Hello,

I have a 1991 740 T sedan. It has 187k. I went to pass someone yesterday and it kicked down and then back to 4th with a hard shift. Went to pass another car and it kicked down but then felt like it was slipping and would not shift back into the next gear (4th). I let off the gas and it did go back into 4th/od. Is the tranny done for? The kick down cable looked ok, I did not disconnect it. The trans seems to be operating fine outside of this. I have changed the fluid via the small drain plug on the pan, about 2 qts at a time, at various times since owning, last time about three months ago. Fluid level is good, first thing I checked when I got home. Transmission is a AW-71.

Thanks,
Mike

 

Hey Mike,

Transmissions on these are supposedly good for 200k or 250k miles https://www.volvoclub.org.uk/faq/Tra...ansmissionLife , so you may be nearing the end of life for that tranny, depending on how it was driven (if a lot of city miles, probably nearing needing a rebuild). You may want to try a full flush per, and/or adjust the kickdown cable per the instructions in that FAQ. The hard shifting might also be due to worn check valves, which is a bit of a challenge.

The tranny is the weakest part of these great cars IMO. I'm currently looking at trying to rebuild one for my bricks (I have two). Was also thinking if I was successful of offering a rebuild service at a more reasonable price than the places I've seen, assuming there was enough demand for it.

Good luck,

Dave

 

Thanks Dave,

As far as I know, it was driven mainly highway. I bought it w/ 137k 3 years ago and I use it on the highway. I hear you on the tranny being the weak link. I actually bought the filter kit 2 years ago and then realized how difficult it was to do with the fill tube attachment. I tried going about it by removing the starter bolts but could not get one loose and did not want to snap that! I am thinking I might end up cutting the fill tube and use a compression fitting, which was mentioned in same link you attached. I do really like this car. Never had a Volvo before and am glad to picked up this model with rear wheel drive. It is a fun car and rides great. And it is easy to work on for the most part (except tranny fill tube!lol). I am going to do the filter this weekend as someone on another forum I posted in said he had the same problem on his '89 and that usually the filter gets clogged and needs changing. So....I will let you know how it goes. That would be good of you to offer a rebuild service. I have not even checked on how much it would be for a rebuild but probably not cost effective for a car I bought for 1k. If it does not help this weekend, I might look for a used unit from the junkyard.

Link to other forum:
https://www.brickboard.com/RWD/index...709&show_all=1

Thanks,
Mike

 

make sure the trnasmission throttle cable is moving smoothly in and out. when mine jammed part way out, it made a mess of the shift points and I had to limp home

 

pierce,

Will do. It seemed to be ok, I operated it at the engine side, but will look closer this weekend. I assume you are talking about the kickdown cable?

 

thats what its commonly called, yeah, but its not actually a kickdown cable, it tells the transmission where the throttle is, so the transmission modulates its shift points accordingly, and linearly.

when the transmission in our 240 started to fail around 250K or 300k miles, it would slip under heavy throttle, but that was it, it still shifted smoothly, it just had more slip than I liked. we had our transmission rebuilt rather than swapped in for a mass rebuilld, and that rebuilt transmission was still doing fine at 500k miles when we had to retire the car to tthe great scrap heap due to water intrusion making it all moldy inside.

200k miles is about where most turbo trannies fail, I think... my 740T had a new tranny before I bought it at around 200k (from the adult daughter of the original owner). its probably around 300k now (I put about 50-60k on it, then sold it to my son's GF) and is still going strong. I drove that T-wagon hard, but its babied now.

 

If you don't mind me asking, how much was the rebuild? I know it was probably a little while ago, just wondering...500, 1000, 1500?

Did it slip in all gears? Mine seems fine except for the problem I am having.

 

long time ago, like 25 years, and I think it was close to $2000 including the R&R.

last transmission we did, on a 1994 Mercedes, the rebuilt tranny was $1800 after core refund, and it was $1000 to remove and reinstall. It was worth it on my wife's E320 wagon, which was in near perfect condition otherwise.

 

Ouch, ok thanks. I bought the car for 1k so have to make a decision...maybe a used one from the boneyard and install myself.

 

just sayin'....

 

HAHAHA...yep, about sums it up! I have to say, it has served me well for 3 years and 50k, so not bad for 1k, probably 2k with all the work I have done.

 

These cars are great if you want to drive cheap. It certainly helps to be mechanically inclined (and have this board, many thanks to all you guys, esp Pierce and Lev). If you can get a parts car and have a place to store it, that's even better.

I get closeouts from RockAuto, you can get loaded calipers, rotors, brake pads, etc. very inexpensively that way. AFA the most major component (transmission), you can still get used ones. I kept a good one with a bad torque converter that I'm going to swap with a known good one, assuming it's compatible. Then I'm going to try rebuilding one of these. Assuming it's successful, I might offer to do it for people (I could install and test the rebuild on one of my cars). Not sure what's it would be worth to people though, since it looks like it would take you about a day even after you got good at it, and hundreds of dollars of parts.

Alternately, you can replace the drivetrain with a Chevy 350 TBI/trans out of a C1500, and then it's unlikely you'll have much trouble with weak transmissions after that (although your fuel economy might suffer, hehe).

 

Hmmm...SBC drivetrain sounds enticing...I have been an owner of SBC's for 33 years, pretty familiar with them! Summer car is a 1972 Heavy Chevy, 350-TH-350-12 bolt posi 3.73....fun! Not good on gas!lol.
I did change the fluid and filter this weekend. It went smooth. The big b-nut on the pan came off really quite easy. It seems that someone put some thread lock on the threads though, it was tight loosening up. The filter was pretty clean and the pan. So long story short, it did not fix the problem, still kicks down at 60 then starts to free rev or not shift back to high gear. I did figure out I can manually shift to 3rd then up shift with the shifter and seems to work fine. Weird.

I am going to look into a junk yard buy and maybe go that route.

Thanks,
Mike

 

Red Blocks are getting scarce in the junkyards. Used to be there were sometimes 20+ 240, 740, 940 but no more... Makes it much harder to buy a trashed one and make it nice--new parts are not an option, NLA or Asian knockoffs still too expensive. I've been playing with 740/940 since 1986 and I'm seeing their life arc declining...

 

squeezing a SBC into a 240/740 isn't trivial, you probably gotta fab some custom headers to make it fit, custom engine and tranny mounts, custom drive shaft. dump too much power into the dana30 rear end, and you'll be replacing that soon enough.. getting the instrument panel sorted out fully will be a challenge, too. I'd want a totally straight car with all new rubber and moving parts on the suspension. I'd want a way bigger fuel tank.

 

lev I hear you. Last year I was at the junk yard and they had a 89-92 I think 940 there that was complete, looked like it was just brought in...should have bought the whole thing! Was an auto and everything.NLA?

 

Yeah, I have seen some youtube vids on the sbc conversion, but it would def. be a labor of love.More trouble than it is worth, seems like as you stated.

 

NLA = No Longer Available, finding replacement bits for a 7/9 series can be harder than a 240 due to them being less popular, less profit to be had. 200k Is about right for the lifespan of these transmissions, my '91 Turbo 740 was loosing reverse at about 197k.

Wasnt the AW71 used in Toyota trucks and 4 cylinder Jeep Cherokees?

 

AFAIK, Toyota and Isuzu, don't know about Jeeps. I am going to drive it until it dies!

 

I have a 1994 940 Turbo for sale with 75k miles (supported by Carfax). Mechanically it's great but it has a lot of sun fade and a couple of dents. The car is in San Diego.