Steering shaft speshl Volvo break-away safety U-joints are 'available' ?
The craptermarket crack & break in ~6 months give or take
..
...got one car that was otherwise dealer serviced & a nice 1-owner car from the auction like that, but I think the break happened at parking lot speeds at least?
I can sure imagine the PO being like 'ok, I'm done with this thing now!' after it was on the dealer invoice (a reputable dealer, they must not have known that what they were getting was doodoo in the blue box).
& not bad, 286K miles, 30 years, 1 car?
I'm sure he woulda kept it/kept taking it to the dealer if he coulda?
The weirdest stuff that never works on the average 240 worked on that one: seat heaters, all tailgate accessories (wiper, lock, defrost), rebuilt with NOS OEM foam driver seat, R12 A/C (tho a little marginal, but what do you expect?), all dome light switches, all greased door hinges etc...
...dedication!
Those guys at that rare locally owned dealer are family business/million years old & know the cars & customers that keep their cars forever, though...they're not the average big city corporate hustling smooth fast talking yuppie eurotrash peddlers...
The OEM, when last available were $$$. If you pressure washed them or drove around in a drippy/salt climate w/o belly pan perfectly sealing the engine bay & didn't flush & heat some extreme pressure grease into them, you will probably wish you had?
I guess you can use some alternates 'can be made to fit' & aren't known to be deadly for the V8 guys w/tight clearances?
JohnMC's build had a post about those?