are there any volvo station wagons (700 or 900) with manual transmission around - i know they are very hard to find. I drive one in San Diego and the nest one i saw for sale is in Orlando, FL. Does anyone knows how many manuals are around and also was the 780 sold with a manual only in europe???
I love Volvos and I love manual - so where do i find some??

I've been following M46/OD 700/900 on eBay and just bought one a few weeks ago.
There are currently 3 listed:

90 744 Turbo #2409143178 (second listing, no takers first time)
87 745 Turbo #2409020443
88 744 GLE #2408598275

Jim Weiss
83 245T, 90 760TI, 90 740TI/M46, 93 940TI wagon, want more . . .

Also, there's a VERY interesting 90 744SE Turbo with a "%speed" (must be 5-speed although its probably an M46/OD) listed in the IPS Classifieds under For Sale: 700/900 Series. Its in Montreal.

Jim Weiss

The average is 3% of all Volvos came with manuals. Yes they are rare but many of us have converted our autos over to manuals. It runs about $1000.00 or less in parts and about 8 hours of labor if you change over the rear end also. If you just need the transmission they can be found and installed with a new clutch for $750 or less if you do it yourself. Should run around 5 hours to do the job completely.

I think your times for the conversion are a little optomistic. It takes about 4 hours to do a clutch job at home. I would estimate 2+ hours to remove and replace the pedal assembly, and 2 more hours to do the overdrive relay base wiring changes, and at least 1 hour to remove the instrument cluster and add the OD light wiring. In addition some cars need a new hole drilled in the transmission tunnel for the OD/reverse light wiring harness. To change the rear end by your self and deal with the emergency brake cables is probably another 3 hours. I almost forgot to to mention adding the clutch slave cylinger line with support bracket, slave cylinder hose, bleeding the clutch slave cylinder, dealing with the pilot bearing, and removing the old transmission oil cooler lines.

A person doing the conversion for the first time will take much longer dealing with the relay base and instrument cluster wiring.

Al,
My od is not working and I know my clutch is old. Are you sure you can get a new clutch and manual trans installed for 750? That sounds good. How much would a salvage yard sell just the trans for you think?
Will

Funny you asked that...was searching alocal salvage yards database and they have a m46 from a 91 740 with 114k on it...they've had it since march of 2000.

I think it's the tranny out of my first 91 744 SE, was totaled 12-21-99 and we settled on it with insurance around the first week of feb 2000. There were very few in 91 brought into the US, and very very few in my area. That, and my car had 114,508 miles on it then.

They wanted $750 for public price.
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MD

The 780 did come as manual in Europe but many had automatic gearboxes. Turbos are usually manual, V6 usually automatic.
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George Holmer, Belgium, Europe, 1987 745 GLE Turbo Diesel Intercooler (D24TIC/M46) 200k; 1988 745 Turbo Intercooler (B230FT/M46) 290k; 1988 745 GL (B200E/M47) 190k