I might becoming a Volvo 240 owner tomorrow.
The car has a 2,3 littre engine and a 4 speed manual gearbox.
Only 1,3 and reverse gear are working, so it needs to be changed.
Does anybody know a site or tutorial so I can see how hard this is before I actually buy the car?

Im not used to changing things like this becouse I have only had bmw's in the past

 

I don't know your level of mechanical knowledge or experience, but in general a transmission swap is not that difficult. Let's say that replacing a tail light is a 1 on the difficulty scale and rebuilding an engine is a 10, a transmission swap would be about a 4 on my scale. Could it be that the clutch is worn out or just mis-adjusted? The first thing that I would do is call around to salvage yards and Volvo repair shops and see if anyone has a replacement tranny. The cost and availability, may be the determining factor on weather or not you proceed. You may also ask the local repair shops what they would charge to do the swap. Then you can determine what your time and effort are worth in relation to having a professional shop do the work. Another thing to concider is if you have the tools and a place to do the work. You are going to need a warm dry place, and a lift would be a bonus. While you are in there you might want to do the clutch and the rear main seal as well. Volvo 240s are some of the easiest cars in the world to work on and there are lots of spare parts available (in Colorado at least). I would say, get the Hynes manual, read up on the tranny removal and go for it.

 

The volvo manual transmission is one of the easy ones. You do not have to remove the exhaust it goes to one side. I replaced the clutch on my parents 81 240 and I had the transmission out in 45 minutes! One thing though, it is heavy. You have to turn it 90 degrees for it to clear then I pulled straight back and set it on my chest. This was a mistake, I was now trapped under the car. It took me about 15 more minutes to get out from under the transmission.

try www.car-part.com for your transmission you should be able to find one for $150 or less After you have searched go to the bottom of the page and click on the page with the asterisk * It will have the lowest price or the page before that. Once you have done that and you know what the lowest price is then you can sort by distance and you can find the closest, lowest priced transmission. 5 speed is m47 4 speed with overdrive is m46 unless your volvo is older than mine.

 

i just checked for my 1988-- make that $250