Ding-Dong the Volvo is dead - guidance needed quickly

Backstory: my 940 turbo wagon bought from JD a few years ago has been shifting badly. It all started and then I found that the tranny pan had fallen - as in all of the bolts were loose. I fixed that, but we are talking a few days. The tranny wouldn't shift 2-3 over 1/2 throttle, it just drives through the forward clutch. After putting everything back (pan and fluid level) it behaved for a few days before acting like an ass again.

FFW one month, I am driving gingerly and carefully because I don't have the time to swap in the manual parts JD also threw in on his deal. I have everything but the rear tranny mount, a decent looking clutch (the one I have looks pretty iffy) and the thingie that connects the clutch pedal to the clutch cable (still have no idea what this is or looks like or where to get it) It's getting slowly weirder at lower throttle angles.

So tonight I hear a whirr under the hood. I pop it, can't figure out the whir, but I notice the TV cable is loose. Check the manual, sure enough it's supposed to be tight. I adjust it properly and go for a test drive. Immediately I notice that the low throttle angle of the transmission is transformed. It's perfect and acting like new. Great! Whack the throttle. Not only does it pop out and drive through the clutch, but it never comes back. It's gone. I am three miles from home. Stupid test drives.

I let it cool for a few minutes to let the clutch material out of the filter. It goes for another 10 seconds or so if you take it easy on the throttle and keep it in 1st. I do this the majority of the way home. Go 1/8 mile, shut it off, pull over, wait 10 minutes. I get to my actual road, tiny little thing, and I can't get on the hill, not for anything. No gear, no reverse, waiting doesn't help. I AM NOT going to call AAA to tow my 800 feet up a hill. It's 10:30 and I am not waking anyone up either. I cannot push it up, and I am not a total wimp, it just pushes me further down the hill. I jog home, grab the PT Cruiser and my tow rope, and flat tow MYSELF up the hill... and into a ditch. Not a ditch, exactly. Pull the keyrings apart, turn the Volvo wheel, get in the Cruiser, pull it back onto the road, get out, get into the Volvo, turn the wheel straight... etc.

Then I reach flat-ish ground and push it the rest of the way so I don't smash my cars into one another. It's dead. Deader than dead. I want it gone anyway, I am sick of the European thing. It won't fit my kids. I need it sold for a reasonable price (hey, the rest is in pretty awesome shape now) so I am going to fix it first. Plus, I don't have the cash to buy something else while this sits around for sale.

Do I: Spend all weekend sourcing weirdo oddball parts like the aforementioned clutch pedal thingie et al, making my wife stay home from her only girls only activity for the past two years (she was planning on leaving me with the youngins), call the babysitter or something and get the thing swapped to the stick shift

OR

Go to the pull-a-part and grab the nicest auto I can find for $100 and cross my fingers and swap it in in a few hours.

Is the Volvo worth that much more as a stick? Is the transmission transformation going to be easier than I think it is? (like the heater core that took me seven slow hours on a book 10), will the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder find a way out? Will they make it to Atlanta with all of that Coors? Will harry Potter destroy Voldemort? Should I just grab a sledgehammer?

Anyone want to come for a weekend tranny swap fest?

I am off to work in the Cruiser to get the laptop so I can work from home tomorrow since the wife has to work and needs her car.

Throw in a jy auto trans and put it up for sale. It's probably worth more as a runner with the manual swap parts you have than with a manual swap completed. You're sick of the car which means you probably won't have the patience to complete the swap nor do you want to invest the time in the swap. Get it running in the easiest cheapest way possible and get it gone.

Good points all, Pigeon.

Two more additional things: I also need the guibo, and the tv cable being loose was probably a symptom of the transmission dying.

Although, having the stick might be good enough to make the Volvo last long enough in my family to find a better car. I've always wanted it as a stick. I dunno, I don't think patience will be the issue, more one of weirdo parts and time. It doesn't sound hard at all, but I haven't done a auto-manual before.

I think it's worth more as a manual, but only in this crowd. If you're looking to flip it quickly, I'd have to suggest a junkyard automatic.

Sorry to hear it crapped out on you.

Tom Heath wrote: I think it's worth more as a manual, but only in this crowd. If you're looking to flip it quickly, I'd have to suggest a junkyard automatic. Sorry to hear it crapped out on you.

Good points. Quickly means six months ish.

Junkyard auto. 99% of Volvo wagon buyers are going to prefer the auto.

Remember, we are in the United States of Lazy America; outside of the GRM list most folks would probably prefer it be an auto. I'd say try the j/y auto swap, cross your fingers, sell it, and then see if you can make a few bucks off the manual conversion parts on eBay or GRM. Unless there's any GRM folks out there just itching to grab the car and conversion stuff right now...

BTW, I'm 20 minutes down the road, and wouldn't have hesitated for a second to come help you out. Really sorry to hear about your wagon troubles. I have an extra 122 wagon if you're interested...its already a stick, gets about the same MPG as your 940, and just needs a little brake and carb work to be roadworthy. ;-)

Wow. You guys astounded me. Not one vote for the manual. Huh. That's the direction my wife and I were heading until I read this, now I don't know.

Mike, thanks for the offer. Depending on the success of the mission I may take you up on it.

Granted, swapping an auto for another auto should take about 2 hours, that is the easiest choice by far if the jy auto is any good.

Wow.

Also, not one word about flat towing yourself? Come on, that was fun.

tuna55 wrote: Also, not one word about flat towing yourself? Come on, that was fun.

Yeah, like the time you flat towed me piloting that '91 Dodge pickup I'd just bought as a parts truck with your '72 GMC. I really appreciated that.

Good times.

volvoclearinghouse wrote:

tuna55 wrote: Also, not one word about flat towing yourself? Come on, that was fun.

Yeah, like the time you flat towed me piloting that '91 Dodge pickup I'd just bought as a parts truck with your '72 GMC. I really appreciated that. Good times.

That was fun. Towing yourself with nobody steering is less fun.

Remember flat towing the Amazon from Wabtec to your house? That as even better. I don't have your phone number in my directory (or anyone elses for that matter) otherwise you would have gotten a similair call last night around nine. I was stuck 3 miles north of my street on 14.

tuna55 wrote:

volvoclearinghouse wrote:

tuna55 wrote: Also, not one word about flat towing yourself? Come on, that was fun.

Yeah, like the time you flat towed me piloting that '91 Dodge pickup I'd just bought as a parts truck with your '72 GMC. I really appreciated that. Good times.

That was fun. Towing yourself with nobody steering is less fun. Remember flat towing the Amazon from Wabtec to your house? That as even better. I don't have your phone number in my directory (or anyone elses for that matter) otherwise you would have gotten a similair call last night around nine. I was stuck 3 miles north of my street on 14.

I remember using the brakes on the Amazon to slow both the Amazon and your truck. The Amazon may have been not running, but it sure has good brakes!

This decision is getting easier. The auto parts store doesn't know what a guibo or flex joint is and has no listing anything like it. They can only sell me a clutch kit for $275 and it's not even in stock. I am not about to spend $300 on it when the manual swap won't bring $300. The only option is to dealer source the clips and junk (not open for parts yet) and use the old clutch and the ratty guibo, which isn't exactly a recipe for success.

Off to the jy then, I guess.

tuna55 wrote: This decision is getting easier. The auto parts store doesn't know what a guibo or flex joint is and has no listing anything like it. They can only sell me a clutch kit for $275 and it's not even in stock. I am not about to spend $300 on it when the manual swap won't bring $300. The only option is to dealer source the clips and junk (not open for parts yet) and use the old clutch and the ratty guibo, which isn't exactly a recipe for success. Off to the jy then, I guess.

Don't forget to look for the manual parts you need at the junk yard too! Even if you don't use them right away it would make selling the swap kit easier later.

Junkyard_Dog wrote:

tuna55 wrote: This decision is getting easier. The auto parts store doesn't know what a guibo or flex joint is and has no listing anything like it. They can only sell me a clutch kit for $275 and it's not even in stock. I am not about to spend $300 on it when the manual swap won't bring $300. The only option is to dealer source the clips and junk (not open for parts yet) and use the old clutch and the ratty guibo, which isn't exactly a recipe for success. Off to the jy then, I guess.

Don't forget to look for the manual parts you need at the junk yard too! Even if you don't use them right away it would make selling the swap kit easier later.

I still have yet to find one! Good point though.

Well I got it out. Now to find another at the yard. The family situation dictates that it happens tomorrow. Heavy, by the way, very heavy.

1. rent a car for the weekend if necessary, so wifey can do her girls-only thing.
2. do not ever mention "i rented a car that weekend so you could go do your girls-only thing, so you owe me _____"
3. good luck with the trans. i've never worked on a volvo, so i have nothing constructive to add here.

Angry stole every good idea worth sharing, do what he said asap.

The wife is still taking her trip, we have two cars, she's taking the Cruiser. Her taking the car doesn't hamper my efforts as much as the two kids she leaves behind. I obviously am not going to take my 2 1/2 year old and 1 year old into the junkyard for an hour or so while I rob a car of its transmission. What, as a single man, would be a day long project, I, as a married with kids guy, am making into a three day, two hours at a time deal.

JY auto tranny is in, and shifts, and I feel all sorts of sleazy. It was milkshakey in there, but it's because they poked holes in all of the fluid reservoirs at the yard. I'll change the fluid after about a day to remedy that probably.

So who wants the brick? It'll be for sale very soon.

Other than the tranny problems, what other problems have you had with it? Didnt you just put a bigger turbo in it? How did that work out?

plance1 wrote: Other than the tranny problems, what other problems have you had with it? Didnt you just put a bigger turbo in it? How did that work out?

It made it faster!

I replaced most of the cooling system including the heater core and excluding the radiator. Plugs, knock sensor, 3" AMM, and some other stuff. I also did the headgasket and converted the leaking AC system to R134A. Repaired and oil leak that caused no damage and a transmission leak that DID cause some damage.

pm sent

tuna55 wrote: JY auto tranny is in, and shifts, and I feel all sorts of sleazy. It was milkshakey in there, but it's because they poked holes in all of the fluid reservoirs at the yard. I'll change the fluid after about a day to remedy that probably. So who wants the brick? It'll be for sale very soon.

Why sleazy? You installed a working used part to replace a broken used part.