Automatic Tranny issue

[mburse]

I have a 1989 940 GLE with 150k miles. Had it since last spring.

The transmission has always hesitated (shifting from park to drive and reverse). Lately I have noticed it getting worse, and one very cold morning I was trying to turn up a steep hile and the tranny kept slipping in and out of 1st. I checked the tranny fluid when warm but not running... seemed a little low so I added some... Since then it has gotten worse.

The car is tired, If this is going to be very expensive then I really dont want to put the money into it. I live in a very rural location where import mechanics are hard to come buy.

Any insights to what could be causing the problem (best and worse case scenarios) would be greatly apreciated.... also any ideas on how much a fix may cost...

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Neal Bell]

I've had a couple of ATs go out on Volvos. Both of them were the AW71 overdrive transmissions; I had one of them done in a shop and took apart the other one to see what was wrong after I gave up on the car. The shop rebuild cost me about $1700. You can pick up one in a junkyard and swap for a few hundred but it's a lot of work and you may be in the same fix in a month. If I had another AW71 and I was in the mood to kill-or-cure, I would try this (get a good trans book first): you can remove the valve body with the trans in the car; there are three plungers behind it that have O-rings on them which sometimes break and leak. If you replace the O-rings you might make a big difference. The trans I took apart had bad O-rings and otherwise looked pretty good, it was about the same age as yours. I would not try this if the trans was making crunchy noises or had obvious burned smell, massive leaks, etc. It was not shifting into low gears reliably (especially reverse) and sometimes would mysteriously work if the trans was really good and warm. If you decide to try this, read through the procedure first; you will need a little tool that holds the plungers in place as you reinstall the valve body. You may be able to make it, but you should be sure of that before you start. If you ruin the trans, there's always the junkyard... Good luck!