new member, long time volvo owner

[gunny]

hi all, thought I'd break down and join a forum. I've had quite a few Volvos over the years, from the early '80s bricks to my current '92 960. I do my own wrench work, never trusted someone else to do what I could. I just finished doing a nivomat conversion on the 960 that was an excellent mod, gotta hand it to IPD. I also have some tips regarding the conversion if anyone is planning to do the same.

[precopster]

Welcome to MVS!! The '92 960 was a hellofa car and I'm not parting with mine in a hurry, but age is a factor as almost everything has been replaced by now.

Thought you might like this: https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =2&t=43798

I just finished converting a friend's '92 960 to non-nivomat as they were too costly for him and he also had the wrong springs fitted making the car too high. Is yours a wagon or sedan?

[gunny]

I missed typed in my post, I have a '94 960, sometimes my typing goes a bit slower than the thinking lol.

Anyways, it's the sedan in typical Volvo blue. Fairly low mileage at 190k I bought the car after our '86 240 wagon got creamed, I got rear ended by a truck load of illegals while on vacation out in Utah several years ago. Loved that 240 wagon, I was the original owner and that one had 200k on it when it was totaled.

When I got the 960 the nivomats were in good shape but last fall, they both started their death leaking and finally blew out. I let it sit for a few months until things warmed up a bit. The Passenger side spring was broke at the top and bottom coil, just inside the buckets. The only issue I had putting them in was the driver side spring just did not want to sit square in the bottom bucket. I finally got enough room to put the shock in and buttoned it up. Drove it around the block and heard this pop and checked, yep, it settled in.

I might as well give the tips in case anyone might be interested, the first one is to use a plate type internal compressor, you can get more compression with them over the double hook type {hooks at both ends} the second is instead of unbolting the control arm, use a bottle jack and 10 inch section of 4x4 and jack the suspension down until you have just enough room to clear the bucket. Buy new lower shock bolts. buy new lower shock bolts, buy new lower shock bolts ..... The red locktite Volvo uses is some super secret formula that has the ability to pull the threads out of hardened tool steel. that and my boy snapped two of them off even after soaking them with pb blaster every day for a week. I was lucky, we have a mom and pops hardware store that actually has a good selection of metric flange head bolts {grade 10.9} Get the rear end up as high as you safely can, nivomats even blown extend out, a real pain in the tukus.

My next adventure won't be so exciting, just have to replace the front struts. I'd love to find a complete set, thinking that trying to get the shock cartridge out is going to be a real pain considering rust and everything.

[precopster]

The fronts are a right PITA. You will need to purchase the cartridge; there's nothing else available to my knowledge because the stub axle is part of the shock tower.

TIPs for removal of the large flange nut is to bolt the road wheel back on to the hub and have someone stand on it while you loosen that nut with a large plumber's spanner. That was the only way to have enough leverage. Once the sway bar and tie rod are disconnected the whole thing goes pretty smoothly.

Apply RP7 or WD40 to the 23mm top nut at least 2 days PRIOR to the job. Also be very careful that you use spring compressors as the bearing plate is a 2 piece design and all the individual ball bearings will fly out if you don't hold them together while removing them. Also you'll want to clean the bearing races for the bearing plate and apply new grease. As usual you'll find EVERY bolt/nut size from 12mm ranging to 18mm being used here.

Allow at least 4 hours for the first time you do this job. Keep us posted.