Rear main seal change/clutch removal 850 Manual

MVS Volvo Forums user Taxi wrote this outstanding DIY tutorial covering removing the transmission and replacing the clutch on a Volvo 850 manual transmission.

While this writeup is perfectly outstanding, this 850 manual swap topic may provide a great deal of understanding on how you want to tackle this project.

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For starters, I put the front of the car on stands, doesn’t have to be really high. Just make sure you can loosen the rear subframe supports, you have to put the stands behind them, I put some wood between as well.

Put the steering wheel UP and towards the engine.

Remove everything that’s on top of the gearbox; battery and shelf, air filter and wires, both electrical and gear-change-wires (?)

EDIT: Disconnect clutch cylinder from gearbox but DO NOT disconnect the hydraulic line!

You need something to support the engine from above and to lower it on the left side, but I guess you should be able to do this very carefully with a jack?

I removed both axles and CV joints, as well as the ball joints before I started removing the five bolts and supporting the steering gear. I used a tow line to keep the steering gear in place.

After removing all kinds of things to allow subframe to be lowered and all of the engine mounts BUT the right-to-subframe one I started lowering the subframe on the left side. I removed the subframe bolts on the left side and unscrewed the bolts on the right side by 20-25 mm while supporting subframe with a jack.

Keep an eye all around, especially the steering gear as you lower the subframe, then lower the engine until the gearbox can come out through the left wheel well.

I also supported the gearbox from above, as I removed 12 bolts holding it to the engine, including the two bolts that also holds the starter. (I removed the starter as well))

Be sure to take the gearbox straight out from the engine, you don’t want to support the weight of it on the axle and clutch (louver?).

Remove the pressure plate, six screws.

Here is the gearbox out of the car, and its a good time to clean the splines on the axle and put just a little grease on it to allow gear change (one and reverse) with engine running. This alone made this entire operation worth my while

And of course, if you do this for the same reason as I; clean the interior for oil caused by leaking rear main seal.

Flywheel, ten bolts, replace bolts with new ones on assembly.
Its pretty tight even when the bolts are out, you have to wiggle it for a while…

Flywheel off, and there is a leaking rear main seal!
Can be a bit tricky to get out, and you don’t want to scratch the surface of crankshaft or engine block.

I then put in the new seal using the old one to carefully hammer it in, a few mm more towards the block than the old one. Don’t know if you are supposed to do that, got the tip from a mechanic.

Rear main seal change/clutch removal 850 Manual

Last Updated on August 23, 2022