Hey Guys,
I have a stick shift 1982 volvo 244DL. I was driving around a few days ago and suddenly my car shifted out of Overdrive and into 4th. It did this momentarily then shifted back into OD. After a few more miles it got worse until now it shifts in and out of OD randomly every few seconds. It does not get better as the tranny warms up.

Any ideas????

thanks,

I will check up on this today and let you guys know. I was thinking its either the wiring( the 82's have a bad rep and this is original wiring) or it might be the OD is somehow blocked off by pieces of metal.

Thanks!

First, remove, clean and tighten the connections on the solenoid. Including the ground.

When the terminals are off, check the point where the terminals are crimped to the wire. The wire breaks but the insulation does not.

Trace the yellow wire back from the solenoid, feeling/looking for broken wires or loose connectors.

BEst way is to engine off, ignition on, in 4th gear lever in 4th and push button to trun dash light on. Any time after that when you wiggle a wire or remove and put the terminal on the solenoid, the solenoid will click each time the power is lost and restored.

With on and off by itself, the relay has locked on so the power interuption to the solenoiod is either the ground or the yellow feed wire.

Duane

With on and off by itself, the relay has locked on so the power interuption to the solenoiod is either the ground or the yellow feed wire.

Duane,

Couldn't the OD also drop out due to a bad connection at the 4th gear switch on the tran (or the internal switch actuation) causing the relay (yellow wire) and solenoid to drop out?

Seems like that's basically how the 4th gear switch normally works—sort of "unlocking" the relay when shifting out of 4th.
What am I misunderstanding here?
--
Bruce Young
'93 940-NA (current), 240s (one V8), 140s, 122s, since '63.

With the 82's relay system, the relay is grounded by the 4th gear switch. Power flows through the relay to solenoid. If the 4th gear switch opens the circuit to the relay, the relay opens and will stay off until the button is pushed.

Since his OD engages by itself, power to the solenoid is being maintained by the relay, which indicates the fault is after the relay and not in the 4th gear switch.

If his dash light is flickering as well, then the problem might be in the spade connection or solder connection on the relay's circuit board.

Thanks for asking for more clarification, a solder fault inside the manual trans relay is very rare but possible.

In the early slide switch system, the power was routed from the switch to the 4th gear switch then to the solenoid. In that system, if the 4th gear switch was intermittant, yes, the 4th gear switch could cause the OD to "operate" by itself.

Duane

Thanks Duane,

I overlooked the going back into OD by itself. I haven't had any M46 driving since before I put o-rings (from you) in an OD some 3 years ago on an '86. That OD (still going strong) was an old one from a 10-spline tranny. Engine still good too at about 275K, but body is shot.

The '86 OD I took off had both Bridge Pieces severely bent—and still does, back under the bench somewhere.

Bruce
--
Bruce Young
'93 940-NA (current), 240s (one V8), 140s, 122s, since '63.

You've got an older car, so if we assume that your wiring is original, one possibility is that the insulation somewhere along the wires is worn and it's shorting or grounding, probably underneath -- maybe as you're driving along the wind is knocking the wires around and they're touching. This scenario would be consistent with it going in and out so frequently -- bad relays tend to get "stuck" and not open and close.

Does this happen if you're stationary (foot on clutch* and still in gear, just coast to a stop and wait to see if it still goes in and out)?

( * I know it's not good "technique", but you're trying to diagnose a condition, and we want to see if the problem continues if there's no wind passing underneath the car to blow the wires around.)