Now was it the car's or your knuckles that were stripped, or both??
Well, I just took the R for a short run as I had access to the garage doors as the XC70 was out. And the answer you all wanted to know..........
Drum beat...............
No noises (currently!!) even with the radio off!! No rattles, clunks or anything else unexpected. Naturally it is not full over as now it needs an alignment even as I did try to keep the tie rods the same. I guess manufacturing tolerances are enough that the 13 turns on one side was +/- with the new part, and the same on the other. So steering wheel is can't CW slightly. This car has more alignments than almost all my cars added together over 50 years! Considering it has only clocked up around 10k miles in our ownership it has probably averaged one a year!
Oh, well. I'll get it booked into Volvo next week if I can. My wife can continue to use it for her shorter trips until then. The tires will need to be replaced next year anyway (8+ years old).
Neil.