Hi folks,

I'm currently stranded in a crippled volvo. Roads are closed in front and behind me due to heavy rain and slips. Makes me double lucky. In any case, I've got a lot of time to figure out what happened waiting for the roads to be opened and a tow truck

Prior to what I think was catastrophic tranny failure, I drove through many puddles for lack of a better term. Some were muddy and a bit rocky. It's been a bad day for rain here. All was fine until I came to a road stoppage and I thought I blew a tire. Wheel shuddering and pulling to right. Pulled over and started hearing nasty grinding noise from right side. Got out and tires fine. Even in park, car started rolling back. Engine runs fine in park but doesn't like any forward or reverse gears.

It's 230am here and I don't expect to see help til daylight. So please humour me and offer up a suggestion of what it may be please? Also how easy is it to swap out transmission at home without a lift?

Thanks folks. Hope your easter is better than mine.

 

Wish I could be of more help. I have never experienced front wheel drive trans failure where the park pawl is not still functional. If it were rear wheel drive I would guess a drive line failure like a busted u-joint or something that breaks the connection between the trans and the differential and I don't know of a similarly functioning portion of a fwd. Maybe bumping this up will make it more visible to those smarter than me.

 

I'm stumped as well but transmissions were never my thing. 630am and still raining. Yeehaw!

 

Now that it's daylight, I can see the cv is munched and the drive shaft can move in and out of trans. Explains part but why would it grind whole stopped? Can't engage a gear without grinding. Shaft shouldn't be spinning.

 

What year is the car? Auto or manual?

 

95 auto.

 

Anytime those shafts are bad it will cause the transmission to stop. Hopefully that is your problem.

 

Finally got it home and pulled shaft out. This is what's left of the end

I can't get the wheel hub side out. Any tips. Been hitting with block of wood and hammer.

Hopefully attachment works.

 

A parts store here said I could just order the outer cv. I can't see me fitting it on the end of the shaft easily. Has this been done or is whole shaft replacement the only way? As always, parts aren't cheap here.

The 36mm wheel hub nut had the casing knocked into a check on the shaft. Does this type need to be replaced? Haynes said only pre 1995. I'm a 95.

Thanks

 

I don't know what you have a available for parts stores there or what your options might be. If you were "here" in the states:
Depending on where you're getting the parts from a whole shaft is usually a better buy. It's a bit more expensive but should this happen again it would be warranty. Autozone, Oreilly ... usually cover them if the boot rips too. If you just get the outer joint you still need to mess with greasing and rebooting it and you don't save much compared to the time effort and mess you make and again you have little warranty on the parts.

The nut can usually be reused. It's always best to use new but I never have unless one came with my new part. If you're worried about it you can always use a little loctite blue to secure it.
Make sure to use some anti-seize on the splines that go through the hub. It will help the next time you need to pull the shaft.

 

Shaft arrived from fcp with nut included. Bought another nut assuming shaft didn't have one.

Ill try to install once the rain dies away. I still can't disengage the remaining spline from the hub side. Seems seized. Any tricks other than using a bigger hammer?

 

Sorted. Back of an axe did the trick.

I didn't remove any tie rods but took out the control arm for access. Would that alter the alignment?

 

It might shift just a bit but for all practical purposes you should be back where you were before you dropped the control arm.

If you took the control arm out all the way, bolt at the ball joint and both the bolts to the frame you want to make sure you put it together loose until you get it back on the ground. The ball joint pinch bolt you can tighten in the air but the two bolts that hold the control arm to the frame should be tightened to spec with the vehicles weight on it, tire on the ground.
I'm not sure how big a difference it makes but it's recommended to do it that way. If you have ramps you can put it together and drive it up on the ramps to get the room to slide under and torque the two bolts down.