Does anyone know how to replace the transmission gear shift cable on a 99 S80?

Problem: I have had the car for 3yrs, but recently now when parked on an incline or downhill the gear shift locks in the park position. The gear shift will move, but the gear remains in the park position with the P lit in red. I get out of the car and rock it back and forth from behind a few times, and then the gear is able to be shifted out of park and into D or R etc.

The dealer says the cable is coming apart and it will cast $440 to repair.

Thanks,

 

It is a Pain to do but can be done by the Average person.
It is time consuming.

 

Thanks for the reply Tech.

Can you tell me how to get started? Where is the cable? Do I access it from the interior, underbody, or both.

Thanks again for any assistance you can lend.

 

You will have to remove the Center console to get to the Cable inside.
Remove the Little panel under the A/C controls (Pen holder.) It clips in from both sides. Lift up from the sides with a small screwdriver.
There is screws under there for some of the console. Then look by the cup holder there should be one.
There is also one in the bottom of the Console cubby. You will have to remove the Panel in the bottom of the cubby. Also the Rear lighter plug is a pain to get undone.

Under the hood look to the left of the Air filter box if you are looking from the front. You should see a little Arm with a cable attached. You will need to remove it. Then I think it just goes through a grommet in the firewall.

When you pull it out attach a small peice of string to the inside end of the cable. This will help guide it back in.

 

I replaced the shifter cable on my 1999 S80 today. Job is complete. What a pain. I am in recovery mode for now. I will post pictures of the removal, and notes for the entire procedure. Not for the faint of heart. It WILL take two people to re-install the cable. Send me any questions or after the work suggestions, (i feel all went well, but I have not taken it on the road, just local testing. I hope I have no issues after this job). I had the cable that required calibration after installation.

 

Hi Audie!! Will surly appreciate if you post pictures and instructions here.

All members including will be benefited.

Regards

 

I am going to post this in installments and hope that the pictures are able to be posted as well.

 

This is an investment of time and patience to get this job done. Removal is not too bad. Installation requires time and a mechanically minded assistant. I used 7mm, 10mm, 12mm sockets, Torx 25. I did not have, but adapted, a deep well 12mm for under the dash. I will do my best to layout the steps for this procedure and the caveats that are inherent for this task. Read all the way through to the end before attempting this task. There are 8 sections. Send me questions as I may have left out something, (I do not think so). Do not start this job with out a good full day to get the job done. This car is my daily driver, I had to get this job done or I was walking.


Part 1:
Move both front seats all the way to the rear position. Open the boot, trunk, and disconnect the battery. 10Mm socket.





I began up front, under the hood. Remove the air cleaner assembly. The whole bloody thing. I loosened the 7mm clamp on the MAF housing to the left of the air cleaner with the intent of separating the MAF from the air cleaner cover. After loosening the clamp, it would not pull away, and as this is a 1999, the plastic parts can be brittle. I gave up on separating the two parts.



I then removed the top cover of the air cleaner. This is the same as when changing the filter. There are some plastic lines to pop off the cover. They just pull off. I also removed the electrical connection to the MAF. Gently, (for all plastic, be gentle), pry up on the plastic latch and pull away to remove the connection. Next I removed the MAF housing from the cover by unscrewing the 2 T25 screws from the left of the MAF and pulling the MAF housing away, (there is an O-ring which creates a minor resistance). I had failed to get the MAF housing to pull off the intake hose, so I left it in place. Remove the cover and the filter. There are 3 plastic 3 pronged hooks under the air filter lower housing. To remove the lower housing, pull directly straight up. This gave me a moment of consternation as I was concerned I may break these plastic “clips”. They were resilient and the lower housing popped up easier than I expected. This gives a good view of the shift cable in its natural environment. Take the time to examine the positioning. Take notes and pictures. This part is easy to understand. It is the area around the steering universal which is the most difficult to see and reach and to route the new cable into and around.

 

Part 2:
It is time to raise the front driver side wheel and remove it. Follow normal safe procedures for removal of the wheel. Block the rear wheels, (front and rear of the wheel).
There will be nothing to hold the car in place when the shifter is detached and the parking brake is manipulated to work in the cabin.
Fix the car in its elevated position with a jack stand, (do not rely on hydraulic jacks to stay in place.). Inside the wheel well there are some nuts to remove to gain access to behind the wheel cowls., (3). I recommend a bin or job box for all fasteners to be removed during this and all jobs. You should now be able to see the shift cable routed from the front left of the engine compartment, to the front then down around the frame rail with 2 plastic retaining clips on the rail, and through the bloody brake lines.



If you can, look up through where the shift cable runs to the right , past the brake lines, (take notes and pictures), and do your utmost best to understand the routing of the cable as it passes through the brake lines, past the sensitive wiring bundles, and then away to the right. (rear), of the steering universal. To the right, (rear), of the steering universal, is where the cable disappears through the firewall, and here is the misery.

 

Part 3:
Into the cabin…
It is time to tear up the entire console. This was less fun than can be imagined. I have done work in here before and have replaced the lights in the CCU, but to remove the entire armrest console is not as much fun as its sounds. The shifter itself is the culprit for the doom and gloom. If you are intrepid enough, go ahead and remove the entire shift handle and the indicator wires from the shift plate. I left these in place. Open the rear compartment. Inside there is an antiquated CD tray. It pops out. Under it are 2 T25 screws. That's right. Remove them, (put them into the job box for this area). Using a small flat tip screwdriver, carefully, (remember plastic?), push in on the little tab at the rear of the parking brake handle fake leather cover. It broke. So did mine. Crap, this thing is around $100. I was miffed to find out that this little fake leather and plastic kabob was almost as much as the highly engineered shift cable I was replacing. If it does not break, yippee, lift up and off it comes. Slide it up and over the handle and set aside. Using a flat screwdriver, lift the shifter plate cover from the rear in a prying movement, then pull back to free the cover. There are indicator wires attached so do not yank this cover out. Remove the 2 T25 screws under the CCU, (Climate Control Unit). To the side of each front seat, the is a plastic cover with 1 plastic flat screw on each seat side. Using a large flat screwdriver, turn the slot about ¼ turn to detach it, then slide the panel to the rear to unhook the plastic hooks under the panel. Pull away and remove.

 

Part 4:


Under the Dash…
Time to rip out the floor boards. Remove the nice floor mat on the driver side you got to cover the ugly Volvo mats. What? You did not get the memo? Additional floor mats are a safety hazard as they can slid around and create a hazard for the manipulation of the foot pedals. Really. No joke. These are affixed to the floor by way of plugs that allow the mat to be pulled up by some force. Once the mat is out, look up under the area where you removed the side panel. You should see the cable coming from the shifter to behind the accelerator pedal. This is a tough spot. Pull the rug down and away from the pedal any way you can. Prop it out of the way to allow access to the cable and the 2 nuts on the 2 long stemmed floor mounted bolts. This is where the deep well socket is useful. Remove the 2 nuts. Grab a hold of the cable and test the tension of the mounting. The long bolts make it difficult to pull the cable off of them. I pried the mount off with my drum brake shoe adjuster tool. An angle flat pry bar thingy. Once this is freed from the floor it is time to get a very good look at the area where the cable attaches to the shift handle. Pictures and notes. I can not say this enough. If you are lucky to have an assistant there with you now, have them examine every aspect of the cable as it is positioned before any removal attempts are made. I took pictures and notes, (I was alone during removal), and I still had trouble remembering hours later where the bloody thing routed at certain points. Note: under the shift handle is a linkage that is not to be removed. I bumped this out of place. It is a shift indexer. I was able to re-index the blasted thing at the end of the project. I had the console and the shift cover still in place as I did most of the project. I only pulled the console back out of position to gain as much access as I could to the interior area. This was not much of a hindrance and a bit of a pleasant surprise to not need to take the shifter itself apart. Time to go back under the hood...

 

Part 5:


Under the Hood, (bonnet):
It is now time to detach the shift cable from the transmission. This is easy. Using a small flat screwdriver, pry on the little odd looking spring clip you see on the top of the end of the cable. Examine the new cable to get familiar with the way it attaches. This part is pure genius. Once the clip is released, the end pops off. The anchor point behind this, (toward the front of the car), is pried up with a flat screwdriver, (I had my old drum brake tool to add leverage as it is an angled little flat bar. This tool is used to adjust the star wheel on old brake drums). This is attached with a plastic tab and may break at this point. Do not worry, the part that breaks is the old cable tab and is rubbish.
The cable is now detached from the transmission and should float freely with abandon.
You can jump back into the car cabin to release the other end, or begin to work the front end of the cable down through the left front wheel area. I went into the cabin to free both ends.


Into the cabin...again:
At the point where the cable attaches to the shifter is a round pointy thing with another spring clip. Same as before, pry the spring clip away and pull the cable off of its mount. Then pry the cable free from the mount in front of the pin connector. The cable is now free from the car at all points except for the routing. Last chance to see where this beggar is routed. I warn you to get a very good look at the routing of the cable as later you may question your sanity as to how the bloody hell this thing goes back in. Removal is the easy part.

 

Part 6:


Cable Removal:
Reach under the wheel area to the 2 plastic clips on the frame rail and free the cable from these. You may be able to pull the cable from the engine compartment down to this area now. If you are lucky to have an assistant, have them guide the loose end down through the engine bay to the fender well. One person inside the cabin, and one up front, (I was alone). Feed the cable back from the engine to the cabin with a series of gentle push-pull techniques. I ended up cutting the cable at the firewall at the point it entered behind the accelerator as it was so badly frayed it would not push through. Use a chainsaw or lineman's pliers, (please. Here a little humour is required as we are about to go insane).
If you choose to cut the cable, it will be easier to remove. Just pull the old beggar out and toss aside. Mine was so far gone I wondered how I made it back from Tennessee and then drove to and from work for two weeks waiting for the part. Understanding how Volvo had engineered the transmission shift mechanism allowed me to keep my car on the road.

 

Part 7:
Going Insane:
Reassembly:
To quote most of those horrid manuals for automobiles: “Assembly is the reverse of the foregoing procedure”. I call this one B.S.! Yes and no. If only it were that simple. I had a devil of a time trying to get the cable to fit from the cabin through the firewall and then to the left around behind the steering knuckle and then down to the left again through the brake lines. This is the hardest part. I worked for around three hours at this. In and out of the cabin to the fender well and then up to to the engine compartment. I began by threading the cable, ( pay attention to the proper end to feed first. You want to start in the cabin feeding the part that attaches to the transmission engine lever under the hood part.). I put this part through the console past the shifter, then down behind the CCU and through a mass of delicate wires,(be very careful and guide them out of the way), then to the left and behind the accelerator pedal where the first real trial by combat begins. I spent way too much time and energy struggling to guide the cable through this seemingly impossible area and was only saved when my son got off work and came by to remove the noose from my neck, the gun from my mouth, and get me off the high bridge as I peered over the edge…
It WILL take two people to route the cable head around behind the steering knuckle. One in the engine compartment, and one in the cabin. Put only a small lead of the cable head through the firewall, just enough for the engine dude to see it. This assistant, (or yourself), must be able to get a guiding hand in to force the cable head to turn behind and to the right of the steering knuckle. Once that is done, this same intrepid individual must get under the fender well and pull the same part as it is pushed a little bit at a time from inside the cabin. It is a slow labourious process not to be rushed ans there are wires in the cabin CCU area and a wire plug behind the steering knuckle.
Continue to worm the cable head out through the fender but not far. Here is the second hard spot. It must now make a hard left turn toward the front of the car behind and through the brake lines. This is why the notes and pictures and examination of the routing is so important. The cable is then to go past the 2 clips, (do not attach it there yet), and up into the engine compartment. In the cabin, pay attention to the wires of the CCU as the cable is fed forward. Keep feeding the cable until the floor mount for the floorboard behind the gas pedal is close to position, (this was a nightmare to feed through the area below the CCU. It was not as difficult as it seemed. Be patient and go slow. No amount of force is required. Resistance means that it needs guided better. It will fit through here with care).
Allow the cable that comes up into the engine compartment to hang freely at this time, (I attached it and should have done the cabin attachment first).
If the floorboard plate is close to its position, it is time to mount it. Position the cable plate over the two threaded posts and start the nuts onto the posts. Tighten in segments from one of the posts to the other to pull the plate down evenly. Tighten down at this time.
As the cable is still slack under the hood, you will be able to attach the shift end easier, (I had to move the shift handle forward as I had already attached the transmission end of the cable. Do not do this.). The pin the cable attaches to is not anchored in place. I had my assistant get in the passenger side and use a 3/8” drive 10” socket extension pressed up against the opposing end of the pin to which I was about to press the cable onto to prevent the pin from moving out of place as I created this massive run on sentence and pressed the cable end onto the post. I then snapped the anchor of the cable into place, (the plastic square block onto the u-shaped post in the console.). Get the angle right and it is not too difficult. Alignment and angle were key here. I still had most of the console in my way when I did this, but it was not too hard.
At this point, the cable is mounted in the cabin. I hope the metal rod below the shift cable is still in place. If so, good news. If not, as was mine, I place it back in position utilising the military theory of W.A.G., ( Wild *** Guess.).
Back under the hood...

 

Part 8:
Will it never end?


As you look at the marvel of engineering that is the end of the cable at the transmission end, notice the yellow block of plastic. This is how the 9mm version of the cable is indexed to what gear the car is in. Beautifully simple. If you have the 7mm version, there is no indexing. Order parts such as this by way of the VIN.
The end just snaps down into place. Really. POP! There it is. After all the horrors of the previous hours, (what, yours went easy?), this part is a breeze. The anchor also just snaps into place. Tab down. The last part of the cable mounting is to snap the cable into those two clips under the fender well.
Double check all routing of the cable. Look for areas that may put tension on moving parts. It is much more advisable to have spent the time to route the cable right the first time. I was dreading finding a mistake in the routing of the cable. As I was at a loss to fully remember the perfect routing from before I removed it. All seemed okay with mine as I examined it. Spend the time before removal to understand, without question, how it is routed. This with be the most confusing part. A second set of eyes is great to have. I was alone at the start of this project and did my best to understand the routing and yet as I struggled to re-install the cable, I felt I must be doing something wrong.
It is time to test the shaft connection. Have your assistant watch as you move the shifter fore and aft. The key must be in position to allow this to happen. Check the mechanical connection by counting the positions from P to 1 as they move through each in turn. If any cannot be engaged, (most likely first gear,1) then you must use the indexer. Release the yellow block by prying up on it till it is free. The end of the cable can be moved fore and aft freely in position. Put the shifter in Park. Lock the yellow tab down and recheck the gears again. We found this intuitive and easy.
Once you are satisfied with the cable positioning, reassemble the air cleaner housing, and the console. I left the under dash area and the two console panels off for now. Reconnect the small stiff hoses leading to the front of the air cleaner housing. Reconnect the MAF electrical connection. Reconnect the hot air return and the cold air intake.
Back under the wheel well. Attach the panels and re-install the wheel. Lower the car to the road surface. Set the parking brake, (This procedure gave access to the parking brake adjuster and this is a good time to make the adjustment as I did.). I always use my parking brake though many do not. Not using the parking brake allows the brake cable to rust in its housing and fail when needed. It also puts too much strain on the transmission to hold the car in place. This procedure is very easy. Lift up on the white nylon cover on the brake handle. Tighten the nut a little to increase the tension on the cable. Always set the parking brake by pressing on the service brake first, then pulling up on the parking brake handle. The brake should set and hold by the 4th or 5th notch, (click).


Examine all areas of work, and once satisfied connect the battery.


Good Grief:
Time for a gut check.
Clear the work area. All obstructions, tools, small furry critters, and empty beer bottles, (in my case, wine). Start the car and check for proper function. My car was just fine. I did this job on Saturday and have been driving for 4 days with no issues.
I welcome any questions and suggestions. This was a tough job for one person. Nay. Impossible. I have rebuilt old '66 Mustangs and done many other mechanical tasks. This requires patience and an assistant.

 

I just finished posting this job. I hope this is of help to all who may attempt such a maniacal undertaking. Great satisfaction can be had at saving hundreds of dollars in labour costs and the pride of saying, "I did it!"