a fascist trend which has become a real nuisance to adventurous, exciting people who like to find new uses for old gearboxes.
One other thing about M90s is that Mother Volvo doesn't stock
any spare parts for them
at all - not synchros, nor gears; nuthin'. When he breaks, he is truly borken, and the initial plan was you take it back to Mother Volvo who'd then exchange it. They'd take it back to their super secret workshop to fix it, then give it out to the next dude who'd stripped 3rd (a common problem with them). They're strong boxes, but not indestructible.