This is how you remove a 850 Manual Shift ****
First here is it intact.

Remove the door under the handbrake


then you stick your finger into the whole and hit the shift boot release.


For the next section i made a tool out of 1/2" copper pipe to stick up and release the 3 clips of the boot.
just cut the pipe in half and file down the tip


so you insert the copper tool and force it upward with a vice grip. When it goes up under the clips, it takes a good shot to take the boot down


Then you clip a good vicegrip onto the shaft about 1" below the ****


Then you get a second vice grip and put a rag between the **** and the second vice grip. The pry up on the ****


bob's your uncle the **** pops gently off.

 

Two questions, Matt. When you say: "so you insert the copper tool and force it upward with a vice grip. When it goes up under the clips, it takes a good shot to take the boot down", what are you hitting? The copper pipes upward? and with what? (I gather you have to hit both clips the same time or it wouldn't work, hence, the copper pipes on both sides?) You can't just hit them with a flat head screwdriver and hammer? Thanks. Great pics. Makes it very clear.

 

you have to hit the copper tools up into the shift **** boot clips. Then once your sure the tools have gone under the boot clips, you have to hit down on the shift boot.. It might take a good hit.. i think i wrapped it with a rag and lightly hit it with a mallet..

 

Matt,
did you manage to get the seat out? I finally got it out but cannot put it back in where it grabs the ball at its bottom to keep the shift in place. I've tried a bamboo tube (since I had no pipe) over it with a rubber mallet, so on, but it goes down only so far. Have you managed you do that yet?

 

you talking about the " ball seat" the white piece of plastic with 2 clips on either side that clip on the aluminum case. Yes, i got that on, honstly it was much harder to do that than the entire rest of the job put together.

I got it on with my hands i forced on it till i was red in the face and my hands were in so much pain. But i got it.. since then ive heard that the best way is to actually remove the entire assembly and install it with a clamp.
option 2: you can try heating it a little with a heat gun maybe it'll soften it up a little.

it seriously takes the strength of 10 men!

 

That's what I was afraid of: it wasn't easy taking it off either. Should have left the old one on even if it were cracked since it would never have come out from just shifting the gears. But it's out now and the new one doesn't want to go on. I tried putting the seat in hot water but still didn't work. I would hate to take out the whole assembly as it looks like many other connections have to be removed. I'll try your "red in the face" method. It's now about an eighth of an inch away from snapping in place but it's so tough. Thanks

 

i think at one point i opened the sunroof and stood on it!

 

No sunroof on mine: maybe I should cut one out to put the ball seat in? Ha! Ha!

 

@matt01

Is this thing a sticky yet? I have referenced it in three threads but could not find it.

 

If you guys think this is the best way to deal with it I can post it in the DIY thread?

 

I think its worthy

 

Done...

 

well.. i know that its better than the way volvo tells us to do it.. its much cheaper too!

thanks

 

Elsewhere (Volvo manual) the ball seat is "tapped" back in with a tool. I can't upload the pics since they're considered too big.

 

Resize them with the windows resizer tool or some other graphic program.

 

Well Matt. A Volvo mechanic lent me the official volvo tool to tap the ball seat back into the gear housing area. But I manged to only crack the seat and now has to be towed to volvo. My advice: don't fool with the ball seat even if it's crack as long as it's in place. It'll never come out from just shifting. By the way, I can still shift to different gears so should be able to drive it to volvo but don't want to mess with that. Do you know if shifting it with the engine on (to put the car in a position for the tow truck to take it) will ruin the transmission or gear box? Thanks

 

its impossible to damage anything, since its cable driven..

I drove my car 2 days with a broken ball seat.

 

Matt, that's good to know. But was the ball seat still in place? Mine is totally removed so the shift has no tension whatsoever.

 

Matt, thanks for letting me know. I did manage to drive (back up) the car out of the drive way without the ball seat and the stick shift like a wet noodle (no tension whatsoever) but it still engages the gears. Now do I have the guts to take it on the highway down to Volvo itself? All this suggests that some sort of retaining gizmo to keep the shift more or less vertical, other than the $60 ball seat from Volvo will actually work.

 

with it complelty removed it might be hard.. when i drove mine the inside part was still there the top part ( clip ) was completely gone. i found that you have to push down on the lever as you shift..