Gilhuly

Sorry for the delay. I got it out in about 2 1/2 hrs. I spent an hour or so replacing solenoids in the valve body and the PNP on the new tranny and put it back in in about another 5 1/2 hours. I ended up throwing some speed sensor and rpm sensor codes and needed another couple hours after the install to sort it all out, but it runs great with no codes now.

I’m in the middle of replacing an AW50-42 leg in a 99 S70. I have a lift and all the resources a professional garage offers, but I don’t think anything I’ve done is precluded if you are on a driveway. I thought about lifting the chassis right off the sub-frame/drivetrain, but on thinking through what I needed, I decided that I could could get the engine low enough and get enough stuff out of the way, it should be ok. I did one a couple years ago and it was a sobering 2 days at the end of which I felt drained. This time I decided to go heavy on the prep and to be efficient at the same time. For starters: get rid of the sub-frame completely. Hang the motor with an ability to tip it and drop it significantly. Get the entire front suspension out of the picture This means: hang the motor with bracing or an engine hoist that will allow you to dip the motor down 8-10 inches on the driver’s side and a few inches on the passenger side clear out all the stuff that goes from body to drivetrain including harnesses, Heater core lines, tranny cooler lines, grounds, evap line et cetera. Also, separate the sub-frame from drivetrain. Tranny mounts, harness connections, steering rack, all engine mounts. A word about steering rack. Undo the steering rack bolts from the subframe and the tie rod ends from the knuckle. Also detach the driver’s sway bar link at the sway bar and detach. The sway bar goes with the sub-frame and the steering rack will stay and hang off the steering column and the passenger tie rod/knuckle. Remove the control arms from the sub-frame on both sides. remove both axles. Remove the brake caliper assembly from the rotor, remove the rotor, suspend the brake caliper in the strut tower with a bungee or whatever remove the strut nuts on the top of the driver’s strut tower and remove the entire strut/knuckle/control arm. lower the sub-frame Disassemble the rear 2-piece engine mount and remove. Set up a 30 mm with 2’ of extensions on the crank and rotate the crank and remove the 6 T-40 torque converter bolts visible from the passenger side rear of the motor looking toward the driver’s side Work your way around the tranny to engine bolts. Most are 14 mm. Get your landing pad for the old tranny ready. Find a good place to start with a screwdriver, chisels, whatever. Pry off the transmission with special attention to the dowels at 10 O’clock and 4 O’clock I believe. I recommend a tranny jack on a garage floor, but two guys can do it in the mud if necessary. Anyway, this is from my phone so not very slick, but I think the ideas presented are solid and will save many from wanting to put a gun in their mouth after 3 days of hell.

Sunday NYT article/release

Yeah, in many cases its better than a service manual for the experience challenged. He sounds like he's probably between the ages of 17 and 22 (not a general slam against the younger) and his ignorance and "learning experiences" always seem to be somebody elses fault. To be more constructive, you can look at any number of brake job tutorials and see pretty much the same thing. The caliper bolts on the back of the caliper can definitely be tough. Patience and PB Blaster will pay dividends. If you would like a sure fire fix, get a piece of 15" or so muffler pipe from the bin at Autozone that will slide over the end of your breaker bar. This will give you a surprising improvement in leverage. With PB on those bolts and the cheater bar no brake caliper bolt on earth will stand in your way. Good luck

Sounds like you're pretty far down the line at this point. I don't recommend people to buy these cars unless they're willing to turn a wrech and continue their education in the automotive world. With some basic/moderate skills you could easily have shaved at least $500 out of the shocks/struts and brakes, but its a choice. Hey, big picture, If I knew out front that all that stuff would need to be done, including the cat and 02 and somebody offered me that car for free I'd take it in a second. Nothings free. Conversly, you could definitely sell it for 4k if it runs well and you have less than 2k in it. I think your free car expectations were too high maybe. quote name='DC-10 Captain' date='Sep 20 2006, 11:01 PM' post='759692'] I was on my third 240, when my sister offered to give me her 1995 850 sedan for free. Naturally, I accepted. The 240 had 218K miles; even though it was in excellent condition, I figured I couldn't turn down a much newer, seemingly more reliable car. *well* Here are how things have unfolded so far: Camshaft Position sensor -- $200 Motor mounts -- $200 Alternator and battery -- $300 Breaks/rotors -- $550 Shocks/struts -- $500 And now, the car can barely put out any power. The exhaust pipe sounds like hell, so I'm thinking it may just need a catalytic converter and/or O2 sensors. The dashboard lights also mysteriously went out, even though fuse #35 is recieving power. This is all excluding maintenance items, such as the timing belt, tune-ups, etc. The car has only 102K. I have two questions: 1) Any idea why the dashlights wouldn't work, even though the fuse outlet is fine? 2) Should I sell this car? The car has been in an accident, so the title is reconstructed. I really don't know what to do. Yeah, it's fun to drive (5spd manual) and it's safe, but it's a real money pit. At the same time, I don't see why anyone would want to buy it. Has anyone else had trouble with 850s, or is this just a bad year? Thanks for any input!

Definitely do the water pump. The downside to doing it it a relatively cheap part cost and the downside to not doing it is a new boat anchor in the form of your old engine.

Victor did mine - A+ work and service.