'97 850 wagon 5 speed. Driving through a parking garage the other night, mainly 1st and 2nd gear. After shifting from 1st to 2nd I lost all acceleration. Girlfriend remembers hearing a pop before the issue but I didn't hear it so I can't describe it. Basically the car runs just fine but won't go anywhere in any gear. The linkage is intact and appears to be working normally as does the slave cylinder. I can't find any holes or cracks in the tranny. As the car was being loaded onto the tow truck oil came pouring out of the tranny. It appears to be coming from around the drivers side axle. I can't hear any noises coming from the tranny while the car is running or when I rotate the axles. I tried starting the car in gear to see if the clutch might be the issue as the car has over 170k miles on the original clutch but trying to start the car in any gear doesn't do anything different. It acts like it's in neutral always. I did replace both axles about a month ago and refilled the tranny with Mobil1 5w30 as was suggested in many posts in place of the OEM fluids. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance for the help.

-Brandon

 

There is a "C" clip at the inner end of each of the driveshafts. That C clip is what holds the axle in the transmission. There is a chance that when in the parking garage and turning sharply the axle pulled out. It would explain the "pop", the leakage and the immediate loss of motion in any gear.

If the outer joint developed a rip in the boot it may be a little dirty, rusted just not working smoothly and didn't allow the shaft to expand when turned sharply.
This is just a guess but it fits your description. If that is what happened it will likely need a new half shaft on that side and hopefully they inspect the other side while they have it. Make sure they replace the inner seal on the transmission if they replace the shaft. It's just cheap insurance that you don't have it start to leak in a couple months and then have to have someone go back in to replace a seal that's around seven bucks.
The drivers side is the short one.

http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/for...hp?f=1&t=30697
http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/for...hp?f=1&t=44890

 

Opps, didn't catch that you did the axles recently. You may not have seated one of the shafts all the way in and it pulled out.

 

I like Kiss4aFrogs idea. Also, when you move the shift ****, do you feel it going into gear or does it feel loose?

 

Feels completely normal. I did pull the drivers side wheel off yesterday to get a better view of things and noticed the axle was out about .25" from tranny. I could pull on it and push on it a bit. It was definitely loose. I didn't think that was the problem because the other side wasn't spinning. If one side is loose, why wouldn't the other wheel still spin? Is it because it's not a limited slip? Could this have caused any internal damage?

Thanks again. I'm new to Volvos and am just getting to know this car.

 

The technical term is "one wheel wonder"

If you get a wheel on ice it will spin and spin and spin and the other wheel will not. That is the big drawback to trying to build a higher horsepower automatic equiped 850. You can get limited slip in the manual but not in the automatic.

If you have the Tracs option it just applies the brake to the spinning wheel and tries to redirect the torque to the "good" wheel. Like ABS in reverse

If you had a problem with getting that drivers axle all the way in you may have unknowingly bent or sheared that retaining C clip. Maybe it never fully seated to begin with.

As for internal damage, it shouldn't have. It's just like spinning on ice. Everything is just freewheeling around with no load on it.

 

Thanks for all the help!

I found the problem. I pulled the drivers side axle to check for damage and make sure the c clip was still there and it most definitely wasn't, neither was the little nub after the c clip. Turns out the nub sheared off and the rest of the axle popped out causing the car not to move. Luckily I was able to relatively easily remove the c clip and nub from inside the differential. Keep in mind this is a brand new axle that was just installed a month ago. Thankfully I still had my receipt and the original box and got it all packed up and returned it. It was still under warranty so I've got a replacement on the way. This could have been a one of a kind issue but just in case, watch out for Surtrack axles carried by Rock Auto. Caused me a big headache.

 

I know its easy to blame another but be sure when you install the new axle that you listen/feel for the click of the C clip.

 

I'm not saying I know for sure I didn't do anything wrong but this isn't my first axle install and I've never seen an axle break like this. It's not like I'm throwing a ton of horsepower at it or doing clutch dumps either.

 

I thought at the time it was just me and or my car but my passenger side slide in nicely but my drivers side I had to do a couple times and even now I'm still not positive it's seated. I've done a lot of them too and it bothers me and bothers me more hearing about yours.
Anyone else have problem seating the drivers side ??

As for the axle. It might not be a cheap, defective or bad part. If (IF) the axle wasn't seated all the way and in that garage you turned sharply and the axle pulled out that last bit of axle was all that was driving the car and with that "C" clip groove in the end it makes a perfect place for it to shear.
It's just a thought, and of course the shaft might be a POS.

Glad you fished out the excess parts and it's not a major trans issue

 

I'll be sure it's good and seated when the new one arrives.