Hi all,

I am new on here and new to the Volvo game. I recently bought a 1987 Volvo 740T. All in all a decent and clean car. However it does have some transmissions issues. I have found out that it has the OD block off plate installed, but the car does not have first gear. Does doing anything with the block off plate modification effect or can effect other functionality of the transmission? Any useful information would be greatly appreciated. It does have the AW70/1 transmission.

 

the OD solenoid replacement plate should have ZERO effect on 1st gear.

so even if you put the shift lever in '1', its starting in 2nd? and shifting from 1 to 2 doesn't do anything, but when you shift to 'D' it goes 3rd, 4th(overdrive) ? (my 92 745 turbo will shift into OD as low as 25 or 30mph if I'm just cruising along).

if the other gears aren't slipping under hard acceleration, my guess is there's some flug stuck in a valve port thats preventing it from shifting into 1st. the cure for this would be to drop the transmission pan and clean the labyrinth, replacing any worn valve bits. this is a fairly tricky process as there's quite a lot of complex hydraulic control stuff in the pan stack, and has to be done under clean(!) conditions as any tiny bits of grit that get into the transmission do major damage.


do check your kickdown cable, that it has the right amount of slack at idle, and that you feel the 'cam' notch somewhat before the gas pedal is pressed all the way to the floor.