1985 240 DL Manual OverDrive button not working

Hi

I have a 1985 Volvo 240 DL 4 speed manual with the overdrive button atop the
gearshift lever. The wiring inside the gearshift lever is tenuous at best.
Overdrive works, which is the good news, but the button/wiring business
inside the gearshift lever is for all intents and purposes a goner, which
means overdrive is out of order for the moment.

I recently purchased an entirely new gearshift lever, with all the wires and
the rest of it, which I am reasonably hopeful will cure the problem. My
trouble is I am not sure how to go about replacing the thing. The parts guy
said it was a piece of cake, but now that I have seen the part the job looks
intimidating at best.

Is there a simpler solution besides replacing the entire gear shift lever? Is
there an easy way to, let's say, replace the top half of the gear shift lever,
and then have all the wires plug in where they want to go down lower? Or will
I have to get under the car? Or do you have to get under the car to replace
the gear shift lever?

And thoughts would be much appreciated

TIA!

 

What model tranny do you have? If you can tell me that, I can give you a
parts breakdown thru vadis which might make it easier to replace.

-Brian

 

It is an M46.

Basically what seems to have happened is the gear shift knob somehow detached
itself from the shift lever, and whatever wires there were connecting the
gearshift knob to the thing at the bottom of the inside of the gearshift
lever are gone. I think all I need to do is simply replace the gearshift knob,
but as to how to go about it I cant find out, as the manual I have (Chilton)
doesnt show how. I am told that the former owner just let it go, but from
time to time would megshift some sort of wiring to make the connection so the
overdrive would work, but after a while it became a hassle, he got another
car and did not bother to fix it. So I *think* the solution is simple in
theory, it is just the execution part that seems tricky

Thanks for the reply

 

Hopefully the attachment comes thru. If not let me know a valid email and
I'll send it to you.

Looks to me like there is small pin that you can remove and replace the
entire upper shift lever, part number 18 in the drawing.

Hope this helps.
-Brian

 

I dont see the attachment on the thread. If you can, please send it to my
yahoo email

tradingessentials@y........

(do not want to spell out the y___o.com in the email address line because
spiders will pick it up and then the spam comes pouring in!)

Thanks again!

 

OK, got it, thanks!

Well, I got the pin out, and was able to slip the top half on without
incident, connected the wires up and still no go. I am informed it might be
either the relay or the solenoid. I know where the solenoid is, but not sure
where the relay is. Do you have a chart to show where the overdrive relay is
and how to replace it? Also, would you happen to know how to test the
solenoid to see if it is working?

Thanks again!

 

Unfortunately I don't have the electrical portion of Vadis, only the
mechanical.

As far as testing the solenoid I would guess that you can turn the overdrive
on and off and with a meter see if you have 12v at the solenoid in one of
the positions. If you do then you've prooved the relay and are down to
either the solenoid being bad of something within the overdrive unit itself
being bad. Once you confirm voltage at the soleniod listen for a click at
the solenoid, that's the armature pulling in, if it doesn't click then
you've got a bad solenoid coil (double check with an ohm meter) or a gummed
up armature. If you hear the click then it would be something within the
overdrive unit itself.

Have you confirmed that your getting voltage to the switch itself? One of
the wires to ground should give you the 12v, accross them may get you 12v
also.

-Brian

 

If the wires were bad inside the shift lever, at some point wouldn't the
fuse blow?

If not the shifter then the 4th gear switch.

 

It's pretty easy, there's an allen set screw on the lower end of the shifter
which you get to down under the car and then a pin pops out. From the top
you remove the circlip around the ball joint and the lever lifts out.

I'm not sure why you're replacing the lever though, it's much easier to
simply replace the wiring by splicing it at the base of the lever under the
rubber boot. If you get some silicone rubber test lead wire it'll last
longer than the original.

 

M46 is the only manual gearbox with electric OD that was ever offered in a
240.

 

No, it would just engage and disengage the OD sporadically. There's only two
wires, connect them together and the relay cycles, or in pre-'81 cars which
have no relay, the OD engages when the wires close and complete the circuit.

 

Hello all,

Many appreciative thanks for the suggestions. I replaced the upper half of
the shift lever by taking out the pin at the base of the old and then putting
the new one back on top. The new one had the new switch installed which had a
nice little 'click' to it.

The first one I got (from the recycle yard) did not have a 'click' in the
button, and that did not seem to be working.

I also re-soldered the OverDrive relay, which is found (after removing the
glove box) immediately to the left, behind the dash. The o/d relay in the car
was a Hella relay and the color was rust/brown, but the connector was blue.
When you look ionthere you see the blue connector but you have to reach in
there a bit an pull the relay out. It unplugs from the blue connector easily
enough, but the hard part was taking the plastic shell off the relay to get
at the circuit board.

At least this one was hard, as there are only plastic phlanges to work past,
which was a hassle (busted a knuckle.)

Once I got the circuit board exposed to the light of day, I noticed (clearly)
there were a couple of 'lines' or 'paths' where the solder looked like it
'should' have been so I resoldered those. That is tricky becasue the lanes
are barely 1/6" wide. There were other places that looked suspect so just
for insurance I added some solder there as well.

After plugging the relay back in and splicing the wires from the new top half
to the base (blue and brownish red wires) took it for a test rdrive and voila!
it worked! woo hoo!

There is a link on this site that shows the pictures of where the relay is
located as well as what the relay looks like inside which was very helpful.


Anyway, there it is for the next guy that has this problem.