Auto to manual

[mhill53]

Hi there im new to the world of volvo im just doing a little research while im looking for a 850R estate.It strikes me manual cars are a little thin on the ground and demand good money where as auto cars are more availible and are definatly cheaper.
Has anybody swapped an auto car over to a manual gearbox? do they use hydraulic or cable clutch?

Thanks in advance!

[Tomcat]

Hi, yes the manual's do tend to fetch a little more than the auto's. There's been a few converted to manual, if you search the internet (Check a site called Volvospeed.com) you'll find a few. The clutch is hydrolic rather than cable.

[Murphy]

Hello and welcome, one of our sponsors, RT Mechanics have converted their own car from auto to manual. It is worth noting that the 850R had a M59 gearbox complete with a LSD. Probably quiet hard to get hold of, although standard boxes are plenty and the cost of an LSD from quaiffe is <£1k IIRC. Given the cost of an auto, you could buy a cheap car, and a cheap manual box add the quaiffe [much better than standard diff I have heard] and still be cheaper than a manual 850R [ish] if you can do the word yourself.

[irf]

pete done a full write up

http://forums.t5d5.org/index.php?showtopic=7298&st=0

[mhill53]

Thank you chaps,yes i would be doing the work myself as im in the trade anyway,i would imagine it would be a fairly straight forward job to do with little or no fabrication work as all the parts would be availible from a manual car,would need to check ratios though is the t5 box that same as the R box apart from the lsd.
Thanks again.

[cookie]

2.0 litre 850's have closer ratios IIRC

Better accleration, but lower top speed