I drove my 89 w/ 265,000 on it last year well into the summer with an ever increasing whine coming from the area of the front part of the automatic transmission. It had plenty of clean fluid in there as well as a clean filter etc.... The shifting between gears became more hesitant and it finally broke down and wouldn't roll at all in any gear about 10 miles from home one day.
I let it sit the Winter and the other day got the back wheels off the ground and tried it in drive w/o any load. Drive wheel spun fine.
I'm guessing the torque converter is what failed in it and would like to get the old girl rolling again.
Any suggestions on what it may be if not the torque converter. Guess I'm looking for consensus from folks with more knowledge than I, and I know you guys have that.
Thanks,
emaycom

I can only offer my personal (and fairly recent) experience with our '89 240 wagon. Our trans was on its way out also, and I looked around, even placing "want ads" in Craigslist and IPD. I was fortunate to get a phone call from a local Volvo repair shop that saw one of the ads, and they just happend to have a '92 AW71L in its shop that was removed from the shop owners '92 940 after it was in an accident that totaled the car, though left the drive train unaffected.

It had only 123K on it and I got it for $100!! The repair shop said it had been setting on a shelf at their place for about a year and were happy to almost 'give it away".I did pay that shop a reasonable labor to remove my AW70 trans that came with our 89, and install the "new to me" one, and its been great.

I also did have that shop put in new seals wherever they could and of course new fluid and a new kick down cable AND while they were at it, replaced the rear engine seal as long as they had the trans out... (I did another fluid replacment myself a month later just to 'be sure' so to speak).

What I am getting at is you might consider a search for a replacement trans, yours most likely an AW70, BUT if you can find an AW71L in decent condition at a decent price, go for it.

The AW71L we got is ‘tight” and shifts smoothly with an even better "grip" and shift than the old trans. In any event, good luck!

It might just be the kickdown cable. My '90 had the same symtoms. Replaced cable and all is fine. Check the FAQ on this site.

The way I see it you have to figure on replacing the transmission and torque converter--no sense to fooling with a unit that has problems with the kind of mileage on your car.
If you are going to farm out the job let the shop doing the labor locate a transmission for you. They will be familiar with which wrecking yards are reliable and that will honor the usual 30 day warantee on such items.
If you are doing the work yourself there's a few ways to go---1. buy from a wrecking yard (pay more but they'll do the initial dirty work and provide some warantee)---2. use a you-pull-a-part kind of place--choose a car that's there because of body damage and/or choose a nice clean unit--they often offer a warantee at a small additional charge--3. look for a privately offered car for sale--pay a little more initially but then be able to test drive the tranny and be assured of having all the parts needed plus whatever else you might need/want for your car--then scrap the remains to recoup most if not all of the outlay. Good luck with your project. -- Dave