"I am scared to keep spraying thinking that anything I spray ends up in the tranny..."

Greg,
How about hanging the wire from the hood, make a plastic funnel around the end of the wire, and fill the funnel with transmission oil? This is how I fixed my sticky cable this autumn - only I used motor oil, which I regretted afterwards. Not that I have seen any bad symptoms (all it took was a small portion of oil), but in hindsight I still wish I had used ATF.

Erling.
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My 240 Page

Montreal? Wow! In north GA it gets down just below 0C and my clock quits and some of the switchgear works thickly. You'd think a car designed north of the Arctic Circle would behave better.
Current temperature in San Jose, Costa Rica, 78F. That's gonna be my cure....
Mark
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'94 940 NA Wagon, '84 244t, '84 245 DL

If its sticking I would replace it.

I have an 89 244, I just replaced the KD cable 2 weeks ago. Not all that bad of a job. The spring loaded wheel was a bit of a PIA. Almost needed 3 hands. The header pipe is in the way alittle but you can work around it. The hardest part was trying to press the new fitting in to the tranny housing with the new oring on it. It is tucked away nicely and can only get your finger tips on it. Maybe someone on here has a trick that I don't know about.

Overall not a horrible job.

Good luck

Just curious....how do you know it's the kickdown cable that's making it stick when it's cold outside?? My '89 tranny does the same thing..but I was thinking that something internal to the tranny was doing this. My tranny suffered a cooler leak at the radiator such that water got into the tranny...ever since then, it sticks in first ONLY when it's cold outside. Just curious if my problem is only kickdown cable (I doubt). During the warm months..no problems.
Cabbie2169

Greg - A few people have had success freeing up KD cables, but they have used something like PB Blaster, not WD 40. Personally, I feel that if the cable is in a condition where it begins to badly bind, it needs to be replaced.

Our '88 240GL had a bad KD cable and I replaced it using a ScanTech cable from FCP Groton. The cable was perfectly serviceable, and in fact, looked identical to the failed OE cable. It is only $26. The job was tricky, but not impossible. It took about two hours and gave me an excuse to change the transmission filter and do a flush and fill (the tranny pan has to come out).

Normally I'm not a fan of ScanTech, but this purchased worked out just fine.

Good luck.
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'88 244GL, '89 244GL, '90 244DL, '91 244, '92 244

I just bought a 1992 745 Turbo from NC and you would not think it could have anything that was rusty but the kickdown cable was! I tried PB Blaster down the cable and worked and worked it but it still would not free up. I ended up buying one from Volvo $110.00 (OUCH!)check out the FAQ'S for very helpfull hints on how to change it. The hard parts are: getting the dipstick tube off the transmission pan. (need big set of metric wrenchs and lots of mussels as it's realy tight!) Then comes the fun part: the cable hooks on a half round piece of metal that has a spring on it. After you take the old cable off it springs back and it's hard to get the new cable on. In the FAQ'S thers a tip on how to take an old coat hanger and bend it to make a hook to hold the spring loaded thing in place so you can get the cable back on.

Best of luck...
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Volvos4me4ever 1989 245 274K miles still going strong, 1992 745 Turbo 110K miles real nice!