• RWD
  • 262C with LS1

Wow nice work! Using the foam mock-up oil pan was a great idea. When we built the eVolvo I did a lot of mock-up parts to test things out. We used to do it at GM and Holden as well with special foam that we milled from CAD models. Worked a treat.
Very nice! Good capacity too! Your foam mockup looks spot on.
Thanks Carnut. Thanks Rob. It is all coming together actually a lot easier than I thought it would . Although the headers might make me eat my words. And I know there is almost no end of fiddly bits to attend to.
Looking good mate I have a set of VF HSV headers with cats if you're keen? I was looking at modifying and using them but my engineer said I could go turbo so my plans have changed..

Will you plan on going manual later on?
Headers will be the biggest challenge i think. I'm still tryingt o figure out which way to go but may scratch build my own and run the steering shaft through the middle. It is easy enough to remove and reinstall.

I'll probably stay with the Auto for now. But who knows in the future.
I used a Range Rover steering shaft, with the end slightly machined off.

It has the same spline count and diameter (without the large outer isolater) with 2 x 'long' Volvo 240 uni joints on each end (My car had 1 x short and 1 x long originally).

It allows for about 14mm of clearance..... probably more than factory with my original engine!
Excellent tip. Thanks. I was thinking I might have to get one made up. Do you notice any particular road harshness? Any idea where I could source one.

j

Feedback through the column was the same concern I had too, but there is essentially nothing. It's not buzzy or jarring in any way.

Not sure where you can get one, I got mine walking around a self-serve wrecker with a vernier caliper in hand! But I know this is an early Range Rover style, as in from the early 80's with the 3.5 V8. Most other types after 85 or so had a different style where one end was flanged, so cannot be used.

Hopefully this pic helps. I am sure a Range Rover specialist would know the type if they see this pic.
You probably even have two of the long style Volvo uni's with your two cars! Pictured here is the Volvo short uni with the Range Rover unit next to it. Note it has splines on each end. The arrow is pointing to a little nub on the end that needs to be machined off.



This is the shaft you don't want. also from 80's and 90's Range Rovers (later)

Excellent. Yep. i have two long uni joints. This should be very helpfull.

My other concern was heat on the rubber isolator. I once had a car where the rubber started to fail. I searched and searched for the slop and wander in the steering. My son eventually discovered the shaft rubber was bad.

thanks mate.

j
Thanks O&D.

Well, on Monday I ordered a drive shaft from Gibson Driveshaft Services. It arrived (out here in the bush) on Wednesday! Talk about quick!

The ordering process was fairly easy. I downloaded the appropriate form, took all the required measurements and emailed it back to them, DDed the dough, and voila: a drive shaft.

I'm getting a lot of information and guidance from JTR's book on Volvo V8s . It does not cover LS engines and is more aimed at making standard off the shelf parts fit, but it is non-the-less a wealth of info.

The shaft is 2 3/4" diameter (as recomended by JTR) and uses the Dana Spicer flange and 1310 Uni joints, which are bigger and stronger than the odd sized Volvo ones. It weighs 8.4 kg while the two piece Volvo one weighs 10.2kg. Ballanced and nicely painted. Cost was $594 including shipping and GST.

I fitted it to the mule this afternoon. The only odd thing is that I had to ream the bolt holes in the flange slightly to take the Volvo original bolts?

With the weight on the car, the slip joint protudes about 15mm past the seal. With the rear wheels off the ground, it protudes about 13mm and with 250kg of stock feed bags in the rear, and touching the bump stops, it protudes about 13 mm again. So that all looks good.

Fully loaded, there is plenty of clearance above and to the left side of the shaft but it is pretty tight on the right side. For some reason the Volvo pinion is offset to the right about 20mm. A bit of hammering will easilly give me all the clearance I need. And I reackon the old centre bearing bracket will serve as a safety strap.

Here's something odd though. Volvo apparently used the heavy duty 1031 axle in turbo and V6 cars. But this wagon is neither and yet has a 1031 rear. My V6 should have a 1031, but actually has a lighter duty 1030 rear end. Musical parts I guess.

Here's some pics.

Chrismas comes often these days.


A bit tight on the right side. This is with the suspension touching, but not compressing the bump stops.


No problem on the left side though. I can run my fingers all along and over the top of the shaft.


These things can sure carry a load. Thats 250kg of feed, plus lots of other junk.



Coming along nicely! When I was mixing and matching driveshafts for the eVolvo project, I had to ream out the bolt holes in the M45 transmission flange (or the driveshaft flange - can't recall now!) to get the bolts in. I was using late (1993) bolts and it probably was an earlier model driveshaft, so maybe they changed bolts and/or tolerance along the way?
When the shaft on Dad's wagon let go we found three different flange diameters and a bunch of different lengths.
Just gave 3 shafts to a mate at an engineering shop and he gave me back a driveshaft with Falcon uni joints in it for a carton...
You should see the drive shaft on the V6. The motor hangs in front of the cross member and the transmission is in the engine bay. So it has two big long shafts.
The drive shaftpeople had me measure the flange very carfully so I am sure there are plenty of different ones out there. The new shaft fits perfectly. But your carton certainly beats my 600 bucks for economy. Good move.
As you driveshaft clearance shows, with the panhard bar arrangement in a 240 the axle pushes to the right as you go lower. Get/make an adjustable panhard and you can even out the clearance. At the current ride height the axle in you 262 is no doubt already offset to the right.
Ah yes. Panard movement. I didn't think of that. I'll have to check it out and think about it. The 262 is already slightly lowered i think. It has Pedder's shocks and springs that someone must have installed at some stage. The ride is quite tight and almost sporty even. I'm not sure if it has up-rated sway bars but so far have not felt the need for anything stiffer. We shall see once I get some decent horsepower to play with.

a month later
Any movement at the station?
Very slow going lately. I have had a challenge finding a radiator to fit.

After lots of research I thought a VY SS Commodore radiator would do the job so I ordered one off eBay. A couple days later they said they did not have one in stock and they refunded my dough.

So I ordered the same radiator off another seller. It arrived and looked good but somehow I must have got the wrong dimensions and it would not go between the rails. Dimensions can be hard to decipher. Are they the core only; or the core and tanks; or the core, tanks and mounting brackets? Anyway, I sent that one back and got another refund.

I was keen to get a radiator with all the correct plumbing in the correct places to simplify things and not look too dogs-breakfasty.

I made all sorts of enquirers about getting a custom made radiator with commodore tanks and a slightly narrower core. How is it that to get a radiator made in Adelaide costs over $1000 and yet some little Chinese bloke in Guangzhou can make one, ship it to Melbourne, then ship it to me for $125 ???? Go figure...

So I ordered an XR8 falcon radiator which, with the mounting brackets cut off, should fit. But it turned out to have had the tanks extended to incorporated the mounting brackets such that I could not cut them off. I am still trying to send that one back. It is not the one pictured on eBay.

I have now ordered a C4 Corvette radiator which is supposed to fit. It has not yet shown up. We shall see. That is what JTR recommends.

I have also had tubing, etc., for headers on order for ages. About half of the order showed up last week. Not really enough to get started.

I have searched hi and low for a range rover steering shaft but no luck yep. I really need to go in person and look myself but have not had the opportunity.

The only progress I have made is that I sent the Volvo throttle cable off to ATS Cables in Brisbane and had them shorten it 300mm and put a larger end on it. Works great! But they charged $140 which I thought was a bit steep. I have also got hold of some linkages to hook up the transmission but need to find or modify the shifter shaft to shorten it.

Right now I am flat out on the farm in preparation for a 3 week trip to Europe so will probably not get back to work on the LS for a month or so. The project is not quite on the back burner, but is on hold a bit for now.
A C4 corvette radiator should work
An aluminium BA radiator fits if you get someone to notch the passenger side end tank.