Dear PA24,

Hope you're well. How many miles on this car? Do you have maintenance records? If you're not the first owner, it's possible that a prior owner was slow to flush water-contaminated ATF. The water attacked the glue, that adheres clutch pack facings. If enough damage was done, normal wear on the clutches produces premature failure.

Based on reading several years worth of posts on this Board, only rarely do AW trannies fail for reasons other than water-contamination of the ATF. Once water has ravaged the clutch pack facings, the only thing to be done is to replace the tranny.

Most 940s use the AW71 or AW71L tranny. Supposedly, models with turbo-charged engines got the AW71 tranny, while cars with non-turbo engines generally had an AW71L (L designating locking torque converter) trannies. There are bound to be exceptions to this "rule".

The tranny designation is on a data plate, on the driver's side of the tranny. It is also found on the data plate, above the passenger-side headlight (US/Canadian models). The designator is in the right hand column, second row, second numeral. A "6" means an Aisin-Warner tranny (70/71/72) with a locking torque converter. A "7" means an Aisin-Warner 70/71 tranny, without a locking torque converter.

Ideally, the replacement should be the same type as the factory-installed model.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

Spook