1997 850 with automatic trans. The car seems to start off in third gear. Started acting up after I was fooling with the econo/sport switch. First unhooked the neg battery terminal to clear codes then I moved the gear shift back and forth rapidly from park to low about twenty times to clean the contacts. It still starts in third. The back up lights work. Could it be the newtral saftey switch? How hard is it to change?

I do not believe it is the neutral safety switch that is causing the problem. Check and make sure you didn't press the winter mode button, it overrides the E and S buttons.
Rowing the shifter multiple times may clear the PNP switch, but not the neutral safety switch. Volvospeed.com/bay13 has write ups on both the NPS and the PNP. Check it out.

Klaus
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(V♂LV♂s 1975 164, 1995 854T, 1998 V70R)

Please get the codes read and cleared at Autozone or Pepboys. Otherwise it is just a shot in the dark to fix your car. If you know what the problem is, that still doesn't justify unplugging the battery because it may be something new.
Besides, a lot of the codes are just stored FYI.
If your problem started when you were playing with the E/S switch, are you sure you didn't accidently hit the E switch?

Klaus
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(V♂LV♂s 1975 164, 1995 854T, 1998 V70R)

It is an OBD II car but will the chuckle heads at Auto Zone be able to access the transimission side or can they only pull OBD II codes that pull on the check engine light? I am sure that it all depends upon the tool they have. At any rate if it is a GPS then no they are not that tough to do but if you have never done one I strongly advise you to surf around through the FAQs and over on Bay 13 in hopes of finding a tutorial with some nice pictures as there are a couple of spots that you can screw things up at.

Mark