No shift to final gear

Hello, I am the new owner of a 1984 244 DL. The original owner kept this car very well-maintained, with detailed records. The car has 179,000 miles. Yesterday, while driving home I could not appreciate a shift into the final gear. At about 30 mph I felt a smooth shift into third but then the engine would rev higher with increased speed and not shift again. I tried the overdrive button repeatedly with no results. All other gears work very smoothly, along with reverse, 2,1, etc. The timing belt is due soon for replacement, any connection? I appreciate any help, and look forward to being far more knowledgeable about my car than I am presently. Thanks.

David Compton

[Peter Milnes]

It would seem that overdrive selection has packed up. This could be due to the switch, the relay or the overdrive solenoid. A trace of the wiring underneath the car on the right side of the overdrive unit should let you know if the wiring to the solenoid has come adrift. The relay is on the relay tray (sorry cannot tell you where as I have only 700/900 information) and could well have succumbed to the problem of badly soldered joints inside the can. Repair or replacement will effect a cure if this is the cause. Sometimes the switch wiring becomes faulty and it requires removing the switch from the gearlever to check for this. The Haynes manual should be helpful but the top manual reccomendation for the 200 series is the Bentley manual. I think it is available from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. Best of luck and if it is the relay I think the light should come on and off with the switch selection.

All the best, Peter.

Thanks for the info, Peter. I'll explore these options for repair. Thanks again-

David

[Erling]

Another excellent source for information is the www.brickboard.com FAQ. In 1984, Volvo used both BW55 and AW70/71 in the 240. If yours has the AW70(/71) trans (the same as the one in the 740), it could be worth checking out
http://www.brickboard.com/FAQ/700-90...issionAuto.htm

Erling.