1983 Volvo 240DL manual overdrive question

When I recently got my '83 240 DL with manual transmission, I was told
it was "only a 4-speed."I got it through an agent for elderly owners
who would not be able to provide accurate information.


It has the button for overdrive on the gearshift lever. Although it
does not function when pressed, does that mean that it should? It
doesn't seem likely that it would be there if there had been no option
for its use, as in cars that have, for lack of a better term, "dummy"
spaces for options they don't have.

I have tried shifting it into 4th with the ignition switch on, then
pressing the OD button, but the dashboard does not light on the square
to the left of the trip-odometer reset light.

Also, if it is meant to have OD, will it harm it to drive at high-ish
(over 55-65 mph) speeds in 4th gear?

For that matter, were there Volvos of that year/model that had only
the four gears?I really like this car (How could I not?) and want to
get the most from it before my next Volvo.

Thanks,
Karl

 

You should use the OD when driving over 65 miles per hour (90 - 100 Km/h).
If you engage the button (the gearstick must be in fourth) you must hear two
things:
the relais clicking and the sollenoid. The last is mounnted on the side of
the OD unit.

Check the oil in it, they tend to leak, also clean the filter with brake
cleaner. No oil, or less oil, means no pressure to shift up.

You should also check the wireing form the relais unit to the OD,
wires/connections tend to corrode. Perhaps your 4 gear switch is broken or
the wires that lead just under the little switch on the gearstick are loose.

Mine works fine afther I checked all these points. The relais is situated on
the right site under the cover (where the left knee is), just below the fan
openings.

PMl me if you have questions,

Cheers,

Martijn
3 old Volvo'

 

No harm, just lousy gas mileage. If you have a tachometer you can see
that 65 is well under the redline (on my cars it's about 3500 RPM, yours
will be lower).

Go post on the brickboard (may be down for a day or two while the DNS
changes get picked up), with any luck Duane the OD guru will post a good
diagnostic guide.

- alex

'85 244 Turbo
'84 245 Turbo

 

Check the fuse, then the wiring in the shifter, it often breaks right by the
base of the stick where it flexes, also sometimes the knob pops off and
pulls the wires off the button and nobody bothers to put them back on. The
OD is nice on the highway, generally you should engage it when going more
than about 40 mph on flat ground.

 

I'll do that, and (forgive my thick-headedness) does your and the
other answers, mean that it could _not_ be "only a 4-speed" as I was
told? Were there 4-speed manuals in '83?

- NJ

 

by Martijn dropped his wrench, scratched his head and
mumbled,

The relay is only there on right hand drive cars. On left hand drive cars
you have to remove the glove box, and it's toward the center of the car
next to the face level vent.

Bob

 

by nojinx dropped his wrench, scratched his head and
mumbled,
[snip]>

There were some, very rare. I don't think many were imported to the US.

Bob

 

North American cars all got overdrive transmissions by 83 (except for some
cars.. I the 260 V6s the Canadian cars with carbs).

Outside the US, YMMV. However, Volvo didn't put shift knobs with the OD
button on the cars that got the M45 transmission. Actually this is all
really extremely simple to check.

Look under your car. If the transmission looks small, like a normal MT
would.. you don't have an OD. If you've got what looks like a small
automatic transmission on the back of a manual transmission with a big
square grate thing on the bottom.. you've got an M46.

- alex

 

The relay is only there on right hand drive cars. On left hand drive cars

my relay was giving me serious problems. first the switch died so i
replaced it with one on the dashboard. then the relay started going
flakey, so i just bypassed it. still works great. just put in a big
NASA surplus switch. in the middle of the switch console.

caveats:

remember to disengauge it when not in 4th gear over 60! it'll work fine
for any of the forward drives, just give you zero torque, but so help
you god if you coast off the freeway home and try and back out of your
drive way the next day. ***Grrrrriinnnnddd***** ooh... i'm sorry!




bonuses:

friends asking what that random switch is on your dash. saying rocket
thrusters is really fun, but overdrive is equally impressive. :-]

switching into overdrive becomes so much more amusing.


*grin*
matt.

 

It's a common failure, check the relay under the dash.
If you need more info, post.

 

4 speed is rare, not sure if they made them that late but I've never seen
them. Just peek under the car, you can see the OD unit on the back end of
the tranny, you don't even have to jack the thing up.

 

Gas mileage is of little concern, since I have the ever-popular (as in
"common") option of non-functioning speedometer and odometer.

It's a Canada car, no tach.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I've a few other questions I'll ask
separately.- NJ

 

Actually the non functioning speedo is fairly rare, though the odometer does
break sometimes. Have you checked the cable? It may have simply come
unhooked, or it may be broken. Tach is fairly easily added if you find one
in a junkyard.

 

I think I'm sorry to hear that about the speedo. Since there are
numerous "small" problems with the car, I have searched online and
didn't pick up on this, and both the speed- and od- ometers stopped
working at the same time.

But maybe that indicates a problem whose solution won't require parts,
or it might be practical to add a tach at the same time. This week I
will be checking area junkyards for availability of things I need.

I am "fairly" certain that I didn't reset the trip odometer while
driving, as I did know this is ill-advised. . . but "fairly isn't
100%. - NJ

 

You can't break the speedometer by doing anything with the trip odometer,
the speedo cable connects to the transmission and runs directly into the
back of the speedo, this also drives the odometer but if the speedometer
isn't working then you have either a broken or disconnected cable, or the
gear that clips in the transmission to drive it has stripped, this happened
to my dad's car when the bearing on the gear shaft siezed. A brand new
speedo cable is only about $30, it's easier to just buy a brand new one than
to get one from a junkyard, it's too easy to put a kink in it removing one
and then your speedo needle will bounce.

 

Odometer problems are common, speedos aren't. My wagon had a non-op speedo, when
I finally dug in to remove the tach.. I found that the speedometer was
disconnected from the cable. Other places to look would be any of the mechanical
boxes that the speedo cable would hook up to, and the transmission.

If your speedometer is indeed dead, getting one from a junkyard is pretty easy.
If you don't have any junkyards around where you are (doubtful), check
car-part.com, or ask here.

As stated elsewhere, adding a tach is pretty trivial.

- alex

 

If you can get under the car make sure the wire that runs from the
shifter to the OD on the side of the transmission is intact. I had a
non-functioning OD for a year while various garages here in Toronto
suggested everything from a new Overdrive Solenoid to a complete
rebuild of the wiring harness until a resourceful fellow hoisted the
car and looked to see that the Overdrive wire had wrapped itself
around the driveshaft and just ripped out. The new wire was in and
secure in about 5 minutes.

I guess just add it to the list of things to check.

 

"James Sweet" <

I guess I'd better humble myself and post the great fix.Everything
checked out. . . except that James' reference to a fuse went over my
head -- or through the empty space between my ears.

After a miserable 125-mile trip last week I vowed to never take this
car any distance again; meantime I decided to check the fuses to see
whether the rear defroster might have a faulty one.

Both OD and the defroster are on the same fuse, and there wasn't even
a fuse there! I must have thought that empty one wasn't supposed to be
used.So-o-o, I'm just back from a far more pleasant 300-mile trip. It
just wasn't supposed to be so easy, I guess.

Thank you all for your help. And I'm going to check the speedo cable
soon. Before I ask about the cruise control, which _is_ on the same
fuse as other things that work properly.

Karl

 

The cruise control connects to the speedo, so if the speedo cable is bad the
cruise control won't work either.

 

my 740 turbo M46 gear box had broken cables and jammed overdrive solenoid.
The broken cable was due to the bad cabling routing under the gear changer
leveler.
The overdrive solenoid sticked with steel powders and tar-like mixture. Once
it was clean no problem at all.
To keep your OD alive, better to change the gearbox oil at least once two
yearly.

Keith Beast
E14 4NS Docklands