jarods

I pulled a 27 spline LSD from a 1990 Volvo 740 Wagon (My guess was it is a G80) intending to swap it into my Dana 30 front on my 96 Jeep Cherokee XJ.

I thought they were direct swap (with the exception of needing to shave the axle of the Jeep); however, the ring gear on the Volvo LSD is bigger and the LSD wont even fit into the housing of the Jeep front.

Any expertise or identifying information of the Volvo LSD/Jeep Dana 30 I have would be appreciated.

TRCM

Was it from a solid axle turbo wagon ? Those are the ones that are supposedly swappable.

You can get it from model wagon or sedan 900 series with turbo engine. But be careful, do not select from the Volvo 900 series which uses an independent suspension. This model is also equipped G80 locker, but uses 26 spline so it can not be used on D30. Please count the teeth or you can recognize the difference of their dimensions. G80 with 26 spline slightly smaller than a 27 spline.

Also consider this from another site:

just to clarify something, I DO NOT RECOMMEND the volvo diff, I am a volvo guy and although at some point every volvo guy considers swapping to them, they are so much weaker than the open diff that if you need the trac lock, you'd just break it anyway, and the open volvo diff is still really weak, usually the d30volvo guys jack parts from jeeps because volvo took the d30 and did a lot of their own changes, although it is true usually the diffs and some versions of gears swap

its a spring loaded centrifugal toothed pawl. basically, if one wheel isn't spinning, once enough rpms of the axle are reached the toothed pawl catches instantly, and catastrophically in most cases, locks the axles

it was designed for low powered engines on snow, where lock up would basically cause equal spin, it was not designed for power or vehicle weight anywhere near a jeep, and it was deffinetly not made for big tires and low gears and t cases

put that same plan into action on pavement or wheeling, and basically it lets one wheel slip until your motor is up in the revs and the other wheel really has some momentum, and suddenly BAM, instant tooth shattering lockup

things get really fun when those snapped off teeth find their way into the ring and pinion, which considering the life of a jeep axle, will probably happen much faster, a sedate volvo can break off teeth until they pile up in the case and reach the gears, I imagine one tooth bouncing around would probably do you guys in, then you need a new diff, new gears, and possibly a whole new housing depending on the carnage

I do know of some early versions that use an actual dana lsd, but the volvo exploding joke diff is far more common, and generally what your going to find on anything built since the early 80s, it also doesn't help that the weak diff actually looks like it would be pretty strong, some almost look like a spool, until their egg shell thin casting grenades.

another caution on the volvo diffs, although the dana design has ratio splits for the carriers, and dana proper volvo axles do as well, some of the later versions volvo actually went over to using a single size carrier for all ratios, and just using some really wacky thick or thin ring and pinion gears to make it work, although i haven't heard of strength issues with them despite their sketchy looks, they are fairly hard to find replacements for if you want to change ratios and some guys have had problems with getting standard gears to clear the housings and vice a versa, plus they usually have fairly steep ratios



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