I was the winning bidder at a car auction the other day on a 1997 850 base wagon. I knew that there were transmission problems before I bid, and I hoped that they were easy fixes. My mechanic says that I need to replace the entire transmission. After my experience today I think I concur-- at first it wouldn't shift into reverse. When in Reverse the car wouldn't move when the gas peddle was depressed, and in neutral it would drive forward when the gas was applied. After driving for a while at highway speeds the arrow on the dash started flashing. Following this I wasn't able to accelerate. The car wouldn't go about 25mph, and the engine was revving high.

Currently the car is two hours from home. I'm planning on towing it home tomorrow. I need to know the best way to do this...

Also, I need as much advice as possible for replacing the trasmission myself. I'm used to 240s... What gaskets should I order in advance? Are all 850 transmissions the same? What other things should I replace while swapping the trans? How will I know if my PNP transmission is in working condition?

Thanks for any feedback. Its hard to find info on this topic, and I'm new to 850s.

There are usually plenty of used ones on e-bay. As far as I know the turbo and non-turbo trannys are NOT interchangeable. Sometimes PNP problems can be temporarily fixed by rowing the shifter back and forth a half dozen or so times. I'm assuming your mechanic checked the fluid level but it looks like you really do need a new tranny. Hope you got a good deal on the car. What's the mileage?

She has 166k. By PNP I meant Pick N' Pull Transmission. Do you know if there is anyway to know if the transmission from the Pick N' Pull is in good working order? Also, do you know what kind of gaskets I can order in advance of this project? Thanks!

The PNP is a switch on top of the transmission which does go bad. Also, what color is the fluid. If it is brown or something other than red, a transmission flush may help. Search for both of these problems on sites such as volvospeed and matthews.

These two problems are relatively easy to deal with.

dick

Change the transmission fluid first, then replace the PNP switch before you go into tearing down the transmission. In other words, do the simple things first before jumping into conclusion that it is the transmission itself that's the problem.....make it simple. Good luck.