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Thanks so much for all of your input. I did drive sans cable the last weeks feeling somewhat assured. Had the new cable installed today. Asked the (non-Volvo) mechanic to check around the solenoid while they had the oil pan down, for broken wire, dirt, anything. I have no idea whether the mechanic who actually did the work knew of everything to look for. At paytime, the owner's daughter said there was just one wire going to the solenoid and it looked fine. I should have done this at an Indie Volvo place, but the one here has pulled some fast ones, especially when I had my demon Volvo 850 (1993), and it's not quite a relationship of trust. They also charge a pricey penny. Another I tried further out offered to "see" if the solenoid needed replacing for $500. Meanwhile, regarding the overdrive issue, when I am doing a fast descent down highway hills, many times the car, on its own, slows itself down to third; less luckily, it begins surging, as if trying to find its place to land, which I can still by throwing the orange arrow on myself. If I am lucky enough to then find myself going UP a hill, I can almost always turn the orange arrow off and find myself sailing smoothly up the incline in the higher gear. Is this gas flow? Many times, sailing smoothly in higher gear, going over a bump or having a huge truck speed by, changing the air flow, bounces me out of high gear into surge-ville again; if I've been driving high speed for many miles at this point, I can usually steady this by lifting my foot off the gas. A local electrician who kept insisting it was the relay, even 'tho my brother in law helped me replace that with a new one, offered to go through the whole electrical system starting at the stick shift for $200, after which he would either have things fixed or tell me what needed to be done. Should I do it? Waaah!!!! :-(
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