my standard trans 850 has always shifted beautifully. when returning from a recent 300 mile trip the shifts starting to get very difficult and i would have to muscle it from 3rd to 4th, etc. most recently it has been making a kind of rattling noise when starting out in 1st.

i haven't driven the car in a few days. anyone know what might be causing this? throwout bearing perhaps?

 

Throw out bearing would effect each gear equally including reverse as it's function is to isolate the revolving force of the engine being transferred to the input shaft.
The input shaft is used for all gears so the fact you are having problems with the shifting between two specific gears would more likely be a synchronizer ring as there is one per gear or possibly a bent shift fork that isn't applying appropriate pressure to the gear to slide it from one position to another.
Until it's opened up ... it's really a guessing game.

As always the first thing to do would be to visually inspect the linkage as there would always be a chance a bushing broke, jammed or something hit the linkage and bent something. If you pull the retaining pins to remove the linkage from the arms at the transmission and try to move the arm you can isolate the problem to internal or external.
I'm not that familiar with this exact manual transmission so I don't know which of the two cables you need to pull to check the 3-4 shift.
Easy enough if you have someone to shift it as you watch which cable is trying to move.

 

Opps, didn't catch the "3rd to 4th, etc". It's that "etc" part that worries me. If it's hard to shift into more than just 3-4 than yes you might have a throwout bearing that is causing a problem. On an 850 it doesn't appear to be adjustable so you should inspect the master and slave for any signs of leakage. You could try bleeding the system to see if you get any air which would keep the throwout bearing from fully dis-engaging the clutch which would cause hard shifting. That or with the rattle something might have broken or cracked on the pressure plate or friction plate.

 

my '94 started getting difficult to shift when the throwout bearing went bad and finally ate the fingers off of the pressure plate. The throwout bearing does get pretty noisy by the time it gets to that point.

...Lee

 

Mine became difficult to shift when one of the plastic tipped shift forks broke off so there was not even pressure when it came time to mate the syncros.

 

so, i finally brought it to a volvo shop yesterday. they just called and told me that the clutch needs to be replaced, needs a new pressure plate, throwout bearing, etc. totaling at least $1,300. i'm thinking i'm probably going to bail on this car. it's been good to me for 3 years now, but i don't think i can justify continuing to put money into it.
i took the car on a long trip about 150 miles each way all highway. the clutch has always functioned fine and upon returning it just started to get difficult to shift. i know nothing about clutches, but why would this happen after a trip where i hardly used it? or is it just a coincidence?

 

I'd vote for just ,,, stuff happens. It sounds like it was just it's time to give it up. Something finally reached it's braking point and let go. Kind of like a starter. Been working fine for years and one morning you go out and hit the key and nothing. Sometimes you get a warning, sometimes you don't.
Sorry.

Where are you located ??