1991, 740

AW71 Trans.

I am now one of the many Volvo owners who have had mysterious overdrive problems, Looking thru the archives I found this. Seems I can just avoid the whole problem by doing what this guy did. Opinions?

Rob

ARCHIVE -

Re: 240 Auto/overdrive Switching Problem[ALL/1998] posted by Dick Grinnell on

Tuesday, 23 December 1997, at 9:38 p.m.

I recently had similar problems with my '85 240 GL. The problem was not electrical. It was a problem with leakage in the valve body, not enough fluid pressure to keep it in 4th gear.

The purpose of the button on the shift lever is to lock out 4th gear. When you push the button, the relay behind the dash pulls in, lighting the orange arrow on the dash, and energizes the solenoid on the transmission, causing a down shift to third gear.

..."If you disconnect the wires from solenoid (connector on the other side of the trans by the shifter) the trans will shift normally through all 4 gears and you can "kick down" with the gas pedal. If you cannot find a transmission shop that understands the problem and knows how to fix it, I will provide the phone number of the shop that did my repair."

Dick