Volvo never made an XC or off-road version of the Volvo 940. All the more reason for LucaCarMods to make one himself.

As you may know, LucaCarMods.com supplies BC-Racing coilover kits for the Volvo 940 but, until recently, no“Volvo 940 Lift Kits“. As being a winter project, we set out to see how it is possible to relatively easily raise a Volvo 940 about 10-15 inches and give the 940 a tough off-road look.

Click here to go to the Volvo 940 Lift kit product page

How are we going to raise the Volvo 940?

When raising a car, there are three options commonly used:

Bodylift/subframe elevator
With a body elevator, you put spacers between the cab and the frame of the car. You often see this on pickup trucks or other ladder-frame vehicles. The subframe elevator is possible on many more cars. This involves placing spacers between the front and rear subframe and the car. This causes the suspension to come lower in relation to the chassis.Neither method gives additional suspension travel. So you only raise the car.
Long travel suspension
These are sets that you will often find on rally cars and better off-road vehicles. The shock absorbers and springs of these sets are many times longer and provide longer suspension travel. Raising the car in this way also actually improves handling for off-road use.
Larger tires, Spring strut extension/spring spacers
The easiest and budget-friendly way to raise a Volvo 940 is to install spacers at the rear springs, lengthen the front struts and mount larger tires for better looks and extra height.

Volvo 940 – 235/75/15 off-road tires, extend front struts 75mm and install spring spacers

Great Toyo Open Country A/T 235/75/15 tires!

Let’s start at the beginning. The Volvo 940 has standard tires sizes 195/65/15 or 205/60/15 which are fine for normal use, however, if we are going to raise the Volvo 940 considerably we will also get larger All Terain tires from Toyo. To be exact, the 235/75/15 Toyo Open Country A/T; these have a very sporty look but the tread is relatively quiet on the highway and provides adequate grip.

Larger tires fill the wheel arches better and ensure that the first few inches of extra ground clearance are already gained.

In the image below it is easy to see what the difference in tire size does. Overall, the 235/75/15 tires are about 10cm higher than the original tire size. This results in a gain of 5cm additional bottom clearance.

Now you may think; 5cm that’s easily gained, I just mount bigger tires. Since the tires are many times larger than original (and we want the Volvo 940 even higher), space will have to be made in the wheel wells so that the Toyo Open Country A/T tires will not run.

Raise front end 75mm

To achieve a total increase of about 125mm and to ensure that the tires do not run on, the front struts will have to be lengthened between 60 and 75mm. The tires do not run into the spring plates at this height.

After disassembling the struts, remove the coil spring and shock absorber.

After removing the spring, you will find a snap ring that leaves the shock absorber in place. Spray it liberally with WD-40 or other penetrating oil as desired, let it soak in for about 10 minutes before trying to tap (pound) the ring loose. The ring can be enormously tight, the use of a good mallet is recommended.

After the shock absorber is removed from the strut, the grinding/sawing work can begin. This, then, is “the point of no return. We cut the strut at exactly 27 cm measured from the steering knuckle, this distance gives you enough room to weld without the spring plate getting in the way. An added benefit is; the higher you cut and weld the less the material will warp along its entire length.

After marking the 27cm distance, a long line can be drawn perpendicular to this marking so that the position of the spring plate remains exactly the same relative to the stub axle. Measure everything 2x more. Next, place a hose clamp around the strut so you can be sure the cut will be just about 100% straight.

After cutting through the strut, we clean the strut completely in the welding area and as you can see below also a V-groove at the part that will be welded. This is an absolute MUST!!! This is because it ensures that the weld gets 100% penetration with the correct settings on the welding machine. If you do not do this, there is a weld ON the material which is many times weaker than a weld that is 100% through.

With a fitting bushing, we ensure that all parts are perfectly aligned while bonding the 75mm additional length that will be added to this strut.

A piece of 75mm strut tube was added between the cut parts. This then also gives the 75mm extra ride height to the Volvo 940. With the fitting sleeve, all parts are properly aligned and can be stitched. Make sure that the position of the spring plate and stub axle also remain the same in relation to each other, this is easy to check with the marks made on both parts.

Here you can clearly see that there is a deep V-groove that allows the weld to flow nicely deep into the material. First secure everything with 4 tack welds, check that the bush can still move smoothly through the entire strut. If so the whole thing can be welded.

After welding, you may have had very good penetration and the weld on the inside has become a little too thick so the shock absorber and won’t go in. This is easily made smooth again with a burr cutter.

Since the shock absorber tube is 75mm longer, there will also need to be a 75mm bushing under the tube to support the shock absorber. If you do not do this then there will be no damping at all for the first 75mm.

See below the final result of the 75mm extended Volvo 940 struts.

Raise rear with spacers

The rear of a Volvo 940 is very easy to do with the LCM Volvo 940 3 inch elevator spacers! These are spacers that should be mounted between the springs and the chassis. You mount these by putting a jack under the axle so that when you loosen the shock absorber and spring, there will be no undue stress on the brake hoses.

After loosening the lower shock absorber bolt and removing the spring, the LCM Volvo 940 3-inch elevator spacer can be installed. You screw this on in the same place where the spring used to attach to the chassis. Then place the spring back and bolt it to the spacer. Note: Always make sure the tension on the brake hoses is minimal.

With the Volvo 940 elevator kit, you use the original shock absorbers to ensure that the rear axle cannot extend further than standard. The maximum rebound of the rear axle with standard shock absorbers, in fact, there is a safe margin at the brake hoses. Installing longer shock absorbers can cause brake hoses to rupture! So always use the original and check that there is enough slack on the brake hose.

Below we see a photo of the design the 75mm/3 inch spacers that come in the kit.

A test spacer was used in making this post, it is purely for sizing and testing the kit.

Test Spacer 3″

Stabilization Bar Spacers

Since we would like to keep using all the original components of the Volvo 940, the original stabilizer bar will also have to be lowered using a spacer.

Modifying bumpers and painting sills

The lifting of the Volvo 940 is now actually finished. Still, there are a few things we perform to give the Volvo an even tougher look! First of all, you gain tremendously in terms of looks and height when you remove the front bumper lip and paint the front bumper black. We painted the front bumper black with a stone chip coating which looks very cool and makes the Volvo 940 look a lot taller.

On this 940, the sills have some spots here and there or are dented. We also provided these with a stone chip coating so that it looks neat again and the car looks taller.

Finally, the choice was made to also cut the rear bumper in half so that the rear looks much higher. This is of course optional but we think the result is very successful. The Volvo 940 really looks like an Off-Road vehicle.