I'll give out the cliff notes first, then go into detail about the how and why.
2006 VR with the TF80SC, from the serial number (or VIN #) on the trans this unit should have had the original "defective" VB in it. 116,000 miles on the car currently. Been having the common shift problems, changed fluid, seemed to make a change for the past two years, driving home from Christmas the torque converter started to slip badly.
I have a full M66 swap for the car, but I don't have time to do the swap till the summer so I'm doing a "field repair" on the cheap for the short term.
I'm using the Transgo shift kit off ebay along with new gaskets from Cobra Transmission.
Skip to pictures to avoid the long story.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I picked this VR up summer of 2017 with 112,000 miles on it. Drove well but the trans started acting up semi frequently (the common hard downshifts, 2 -3 flair, N condition on hard right turns) so I decided to do a drain and refill on the trans oil. The oil looked like it had never been changed (Dunkin Donuts regular coffee brown) and it was maybe 1/2 a quart low. I used the genuine Volvo oil this time around.
The drain and flush helped a great deal but it still was not perfect, especially when it was over 75c after sitting in the hot summer traffic for a while. It would have the odd 2 -1 hard shift, very light flair and mostly when taking a hard right and going from 2 -3.
Fast forward about a 14 months and on a whim I decided to use Seafoam's trans cleaner/oil treatment. Basically drain out a qt of trans oil and put in a qt of the Seafoam, drive it 3,000 miles and do a drain and fill to flush the stuff out. This REALLY helped, the only thing that kept being an issue was a clunky 2 -1 downshift after being in 30+ min of summer traffic.
Then this past Christmas (roughly 7 months since the Seafoam) something odd happens. My parents live 60miles from me, I'd say 90% highway. On the way home, about 30miles into my journey humming down the highway at a good clip, it felt like there was a single misfire. As if the front wheels hit an expansion joint but the rears didn't. It was subtle enough where I just thought nothing of it, until the same thing happened a few minutes later. So at this point I think I have a misfire, bad coil or some such. Then going up a hill I notice that I'm slowing down, the RPM's are staying the same but I'm decelerating. Give it more throttle and I get more RPM's but still decelerating, shift into 5th still decelerating, shift into 4 still decelerating. Take my foot off the accelerator, put the trans back from 4th into D, now I can accelerate.
Go another 2 miles and again, it feels like the torque converter is just unlocking and slipping. 6th, 5th and 4th all act as if the TQ is slipping. Only when I take my foot off the accelerator and let it coast for a bit will I regain drive for a few miles.
I went 30miles essentially hyper milling home. Tho the last few miles of surface streets it was fine.
Drove it a week later (I left it in the driveway like a scolded child) to test it out and it was fine. I drove it about 30miles and it acted completely normally. The only codes in VIDA were some low tier yellow ones like a drivers seat memory switch not reading, cargo light not reading. And those codes were posted immediately upon plugging in VIDA, so maybe a voltage drop as it was 20* all week.
Three days pass and I drive it down to my shop to work on it, this is another 30 miles and I had VIDA giving me live data the whole drive down. Not a peep, everything was functioning normally, no codes of any sort.
So the plan is to do a quick repair on the VB so I can have the wagon back for a few months before I manual swap it. This is my first time working on an auto, but I've got years working on cars so I'm not going in with confidence.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Honestly, getting the VB out was harder than tearing the VB apart on the bench. Your supposed to drop the sub frame to gain access, but I did it the dumb way. I unbolted all of the engine mounts and jacked the trans side of the whole unit up to gain access. Don't do this, you get a hair more room than enough and you can't see **** and end up struggling to get it out. Just drop the sub frame. The VB pan is held in with a bunch of T27 (don't quote me on that) tq screws and some gasket goo.
![20190126-221130]( "20190126-221130")
With the pan removed you have to disconnect the clips to all the solenoids before removing the seven 8mm bolts (around the periphery of the VB) that hold the thing in. These clips suck. I ended up using a small jewelers screwdriver and bending the tip about 10* so I could insert it into the connection and have it disengage the clip at the same time.
![20190126-155809]( "20190126-155809")
Ok, now its on the bench. Behold the front side.
![20190126-181358]( "20190126-181358")
Back side.
![20190126-181435]( "20190126-181435")
And top. It looks like this has been replaced due to the "07" marking, but that's just a guess.
![20190126-181448]( "20190126-181448")
Take the two small plates off the top side, this will reveal the small pins holding in the solenoids. Use a magnet to get the pins out.
![20190126-185304]( "20190126-185304")
![20190126-185307]( "20190126-185307")
Fluid is pretty clean.
![20190126-185316]( "20190126-185316")
You can see the pins and small plates.
![20190126-185320]( "20190126-185320")
Now with a magnet remove the solenoids valves still located in the bores. Keep track of where they go.
![20190126-213756]( "20190126-213756")
Then remove these 8mm bolts on the front side.
![20190126-191353]( "20190126-191353")
![20190126-191427]( "20190126-191427")
There are three 8mm on the back side that also need to be removed, but I did not take a photo of that for some reason.
At this point be very careful, there is a lot of very small valves that are all spring loaded and have a tendency to spring out and across the room and YOU WILL spend 30mins with a magnet trying to find them.
This is the back side of the top cover. When you remove it make sure to keep the metal plate on the other larger part of the VB as there are 8 small valves below it and you want to keep them in place. Keep in mind that the top half you are removing also has one small valve that will fall out or stick to the metal plate, its the one hole on the top right that has a metal plunger in it.
![20190126-191506]( "20190126-191506")
Here is the other half of the VB with the metal plate still in place. The black material on this plate are bonded gaskets that need to be replaced.
![20190126-191511]( "20190126-191511")
And with the plate removed you can see the eight little valves on the other half of the VB. Take these out with a magnet and keep them in order, the small white ones are all the same but the others are different and have separate springs behind them.
![20190126-200923]( "20190126-200923")
![20190126-204822]( "20190126-204822")
Cool, now take these two 8mm bolts out.
![20190126-201453]( "20190126-201453")
And these four 8mm bolts. Keep in mind,there are four or five different lengths of these bolts threw out the VB, so keep track of them as they are all mixed around.
![20190126-201627]( "20190126-201627")
Remove the back cover. Keep in note more of those small valves still in the back cover.
![20190126-201812]( "20190126-201812")
![20190126-201822]( "20190126-201822")
At this point were about wrist deep, but were going full elbow deep now.
![20190126-202255]( "20190126-202255")
On that back cover you just removed, this is were the first replacement valve goes from the Transgo kit. The two shinny parts (top right) are from the Transgo kit, the others (top left) are OE. You just push in on the valve from the side and with a magnet remove a square pin from the top (this is all in the instructions, easy to follow I might add), this lets the valve come out of the bore.
![20190126-203811]( "20190126-203811")
Now back on to the main part of the VB. Remove these three 8mm bolts.
![20190126-204314]( "20190126-204314")
Now, keep the whole unit together with you hands and flip it over so that the front side of the VB is facing you. While keeping the metal gasket plate down on the lower half of the vb, slowly lift off the front side.
The front cover and plate is on the far left. In the middle is the center of the VB (your seeing the back of it), and on the far right is the back side of the VB. The gasket plate standing up goes between the middle and back halves of the VB.
![20190126-204812]( "20190126-204812")
Never mind the bolts, I just threw them in to keep track of their placement. Not the little valves tho, they can stay in.
![20190126-204819]( "20190126-204819")
Now remove the metal plate you saw on the bottom side in the last photo. And you get this mess.
![20190126-210453]( "20190126-210453")
The two brownish piston looking fellows with springs is what the kit replaces. The kit's units have a sleeve with a smaller piston that goes inside, the kits springs are also softer than the OE. Note the plate you removed also has a gasket on it (left hand side).
Great, now reassemble.
![20190126-221145]( "20190126-221145")
At this point I still need to take it apart to put in the new gaskets. I also need to cut open the solenoids to clean them out. The kit comes with a drill bit to remove any buildup on the solenoid's interior and a new cap to replace the one you cut off.
I'm skeptical that this kit will really do anything, but who knows and I figured for the $120 invested (minus fluid as I got a free 12 quarts of 3309 from a friend) it would be neat to see the inside of this VB and good for the community as I haven't found a single post with pictures this in depth.
I'll update this with more photos when I work on the wagon again this weekend.
Should be a good old time.
2006 VR with the TF80SC, from the serial number (or VIN #) on the trans this unit should have had the original "defective" VB in it. 116,000 miles on the car currently. Been having the common shift problems, changed fluid, seemed to make a change for the past two years, driving home from Christmas the torque converter started to slip badly.
I have a full M66 swap for the car, but I don't have time to do the swap till the summer so I'm doing a "field repair" on the cheap for the short term.
I'm using the Transgo shift kit off ebay along with new gaskets from Cobra Transmission.
Skip to pictures to avoid the long story.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I picked this VR up summer of 2017 with 112,000 miles on it. Drove well but the trans started acting up semi frequently (the common hard downshifts, 2 -3 flair, N condition on hard right turns) so I decided to do a drain and refill on the trans oil. The oil looked like it had never been changed (Dunkin Donuts regular coffee brown) and it was maybe 1/2 a quart low. I used the genuine Volvo oil this time around.
The drain and flush helped a great deal but it still was not perfect, especially when it was over 75c after sitting in the hot summer traffic for a while. It would have the odd 2 -1 hard shift, very light flair and mostly when taking a hard right and going from 2 -3.
Fast forward about a 14 months and on a whim I decided to use Seafoam's trans cleaner/oil treatment. Basically drain out a qt of trans oil and put in a qt of the Seafoam, drive it 3,000 miles and do a drain and fill to flush the stuff out. This REALLY helped, the only thing that kept being an issue was a clunky 2 -1 downshift after being in 30+ min of summer traffic.
Then this past Christmas (roughly 7 months since the Seafoam) something odd happens. My parents live 60miles from me, I'd say 90% highway. On the way home, about 30miles into my journey humming down the highway at a good clip, it felt like there was a single misfire. As if the front wheels hit an expansion joint but the rears didn't. It was subtle enough where I just thought nothing of it, until the same thing happened a few minutes later. So at this point I think I have a misfire, bad coil or some such. Then going up a hill I notice that I'm slowing down, the RPM's are staying the same but I'm decelerating. Give it more throttle and I get more RPM's but still decelerating, shift into 5th still decelerating, shift into 4 still decelerating. Take my foot off the accelerator, put the trans back from 4th into D, now I can accelerate.
Go another 2 miles and again, it feels like the torque converter is just unlocking and slipping. 6th, 5th and 4th all act as if the TQ is slipping. Only when I take my foot off the accelerator and let it coast for a bit will I regain drive for a few miles.
I went 30miles essentially hyper milling home. Tho the last few miles of surface streets it was fine.
Drove it a week later (I left it in the driveway like a scolded child) to test it out and it was fine. I drove it about 30miles and it acted completely normally. The only codes in VIDA were some low tier yellow ones like a drivers seat memory switch not reading, cargo light not reading. And those codes were posted immediately upon plugging in VIDA, so maybe a voltage drop as it was 20* all week.
Three days pass and I drive it down to my shop to work on it, this is another 30 miles and I had VIDA giving me live data the whole drive down. Not a peep, everything was functioning normally, no codes of any sort.
So the plan is to do a quick repair on the VB so I can have the wagon back for a few months before I manual swap it. This is my first time working on an auto, but I've got years working on cars so I'm not going in with confidence.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Honestly, getting the VB out was harder than tearing the VB apart on the bench. Your supposed to drop the sub frame to gain access, but I did it the dumb way. I unbolted all of the engine mounts and jacked the trans side of the whole unit up to gain access. Don't do this, you get a hair more room than enough and you can't see **** and end up struggling to get it out. Just drop the sub frame. The VB pan is held in with a bunch of T27 (don't quote me on that) tq screws and some gasket goo.
With the pan removed you have to disconnect the clips to all the solenoids before removing the seven 8mm bolts (around the periphery of the VB) that hold the thing in. These clips suck. I ended up using a small jewelers screwdriver and bending the tip about 10* so I could insert it into the connection and have it disengage the clip at the same time.
Ok, now its on the bench. Behold the front side.
Back side.
And top. It looks like this has been replaced due to the "07" marking, but that's just a guess.
Take the two small plates off the top side, this will reveal the small pins holding in the solenoids. Use a magnet to get the pins out.
Fluid is pretty clean.
You can see the pins and small plates.
Now with a magnet remove the solenoids valves still located in the bores. Keep track of where they go.
Then remove these 8mm bolts on the front side.
There are three 8mm on the back side that also need to be removed, but I did not take a photo of that for some reason.
At this point be very careful, there is a lot of very small valves that are all spring loaded and have a tendency to spring out and across the room and YOU WILL spend 30mins with a magnet trying to find them.
This is the back side of the top cover. When you remove it make sure to keep the metal plate on the other larger part of the VB as there are 8 small valves below it and you want to keep them in place. Keep in mind that the top half you are removing also has one small valve that will fall out or stick to the metal plate, its the one hole on the top right that has a metal plunger in it.
Here is the other half of the VB with the metal plate still in place. The black material on this plate are bonded gaskets that need to be replaced.
And with the plate removed you can see the eight little valves on the other half of the VB. Take these out with a magnet and keep them in order, the small white ones are all the same but the others are different and have separate springs behind them.
Cool, now take these two 8mm bolts out.
And these four 8mm bolts. Keep in mind,there are four or five different lengths of these bolts threw out the VB, so keep track of them as they are all mixed around.
Remove the back cover. Keep in note more of those small valves still in the back cover.
At this point were about wrist deep, but were going full elbow deep now.
On that back cover you just removed, this is were the first replacement valve goes from the Transgo kit. The two shinny parts (top right) are from the Transgo kit, the others (top left) are OE. You just push in on the valve from the side and with a magnet remove a square pin from the top (this is all in the instructions, easy to follow I might add), this lets the valve come out of the bore.
Now back on to the main part of the VB. Remove these three 8mm bolts.
Now, keep the whole unit together with you hands and flip it over so that the front side of the VB is facing you. While keeping the metal gasket plate down on the lower half of the vb, slowly lift off the front side.
The front cover and plate is on the far left. In the middle is the center of the VB (your seeing the back of it), and on the far right is the back side of the VB. The gasket plate standing up goes between the middle and back halves of the VB.
Never mind the bolts, I just threw them in to keep track of their placement. Not the little valves tho, they can stay in.
Now remove the metal plate you saw on the bottom side in the last photo. And you get this mess.
The two brownish piston looking fellows with springs is what the kit replaces. The kit's units have a sleeve with a smaller piston that goes inside, the kits springs are also softer than the OE. Note the plate you removed also has a gasket on it (left hand side).
Great, now reassemble.
At this point I still need to take it apart to put in the new gaskets. I also need to cut open the solenoids to clean them out. The kit comes with a drill bit to remove any buildup on the solenoid's interior and a new cap to replace the one you cut off.
I'm skeptical that this kit will really do anything, but who knows and I figured for the $120 invested (minus fluid as I got a free 12 quarts of 3309 from a friend) it would be neat to see the inside of this VB and good for the community as I haven't found a single post with pictures this in depth.
I'll update this with more photos when I work on the wagon again this weekend.
Should be a good old time.
