Before you do a rebuild or junker, what's the problem witht the tranny? If the overdrive is flakey try the solder fix or spring for a new one. My wife's '84 245 refused to shift out of first when cold, a complete flush and it is working fine, the crap that came out was a dull metalflake gray, had the viscosity of water and looked like it had never been changed, probably hadn't at 200K mi. Just take the top trans cooler line off, run a clear plastic hose to a large bucket, idle the car till bubbles come out, turn car off, add 2qts fluid, idle car again, repeat till good red fluid is coming out and top up. Pics of the process are on my site. If there is actual damage to the tranny this will not help but it is a cheap thing to try before spending the $$$. As to tailgate wires, $10 worth of wire and either solder or crimp connectors, go to a boat store and get fine stranded wire, prop the tailgate open, remove hinges and splice in new wire to go through the hinge. Rebuilt racks are ~$250, and an easy afternoon replacement, if you have the drunk do it make it a morning job. Invest in a Bentley's manual, they run ~$35 on ebay and will be the best money you ever spent.
Cheers and good luck, we like our wagon so much we're looking for a 245T.
Dave Shannon
daveshan@cox.net (Spring Valley CA)
1984 245DL 200K
1985 244Ti 190K
1986 740GLE 230K
1988 240DL 180K
www.volvo2.homestead.com