Has anyone had any luck jut changing the o rings of the o.d. solenoide, instead of changing the whole thing? On the older volvos that usually does it, I'm wondering if the AW-71 (or is it -70?) it is possible to pull it clean it and put some new o rings drive off merrily with a 4th gear working. The symptom at present is a very slow to engage o.d. Basically it won,t engage when the tranny is cold though 15 to 30 min of highway driving will get it up andfunctional.
Thanks to any and all,
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Patrick, '68 220, '83 245, '92 Eurovan (work truck).

One of our Volvos lost trans fluid and began slipping. We put new fluid in and lost overdrive. I removed the solenoid and sprayed brake cleaner in one of the little passages that fluid passes through. After this I bench tested it and it worked. It fixed the overdrive. I'm convinced the solenoids get gummed up in the passages and cause them to get sticky.

I'm fairly certain that you know more about these Laycock OD's than I do, but here's my info anyway.
I replaced the wiring to the solenoid and the seals on my M46 a few years ago and it helped. Can't really say which helped the most, but the the solenoid orings are pretty easy to do if you are changing the fluid anyway. I had a similar problem with the OD not engaging when cold, though I have a couple green manuals and owners manuals that state that the od should not be engaged until the car has been driven for 5-10 minutes. 15-30 seems pretty excessive.
New solenoid orings, wiring, and a few quarts of Redline MTL and the OD works well again. The wiring looked ok but I was installing the foam around the shifter anyway, so I figured why not just replace it.
Good luck.
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1981 242 GLTi 1967.5 122S
Seattle, WA