My '82 244t w/ auto transmission has started slipping or failing to engage in reverse, particularly when trying to back uphill. Fluid has been changed, but the problem persists. There don't seem to be any problems with any forward gears. The OD recently stopped working, but this turned out to be a wiring problem. However, it seemed that this reverse problem was worse when the OD was not working correctly. Any ideas?

Stopped and put in a bottle of the LubeGard additive tonight, tranny guy said he has seen it fix this particular problem if it wasn't too bad. Talked a while with the owner of the tranny shop and he indicated the reverse issue was fairly common with the AW71, he said they nickname it "morning sickness" . He explained that there is an internal piston that the O ring gets hard on and causes reverse not to engage when cold. He said that although the piston was not too dificult to get at finding just a replacement O ring was difficult as he said he has only seen the correct ones in rebuild kits.

We shall see if the LubeGard helps out...

Justin B.

Mark,

I sorta have the same symptom. When cold the AW71 in my 83 sometimes won't engage reverse. Several have suggested adding a bottle of LubeGard to the ATF and see if it loosened up. This car sat for a couple of years and all of the forward gears appear to work fine (don't really know what a Volvo tranny is supposed to feel like but they all work!!), just reverse. I found a tranny shop around here that uses this magic snake-oil so will try to buy a bottle tomorrow to see if it makes any difference.

One weird thing my OD does is I have noticed that if I go over a large "hump" on the freeway at speed or over rough R/R tracks that once on the other side of it it feels like the OD kicks out for a second then re-engages. It has done this three times in the same spot, almost like the ATF was being sloshed away from something but it is full according to the dip stick.

I'll let you know if the LubeGard makes any difference.

Justin

83 244 Turbo