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Brian-
It's funny that you should post that message today, because my 6-month plus mission to fix my faulty M46 ended this afternoon with an enjoyable test run on the higway. So as you may expect, I'm no longer in the mood to bash my tranny. (Before, I was just as annoyed as you seem to be.)
I'm definitely not an expert in the history of Volvo transmissons, but there's one explanation for the existence M46 that I've heard about makes sense to me. As the story goes: Waaaaay back before the oil crisis, Volvo developed this nice, sturdy little 4-speed manual transmission that they used on quite a few of there cars. (Don't remember the proper designation for it...M45 comes to mind.) But since the final drive ratio for this unit was 1:1, gas mileage wasn't all that great for cruising at highway speed. To have any chance at competing with 30+ mpg Japaneese shoeboxes, Volvo had to increase their efficiency and one of the easiest ways was to put in a transmission with a final drive ratio greater than 1:1. Since they had a perfectly good transmission already, they opted to bolt on the Laycock de Normanville, (British built), OD to act as a fifth gear. Depending on the rear end, the car could now cruise at 60 mph and only rev at something like 2300-2500 RPM. Poblem solved. If anyone has a different story, please post it.
So now I have to ask: What's wrong with yours? Perhaps one or more of us can direct you to a successful repair. There's a great deal of knowledge available through this board and I've had a lot of success in the past.
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