Volvo AWD 850 Forum

Hello everyone!

Looks like iam back again, last time i had a similar problem but it sort of vanished on its own. You may read about it here, I only got to add that one day everything was back to normal and the only diffrence was that it dried up outside http://www.brickboard.com/AWD/index.htm?id=626824&nr_no=1 .

Well i'll try and be as exact as possible when describing my problem, hopefully you wont need to go through all of it before you recognize the problem and pass judgement on wheter i need to forget about ever having a weekend free this autumn since i need to earn money for a new gearbox or not, here goes.

I drive a Stage4+ 854 Turbo from 94. Power should be at least 300HP and the tranny has been strenghtened with extra welded (dont know the english word) "lamelles" and higher oil pressure plus some more things I cant remember right now. Also I have put a large Setrab oil cooler for the gearbox. This car has been run very hard this entire summer and especially since I put the boost up to 1.1 bar with 1.3 peaks between gears.

Anyway saturday night i was streetracing as usual and even gave a guy a little demostration of my car. The highway home it went without a problem as well, the entire summer has been action filled for my car without any problems with the transmission.

Anyway the day after, i drive over to my friend to watch a movie (Super 8 is a decent thriller IMO!). After that we cruise around the city and I notice the gears are hard to get in, its slippy outside and its acting very weird when the wheels spin- gearing up and down. Something is definetly wrong I can feel it.

But we stop by a gas station to eat something, I get a call from a girl who wants me to pick her up and iam on the road again. I was driving around for a few minutes when i feel its AGAIN having problems getting the gears in. I slow down a bit and give it some gas but then the engine just revs like crazy=feels like in neutral gear.

Then the arrow symbol starts blinking and I only have third gear to drive on. I call the girl to tell her the horrible news (she thought I was making it up to avoid her so now that adventure is over...oh well) and set sights to at least getting home. After nearly getting there the car isnt moving forwards. Its just slipping like crazy. I restart the car and its moving again, although its slipping more then the usual when you drive around at low speeds in third gear.

I get home and park the car. I hear some whiny noise from the engine as well, it comes from under the battery I think. It gets loouder when i rev the engine.
Since its dark i leave it like that.

Today, or this afternoon. I start up the car. Orange arrow is still blinking. I shut it off and do the "move stick from P to L". I start up and voilá, arrow is not blinking anymore. I drive in reverse a few m, get in the D and it seems to work. I run up to get something I forgot and leave the car at idle. When i get back and drive a few metres, i slow down for a small bump but when i press the gas nothing happens- major slipping.

I cant even change into reverse, no gear wont enter. So I push the car to a parking spot and leave it there, hurrying to work.

When I got back now I tried drving it again. It worked for a few metres, no slipping at all but after a while it just gets worse until the car wont move forward. Funny thing is, when i restart the car and do some "move stick from P to L" I can get the gears in at least a few metres until it starts slipping again. And this damn whining that comes when i rev it up, dont know what it is but someone told me its the "lamelles" scratching steel to steel meaning the box is F-ed up.

What do you think, is there a chance this is just a electrical error or is the box filled with small pieces of steel? Iam setting my sights on a major rebuild to manuel M56H box with killer clutch if it turns out I have to start from scratch and get a new strenghtened gearbox, but if its just something that broken and needs replacement I might try and do that so that it at least runs (will have to turn boost down).

Please help me, sorry if it came out lenghty.