Had a scare this morning driving my 92 wagon to work!! Had to accelerate fairly hard to get in front of a city bus at a merge intersection (I normally putter to work, with very light foot), and the engine started racing. Thinking the accelerator linkage stuck, I stepped hard on the pedal a couple of times and it made matters worse. I quickly put the car into neutral and let the car coast (with the bus bearing down behind me!), the engine was still racing away, stomped twice on the pedal, still no go. Shut down the engine, and resigned to pull over at the curb, but decided to give it one more try. STarted up the engine (car was still rolling, around 50-60kph), and the accelerator seemed to be fine. I drove with a VERY light foot to work, and will do so again tonight. I figure I will apply liberal WD40 on all accelerator linkages, and that will resolve the problem. Any other reasons it could have done that?? Thanks.

Thanks for the suggestions folks. I think it was the accelerator linkage, so I applied copious amounts of lubricant (not WD40, as was indicated). Had someone in the car pressing and depressing the accelerator, while I applied the lubricant. Lubricated every movable point, and checked that all was returning back to normal when releasing the pedal. Went out for a test drive and all looks ok now. Whew, that was certainly a rude way to wake up, on a busy roadway with no shoulder and a bus on my heels... Glad my reflexes were up to the task, shifting into neutral, shutting off the engine, then restarting. Could have been a lot worse. Anyway, no harm done to human nor machine, Volvo rolls on....

I would check that the throttle cable moves freely in its sheath. Disconnect it from the throttle spool and with a helper on the pedal see that it moves well back and forth.

I would not use WD40 as a lubricant, it is designed to displace water. With the cable disconnected and elevated I would (over time) add drops of light machine oil or transmission fluid and let gravity work for you in lubing the cable inside the sheath.

If the cable is free I guess it is possible that the throttle body is gummed up so badly it sticks but that seems highly unlikely.... Perhaps the return/tension spring on the throttle body broke?

Randy

I second all of Randy's advice, but I'll add that the kickdown cable could also be sticking/not retracting. This would keep the tranny downshifted into the lowest possible gear for the given speed. A fully extended kickdown cable (stuck) would keep you in first until about 40mph, and 2nd until around 70mph.
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'93 244: 'A' cam 4 deg. advanced, 25/22 sways, custom heim endlinks, poly bushings, and a lot more styling customization than I care to recount.