Volvo 760 Turbo Diesel at wrecker yard

Steve Addy

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Aug 7, 2002
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Iowa
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97 Mk3
Spotted this today, it was a sad sight, a 1985 Volvo 760GLE Turbo Diesel. Didn't snap any of the full car but here are a few tidbits.

Looks like the turbo is siezed. Based on the condition of the paint it had sat in some yard for years. It wasn't great weather so I didn't fiddle with it at all, we were headed to the next yard.

Manual trans, fully loaded, top of the line Volvo in it's day. Haven't seen a Volvo Turbo Diesel in over a decade.





 

vanbcguy

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Feb 22, 2013
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'93 Passat - AHU mTDI with GTB1756VK
Wow, would have been a great car in its day! And pretty familiar for anyone who has worked on a 1.6td ;-)
 

v8volvo

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Aug 1, 2004
Location
WA
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2001 Jetta
Cool find. Looking at a few details (throttle cable, core support, p/s pump), that looks to be an early 1983, not an '85. When the TD first came out in '83 it was the fastest production diesel vehicle that had ever been sold up to that point.... When this car was new it would have been something special.

Fun fact - those early turbodiesels also all got a special "long range" package including an increased-capacity 22 gallon fuel tank, for a cruising range of almost 700 miles. Not too many other vehicles that could do this until the TDI came along. If you look in the trunk you'll see the extra section above the rear axle. The ski pass-through door in the rear seat that other Volvos had was disabled on these cars because the tank extension was in the way.

Too bad it ended up in the boneyard, looks fairly intact. Lots of good hard-to-find parts there, injection lines, cruise bits, IP, vacuum pump.

If you want to harvest anything, you can probably find some eager buyers at www.d24t.com...
 
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Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Cool find. Looking at a few details (throttle cable, core support, p/s pump), that looks to be an early 1983, not an '85. When the TD first came out in '83 it was the fastest production diesel vehicle that had ever been sold up to that point.... When this car was new it would have been something special.

Fun fact - those early turbodiesels also all got a special "long range" package including an increased-capacity 22 gallon fuel tank, for a cruising range of almost 700 miles. Not too many other vehicles that could do this until the TDI came along. If you look in the trunk you'll see the extra section above the rear axle. The ski pass-through door in the rear seat that other Volvos had was disabled on these cars because the tank extension was in the way.

Too bad it ended up in the boneyard, looks fairly intact. Lots of good hard-to-find parts there, injection lines, cruise bits, IP, vacuum pump.

If you want to harvest anything, you can probably find some eager buyers at www.d24t.com...
You're probably right about the year, I couldn't remember if it was 83 or 85. I should have taken more body pics, it wasn't all that bad but it was a little mossy on the horizontal surfaces.

Yes, the 2.4 is just part of the same engine family that the 1.6D/TD is from, which includes the Audi 2.0 D/TD as well. It makes it very easy to work on these when they're all related.

The IP seemed to be free so maybe the car went down due to the bad turbo, who knows.

I thought it was odd that this top line model would have a manual gearbox but also thought that was pretty cool, you never see the manual trans in the upper range cars, MB is pretty rare for finding a 5 speed gearbox in the W126 or W140 cars unless it's the S280...which is the base car.

I might try and go back to do some harvesting here. I would have but the sun was fading the it was getting colder, besides, we wanted to try and make it to another yard.

Also, I think there must have been a window open a bit on this, there was a lot of leafy debris in the car that probably blew in at some point, and the interior was nothing to write home about either.

Then again I've always wanted one of these cars, especially with the manual gearbox, so if it would have popped up on CL I would have gone to look at it. Also, based on the center caps inside the car it had my favorite of all the Volvo 7 series wheels, the long spoke pattern.

 
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Ski in NC

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Wilmington, NC USA
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2001 Jetta ALH 5sp stock
Looks like a 4sp shifter... with what? an overdrive button on the knob?

Would love to snatch that motor/tranny and drop it in a older volvo wagon from the 70's or so. Love that body style.
 

nokivasara

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Jan 25, 2008
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Sweden @ Lat 61N
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Tiguan 4-motion, Golf mk7
Looks like a 4sp shifter... with what? an overdrive button on the knob?

Would love to snatch that motor/tranny and drop it in a older volvo wagon from the 70's or so. Love that body style.
Yep, overdrive button on top.

I would have thought the BMW 524TD was faster than the Volvo...
 

Ski in NC

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Wilmington, NC USA
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2001 Jetta ALH 5sp stock
So is OD unit on output shaft behind the rest of the box? So with OD active it affects ratio in all gears? If so, Neat!!
 

Steve Addy

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Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Looks like a 4sp shifter... with what? an overdrive button on the knob?

Would love to snatch that motor/tranny and drop it in a older volvo wagon from the 70's or so. Love that body style.
I would probably find a nice condition 9 series wagon and convert it. All that cargo space would be so nice!

So is OD unit on output shaft behind the rest of the box? So with OD active it affects ratio in all gears? If so, Neat!!
OD unit is integral and sits at the back end of the trans. I don't know if the OD is restricted on lower gears or not.
 

nokivasara

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Sweden @ Lat 61N
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The OD only works in fourth gear.

Edit: I Think it's just a switch on the gear lever (to see it's in 4th) so it would probably be quite easy to get it to work in all gears. But why?
 
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Ski in NC

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Location
Wilmington, NC USA
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2001 Jetta ALH 5sp stock
Ha! I guess no good reason to use in the lower gears, maybe just less shifting during an easy accel. I just like fiddling with gears!!!
 

v8volvo

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Location
WA
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2001 Jetta
Yeah, M46 trans = 4spd with button-operated planetary overdrive, same basic setup as was used on old Triumphs, etc. Pretty good unit actually, Volvo had it for decades and it was fairly durable... even in the early 90s, after they had already started offering a "true" 5-speed gearbox for the NA gassers, they kept putting the 4+OD M46 in the turbodiesels and turbo gassers since it was harder to break. Only bad part was various electrical bits in the system that could make trouble, especially that 4th gear inhibitor switch, and especially when on the road somewhere far from home... :rolleyes:

Running with the 4th gear switch bypassed allows overdrive operation in all gears, but the reason it's blocked normally is because the OD's cone clutch isn't strong enough to handle full engine torque in the lower gears and it self-destructs if used in reverse. With the interlock disabled it's kinda fun to play with all those different ratios as long as you're staying light on the throttle - but if you forget to disengage it before backing up, it's toast!

I put one of these in a 9 series wagon a couple years back and it was nice, but the newer car's extra weight plus an automatic trans made the performance not that exciting. Putting one in an early 240 sedan was more fun -- pretty quick with the pump turned up a bit.
 

Steve Addy

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Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
Yeah, M46 trans = 4spd with button-operated planetary overdrive, same basic setup as was used on old Triumphs, etc. Pretty good unit actually, Volvo had it for decades and it was fairly durable... even in the early 90s, after they had already started offering a "true" 5-speed gearbox for the NA gassers, they kept putting the 4+OD M46 in the turbodiesels and turbo gassers since it was harder to break. Only bad part was various electrical bits in the system that could make trouble, especially that 4th gear inhibitor switch, and especially when on the road somewhere far from home... :rolleyes:

Running with the 4th gear switch bypassed allows overdrive operation in all gears, but the reason it's blocked normally is because the OD's cone clutch isn't strong enough to handle full engine torque in the lower gears and it self-destructs if used in reverse. With the interlock disabled it's kinda fun to play with all those different ratios as long as you're staying light on the throttle - but if you forget to disengage it before backing up, it's toast!

I put one of these in a 9 series wagon a couple years back and it was nice, but the newer car's extra weight plus an automatic trans made the performance not that exciting. Putting one in an early 240 sedan was more fun -- pretty quick with the pump turned up a bit.
I had wondered about weight vs the earlier cars but since I don't typically tax my car too much I'd probably get by. It certainly couldn't be any worse than my 86 Golf diesel was...haha.

I think all that space in the 9 wagon would be nice to have. Certainly there are things it can't haul but it might be an interesting vehicle to have for a while.
 
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