David;

Dittos to Chris...I suggest you let your wife drive another BW35 equipped Volvo to get a feeling for those awfull slushboxes. But here's an important suggestion: Get someone else - like a friend of hers - to teach her how to clutch and shift...and preserve your marriage! In my opinion, the cost of a replacement manual tranny, after your present one gets chewed up (maybe) teaching her how to clutch and shift, is STILL better than changing over! Also, standard 122s had a 4.10:1 diff, automatics a 4.30:1...standard 1800s had a 4.56:1 and I don't know what automatics had-I presume higher still...the point being that if you changed a standard 1800 to automatic without also doing the differential, you would have not only a slushbox, but also diff. gearing favoring the top end, which will make the car even more sluggish off the line - and that's certainly the exact opposite of the improved performance you want!

Regards,

Since everyone else has posted useful helpful information about how

to do this, I won't feel so bad about posting something negative:

I would not do this; I would instead teach her how to drive a manual.

The BW35, aka mushbox, is the only transmission you will have a reasonable

chance of installing in this car. It is not a very good transmission

and is frequently the reason why otherwise good volvos wind up in the

junk yard. I've talked to lots of people about these things and all of

them say about the same thing "they're not terribly reliable and nobody

has ever been able to rebuild one in such a way that the car worked for

very long."

I'd say go ahead and do it so long as you don't need to cut anything

or destroy anything to get the transmission into the car; keep the old

transmission in a clean dry place and when the slush box dies you can put

the M41 back in and hopefully your wife will like the car enough that she

will learn to drive a standard so she can keep driving the car.

If you can, buy an automatic equiped 140; drive the car around before

buying, and use the parts from that to put into your 1800; otherwise you

can't be sure the transmission actually works.

Automatic equiped 140s in my area go for about $300-600 depending on

other factors; you're likely to wind up paying that much for bits and

pieces otherwise and you won't have any way of testing the transmission

until it's actually in the car.

chris

Before you attempt to put the BW35 into the 1800 check the transmission tunnl is big enough. I have never tried to automatic an 180, but certainly in a 120 you need to change the tunnel.

Regards

I have a '72 ES with automatic. It is a BW35 and is somewhat sluggish. I have considered changing to standard, and even have most of the parts to do that. The parts you need include: tranny, bell housing, drive shaft, rear end (different gear ratio), and various bits. For example, the auto kick-down cable snakes up and attaches to the throttle control. I don't know if the standard throttle control has the fitting for the cable. I have heard differing reports on whether the cross-piece supporting the transmission is necessary. E-mail me off-line and let me know what part of the country you are in. If we are close you may be able to compare your set up to mine.

Ebay has one listed as #496484830 and it has not had a bid so far. Make sure you get the bell housing and flywheel and "spacer". It will work if you have all the pieces

David,

Some of the later 1800s used a B20 engine with fuel injection. This should give you the performance boost you are looking for. Later in the 1800 series, there were actually some cars with automatics. I remember reading someplace these cars used the BW35 transmission. Sounds reasonable since I believe that was the automatic tranny used in the 140 series at the time. The later 240 series initially used the BW55 tranny and its varients.

A little searching should find you a B20 fuel injected engine. The FI system is the early Bosch D-Jetronic. It gets its information from a manifold pressure sensor, as opposed to the more modern and more accurate air mass sensor. If a B20 with FI can't be found, then there is always the carb. version which your should be in a position to handle since that is what your car probably has.

The BW35 tranny should also be available with a little searching. You may find it already bolted to a B20 engine in a 140 series. Parts to rebuild this tranny should be readily available. You can have a shop do the work, or you can attempt it yourself if you are comfortable digging into one of these things. I have a Volvo green shop manual for my '82 1800ES, and I think it does describe the rebuild of a BW35. Can't tell you sure since the book is at home. Either way, unless the tranny has been rebuilt recently, I would consider rebuilding it in order to make sure the seals are good. It will save you grief later.

I think the real challenge will be getting the proper drive shaft, stick shift assembly, and linkage. Since the automatic version was not very common, I would think these parts will be difficlt to find. Maybe contacting one of the several 1800 parts dealers (such as Dan Thibauld at http://www.p1800.com/n_part.htm) will direct you to the parts. They should also be able to inform you of some of the issues of doing such a switch.

Good luck, and do what ever it takes to keep your classic going.