1998 V70 XC - Transmission win turns transmission nightmare

TJWookiee · Post by **TJWookiee** » 19 Jul 2014, 18:33

I will preface this by saying I'm not as familiar with cars as most of you here, as will probably be made clear as you read my story. If anyone has any guidance for me, I'd appreciate it greatly.

My V70 XC wagon's transmission needed replacement (I was getting an incorrect ratio reading for gears 3 and 4 in VOL-FCR after I'd noticed a drop in power) and after being quoted between $1500 and 1800 for used replacements of unknown age, I decided to take a look for one myself and found one with 83k miles for a great price on eBay. The car was the same model, and as it turned out, the part number on my transmission and the one I bought on eBay were both 1208909, built a few months apart according to their serial numbers. I'd taken a risk not knowing if the parts were the same, but since the two cars were the same year and model, I thought the risk was minimal.

I figured this was a big win for me, all I had to do was wait for my mechanic to do the swap. His original time estimate when I dropped it off on a Monday morning was late Tuesday, which became Wednesday and then became Friday. Finally he told me, after he'd consulted another shop, that he could not get the splines from the differential to align with my transfer case. He'd thought perhaps he was using the wrong alignment tool, so he towed my wagon to the other shop to try theirs, but still no luck. The two mechanics feel the eBay transmission may have been rebuilt.

At this point, the seller is willing to take it back, so the eBay portion of this story isn't the part I need guidance with, it's the idea that even with the same part number, the part wouldn't work. Could a rebuilt transmission result in the part not aligning with my car? Does that make sense?

Post by **Matty Moo** » 19 Jul 2014, 20:33

I'm not quite sure about all of that, or maybe you're having a hard time communicating the issue.

I've torn apart a few AWD cars and have never had to align anything. Bolt on the Angle gear, slide the axle in and go. I will say I despise any sort of transmission or engine swap on them only because there's more to do than a FWD.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 19 Jul 2014, 22:08

I'm trying to figure out what splines at the transfer case he is having trouble with. The propshaft (driveshaft) bolts up to a flange on the output of the transfer case. There were two versions of the propshaft but I presume that the shop is reinstalling your original.

Did you buy both the transmission and the transfer case as a package or did you just buy the transmission? If you are re-using your original transfer case it should all be the same as far as the propshaft goes.

If you did buy the transmission and the transfer case as a package then just have them use your old transfer case. On a lift they should be able to swap the AWD transfer case in well under an hour if the propshaft isn't hooked up. I can do it in my driveway without air tools in about an hour.

...Lee

TJWookiee · Post by **TJWookiee** » 21 Jul 2014, 15:21

I am re-using my original transfer case.

I'm trying to learn what I can, but I'm not going to waste time pretending to know more than I do. I can only tell you what my mechanic has been telling me, I can't verify the info myself. To put it another way, unless he tells me something that strikes me very obviously as incorrect, like he had trouble with the flux capacitor, I'm forced to take his word for it. I'm hoping to get some guidance here, and I know I am asking a lot since it's all hearsay. If I'm not communicating this correctly, sorry, but this is what I'm getting from my mechanic.

Originally, after I'd had the donor transmission shipped to his shop, he told me the part looked good and he was ready to swap them out, but urged patience as this would be a long job removing the AWD to get at the transmission. What he's said since then has varied, though. At first he said he got everything hooked back up but could not attach the AWD to the transmission. He wanted to bring the car to the other shop because they thought they could align everything correctly with a specific tool. After towing the car to the other shop, he told me the transmission won't connect to the transfer case, which seems to contradict his earlier claim that he had no problem until "the last thing" (his claim) he had to do in connecting the AWD.

TJWookiee · Post by **TJWookiee** » 21 Jul 2014, 15:27

I just took another look at the VIN for each car and compared them here: http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/vin_70.shtml.

The only difference I'm seeing is the gearbox, my VIN has a 9 to indicate AW55-50SN automatic gearbox. The donor car's VIN has a 5 for the gearbox, there's nothing on that table for a 5. I'm checking with the seller to see if that's a typo.

Post by **precopster** » 21 Jul 2014, 19:26

All AWD gearboxes fitted to P80 series V70s are AW50-42 series 4 speeds.

It wasn't until 2001 MY (larger bodied P2) that the 55-50SN 5 spwed was put to use in North American markets in AWD cars.

Post by **northernlights** » 21 Jul 2014, 21:41

TJWookiee wrote:I just took another look at the VIN for each car and compared them here: http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/vin_70.shtml.

The only difference I'm seeing is the gearbox, my VIN has a 9 to indicate AW55-50SN automatic gearbox. The donor car's VIN has a 5 for the gearbox, there's nothing on that table for a 5. I'm checking with the seller to see if that's a typo.

If you look at the VIN's for US and Canada, I believe that the gearbox code that the rest of the world gets becomes a checksum number that has nothing to do with the transmission.

Post by **jimmy57** » 21 Jul 2014, 21:58

Correct. Trans code position for rest of the world is a verification digit (checksum digit) required by Canada and US to determine if VIN has been altered.

The differential carrier in transaxle for AWD models will have external splines outboard of the carrier bearing that the angle gear connector sleeve splines to in order to drive angle gear. The seal there will be a large I.D. seal.
If they can explain this better it would be nice to know if the seal is the small I.D. seal. If an AWD car gets turned into a FWD car by removing the angle gear and rear driveshaft the small ID FWD seal can be installed to seal the RH axle as on FWD models. It could be that removing the FWD seal and installing the AWD seal there will allow the angle gear to fit. All of this supposition is based on the problem being the small RH seal on the transaxle.

Post by **scot850** » 21 Jul 2014, 22:11

Appreciate this is not really helping, but for the sake of correctness, my 2000 V70R has a 5 speed auto transmission!

Neil.

TJWookiee · Post by **TJWookiee** » 22 Jul 2014, 13:55

jimmy57 wrote:The seal there will be a large I.D. seal.
If they can explain this better it would be nice to know if the seal is the small I.D. seal. If an AWD car gets turned into a FWD car by removing the angle gear and rear driveshaft the small ID FWD seal can be installed to seal the RH axle as on FWD models. It could be that removing the FWD seal and installing the AWD seal there will allow the angle gear to fit. All of this supposition is based on the problem being the small RH seal on the transaxle.

On my car or the donor car? I haven't had any such work done. I suppose the original owner could have, but I don't think so.