No, I just jacked it up [carefully] and stopped when there was some resistance as I did not want to damage anything. It may have been 1" rather than 1.5"- I did not specifically measure it. The amount was sufficient to remove the oil pan and also to get out the last Torxx screw without unduly stresing mounts etc.

You could be right about people replacing whole transmissions rather than solenoids. However, any organisation with a proper Volvo service manual should have no trouble diagnosing solenoid troubles. The TCU codes are straightforward and there are good diagnostics to exercise the solenoids. Indeed, my solenoids made healthy click/clunks except the faulty one which was almost impossible to hear. It is amazing that it still worked with such a high resistance.

Cheers,

Dave