Part 2: PNP Removal

alexk243 · Post by **alexk243** » 07 Nov 2011, 16:44

Just did the repair (due to reverse lights not working) and I skipped all of the removal of the electrical harness and just did the cleaning and greasing with it still attached in the engine compartment. Not really much harder at all and had no issues. Looked at the harness and that process and I didnt really want to do that. So just wanted to point out:

You can clean/repair the PNP with the harness still attached

On another note when I aligned it (using the reverse light method and center pivot point as the gear selector) from one extreme to the other the reverse lights went on. So I clamped it somewhere in the middle and everything seems to work correctly (up arrows and reverse lights) so not sure what the fuss is about alignment... seemed kinda easy to get it right.

turbozutek · Post by **turbozutek** » 08 Nov 2011, 05:29

I've never understood the song and dance about alignment either. You put the switch on the shaft with all the lines aiming towards the stamping on the switch housing. If it's out of alignment the lines don't match up by eye - it's really, really easy.

That's it. I've done this almost 10 times with various 850's and s70's and I've never once thought about using a tool to help. If anyone reading this is put off doing this job by the scary looking 'alignment phase', don't be: it's piss simple!

Post by **rspi** » 29 Nov 2011, 12:47

Helped a guy do this today. His car had the up arrow flashing, would stick in 3rd a lot, didn't like shifting out of 1st sometimes, when cold, so we went to the local junk yard and pulled a pnp switch off of a junked car with 198,000 miles on it. Yikes!

Just did a swap without taking the cable bracket loose. Left it in park and it went on easy. Didn't have to make any adjustments or alignments. Easy swap. Hopefully this used switch will last the test of time.

whoa · Post by **whoa** » 01 Dec 2011, 23:24

Thank you google translate.

Post by **67spyder** » 24 Dec 2011, 17:12

Just did this repair due to a non functioning reverse light and I had to pass a safety inspection. Followed the instructions except I left the wires connected to the car which eliminates many steps. The sprung copper contacts had deep notches worn in them so I used emery cloth and made them flat. I aligned the switch by using the marks from the mounting bolts. Two hours total time without pushing it at all. I would recommend leaving the switch connected, just be careful disassembling the switch. All the loose bits are in the top half so hold the switch upside down when disassembling.

patwuyo · Post by **patwuyo** » 13 Jan 2012, 00:37

Thanks for the instructions.
I did the fix over 2 days so I had the whole night to play around with the PNP switch. Cleaned the grease, sanded the copper plates and adjusted the springs. And it looked like the copper arcs acts as an encoder to tell the computer the position of the gear via the pins at the end of the wiring. So I used a multimeter to track the gear position and the pins shorted at that position.

This helped when I wanted to confirm that my alignment was in neutral.
As shown in the attached, I used A, B, C to represent the gear position, and 1, 2, 3 to represent the arcs.
So P => A, and N => C. When the gear is in N, pins marked with 1A1C (same pin) and 2A2C (same pin) would be shorted when tested with a multimeter. The pin layout is with the pins pointing toward you.

cheers!

meteg · Post by **meteg** » 12 May 2012, 11:08

thanks a lot for this write up.. I was able to replace my pnp within a couple of hours free of trouble.. everything works great..

VolvoJoe96 · Post by **VolvoJoe96** » 25 Jun 2012, 23:30

I just bought a 1996 850 Wagon GLT with 142,000 Miles. I'm really excited about the car and can't wait to get in a real road trip. This is a great post! Easy step by step instructions, and great pictures! I had the switch out in no time and then cleaned up and back together again. --Thats when I ran into my first issue. Now that it's all back together again it won't start. Biggest question.. when I see referals to the switch postion, are we talking about the inside of the switch, the full switch, or turning the switch after it's back on?
Thanks in advance to all you guys who really know your Volvos!

As a side note. I did make a second attempt to align, I found reverse using the taillights, went one more over for park. Still won't start though. Open for any ideas on where I went wrong. Thanks Everyone!

Next Day Update. I was worried it was an allignment issue with the switch that was keeping the car from starting, it turned out to be me forgetting to put back the distributor wire. Took the car out for a test drive, ran much better for a little while, then didn't seem to want to shift out of 3rd. Since it started off so well I'm going to dive back into the switch and may sandpaper the copper pieces a little. Thanks again for this great post!

troutfanatic · Post by **troutfanatic** » 10 Jul 2012, 22:42

Please help. I followed the above directions. I turned the selector all the way to the right and then turned it back two clicks for neutral. It looks like it lines up like the picture. After reconnecting everything, it seems to shift fine, the reverse lights come on. However, it will not start in neutral, just like one of the post above. What further adjustment do I need to make? Any help will be greatly appreciated by me and my wife

troutfanatic · Post by **troutfanatic** » 10 Jul 2012, 22:51

Please help. I followed all of the above directions. I turned the selector all the way to the right and then back two clicks. It seemed to line up like in the picure above. When I test drove it, it seems to shift correctly, and the reverse lights come on. However, it will not start in neutral. What further adjust do I need to make? Thanks for any help.

Part 2: PNP Removal

Re: Part 2: PNP Removal