AcidicDavey's 98 V70 AWD - The not an R or T5 thread!

[AcidicDavey]

The other day the invoice came for the coilovers, they will hopefully arrive in a week or so!

In the time being I ordered an Ultra Racing rear strut bar. Ordered it Wednesday evening and it arrived today!

Ultra Racing Rear Strut 001 by AcidicDavey, on Flickr

It wasn't quite a perfect fit so I had to bore out the fitment holes a bit, not as easy to fit as I would have hoped!

It came with the fittings and simply screws into the holes where the seatbelts for the 7 seat conversion would go.

Ultra Racing Rear Strut 002 by AcidicDavey, on Flickr

Not driven yet, can't imagine it will make much difference but oh well

Here's where I got it...

[AcidicDavey]

We all love retail therapy, me especially. 4 weeks have past and they've finally arrived!

KW V2 Coilovers 001 by AcidicDavey, on Flickr

Very exciting.... was worried they wouldn't be right as I've never seen a photo of this set before.

KW V2 Coilovers 002 by AcidicDavey, on Flickr

KW V2 Coilovers 003 by AcidicDavey, on Flickr

Pleased to say all the mounting points seem correct, phew....

Can't wait to get them on, read too many good things about KW now!

The rebound is adjustable via a hex headed slot in the top of each strut bar thankfully. There are 19 reassuring clicks between soft and hard.

Just waiting on some fitment bits from Volvo. I'll take some measurements to ensure I can get the car as low as I can but still clear getting in and out of the drive. When the front lip is at the lowest point when entering/exiting the drive there is about 75mm clearance so dropping 60mm or so sounds safe.

That'll do for now regarding the coilovers, this happened last week...

123456 Miles! by AcidicDavey, on Flickr

Reset the trip too early, wanted it to read 123.4 too .
Sad I know!

Also, I had the car on a weighbridge recently. With me in it 1740kg and I'm about 70-75kg plus 20kg or so of fuel. Heavier than I thought as I thought manufacturer kerb weights included a full tank and a 75kg driver? The book figure for a manual AWD is 1608kg so say 1640 for an auto? That's way more than 100kg under what it is but my car does have a few extras.

Anyway, geek mode off

[Doingitsideways]

Mmmm.......

Coilovers!!

[AcidicDavey]

^^^^^
About ££££ing time really!

Can't wait

It'll be wheels next, although I love what's on it I need to get some more special.

Or, a manual conversion but that'll be expensive as I'm not competent to do it myself

[Doingitsideways]

^^^^^
About ££££ing time really!

Can't wait

It'll be wheels next, although I love what's on it I need to get some more special.

Or, a manual conversion but that'll be expensive as I'm not competent to do it myself

Lol!

Gonna miss your sky high stance... Much like yourself really!

Means I'm really gonna have to do.something about my 960 now.
It fails the shoe test quite spectacularly. Probably swallowing a bloody Wellington boot!
Looks even worse being on 18" Pegs.

As for the manual conversion; buy the parts, put me up and buy me enough cider to sink a ship and I'll come and do it!

You gonna let me into what you're thinking for wheels then??
You've made some, erm, odd choices in the past, (Remember the Mags on the 480?!) perhaps I could gently steer you away from something bloody awful.
Again.
Pmsl!!

Only joking Dave, think you learnt your lesson that time!

[AcidicDavey]

Hey, I bought them because they were cheap (for a reason!) lol
At least their replacements were right

19-06-13 001 by AcidicDavey, on Flickr

I still miss that car a lot

At least your 960 has leaf springs on the rear right? That's half price lowering right there!

Manual conversion. Well, I'd probably buy a whole donor and strip it myself. The reason I wouldn't want to fit it is because I'm a demotivated sod and it would take me a month! Don't make offers like that as I'll take you up on it , loads of cider round these parts

[Doingitsideways]

Even better Dave, it only has one leaf spring, it runs transversely and is fixed in the middle.

Actually, scrap that. It's worse. Much worse.

It's made of fibreglass and is pretty much impossible to lower, it can't be decambered ad it's not steel and as the the axle doesn't go over it like a traditional leaf, so lowering blocks are out of the question.
Even better, it has Nivos, so change them for regular shocks and it just sits on the bump stops!

Still, that seems to work my 480!

Go on, get another!

[AcidicDavey]

Ah, you make something which should be rather simple sound impossible, well done Volvo

I hadn't seen another 480 in months and then today I see a Flame Red Celebration, reg beginning N312 just 2 minutes from my house. It's a sign

As you may remember me saying in the past, I do actually know where a Black 480 Manual Turbo is being stored in a farmyard 10 miles or so away.
I would love to take it on but I can only afford to run one car at a time hence my Alfa is sat there since March. I do want to buy more cars and would love a 480 Turbo but with the way things are it just isn't going to happen.

Believe me, I have nearly bought many cars recently. Jaguar XJ, BMW Z3, BMW 325ti, Alfa Spider, Alfa GTV V6, Renault Clio 182, even a Volvo 440 in Hereford that I won on eBay that I bid on because it was in Hereford but the seller refused to sell it as it sold poorly (dick!). Many cars I've bid on but slipped through my fingers. There is actually a Silver V70 R that I know of in Hereford that I'm tempted by, it is an auto but if was a manual I'd already have it...

[Doingitsideways]

Jesus Dave, you're a freaking nightmare!!

Someone should probably lock you up to save you from yourself!

[AcidicDavey]

Right, I've been playing garage today and been fitting the coilovers.

Fronts on, piece of piss obviously. I reused the top mount plates but replaced the rubber spring mounts, didn't even need spring compressors, nice one Volvo . It's about 100mm lower at the front

The rears however....
Getting the old springs out, PITA! Too many bloody arms and what not!
We've managed to install one side before running out of daylight but the adjustable platform for the spring is just spinning the whole thing with the C spanner rather than just the purple part of the platform which is threaded. GRRRR!
It's no lower on the one rear side that has the new bits installed. Maybe it is still being propped up by the nivo on the otherside?

We'll continue tomorrow with happier news hopefully....bloody AWD!

[AcidicDavey]

Right I hadn't had chance to fit the new suspension to the remaining corner yesterday, it will have to wait until Saturday now.

As I said, the fronts are on and so is one of the rear corners.

I did want it raked down at the front but this is a bit much! pmsl
23-11-14 001 by AcidicDavey, on Flickr

I've literally wound them down as far as I can and still get in the drive, on the strut I am one inch off the lowest point of threaded section if that makes sense...

Here is a comparison between the standard Nivo and spring vs the KWs.
Rear Shocks - Old vs New by AcidicDavey, on Flickr

And surely these front springs are knackered? lol
Old Front Struts by AcidicDavey, on Flickr

Even though the one rear nivo is removed and the spring adjuster wound all the way down the rear sits level? Very strange...
Just need to get the final rear corner installed

As you may have seen elsewhere I've got new wheels going on soon. I've mentioned many times that there is a set of wheels I wanted when the car is down and I've finally found a square set. Probably my favourite wheel of all time! They're currently in for refurb and and adaptors (because they're not 5x108) are on order. Exciting times...

[Doingitsideways]

And now my 960 reclaims it's place as VPCUK's king of ground clearance!!

Does look loads better... At the front!

Gonna look epic on those wheels, Dave

[Ettienne]

I made up an adaptor bracket for the rear of my awd to use standard fwd rear shocks and found another off the shelf spring to fit.

I also fitted s60r rear calipers, as well as Porsche fronts, made a big difference.

Does look good though.

[AcidicDavey]

Thanks Steve!

I can assure you, the impact is much bigger in person, I keep accidentally kicking the front bumper lol

Edit: 2nd Steve, Porsche bbk might be quite appropriate soon

[Biff]

Well done mate! Big bucks on the kw's.
I'm pretty sure you will always have rake, the awds don't drop much.

[AcidicDavey]

Cheers Biff!
I'd like to think the rear can be dropped a lot too as the new components are simply so much shorter but then I understand there may be limitations with all them bloody arms etc.
It's hard to say until the rears are fully fitted as I've never seen another AWD with this kit on. I want 'rakage' but not this much lol

[Doingitsideways]

I really am ££££ at keeping secrets, Dave.

Tick tock, tick tock...

[AcidicDavey]

Don't worry Steve, you can do it!

I dropped the centre caps off at the wheel guy today, there are about 4 different designs for the cars these are off and I got the ones I wanted
Told him I changed my mind on the colour since dropping them on Thursday, doh! He hadn't started on actually painting them so all is good.

There are a lot of ££££ talkers in this industry. When I was at the tyre fitters he asked me if I was getting them refurbed and I said yeah and he handed me a business card and said this bloke is great, £35 a wheel and does a great job. Great I though and when I got there I told him his recommendation and he said '£35!? We charge £65 +Vat per wheel.' That was just for the faces! Why the hell did the tyre fitter tell me £35?!
££££!

Adaptors are on their way, just tyres and wheel nuts to go

[RollingThunder]

Are they 2 piece split rims Dave? If so split them yourself and save a wedge I paid £60 each for mine to be done - but I had to split them, and then reassemble and re-torque them myself afterwards. It did save almost exactly 50% v the most expensive quote I had though!

If they're single piece, then my last set cost me £40 each. No bad really.

[AcidicDavey]

Nah Sam, they're single piece, can't be dealing with cleaning splits anymore especially as I'd have to have polished lips still

I would have a set of Tritons, the 18 inch version of the Propus but they're so rare

Love the props but we need 18s now