Hi there!

My name is Alex , live in Austria near Vienna and I´m a newbe in Volvo of the 300 series.Arcooled Volkswagens where my automotive world but since 2 month a first hand 1980 Volvo 345GL Variomatic with just 39000KM on the counter try´s to show me how nice it could be.

But...

Since about the last 50Km the Variomatic makes troubles.
The symtomes are:
1.shaking when i take my foot of the gas
2.if i must stop about anything the engine is going out
3.After starting in "N" as the manual is recommending, i push the button on top of the stick and change position to "D" and release the butten, a loud noise of the gear sounds from the back.
Not allways and depending how fast i release the button.
Next thing is that the button is not allway comes out or after a while of 3-4 sec.

Anothe symtome is when it drives like it should somtimes the overdrive falls out and de engine comes up but i wasnt change the position of the gaspedal before..

Did i have a clutch problem?

Thanx for helping.

Br
Alex

PS: please apologize my bad english and spelling...

Hi Alex and welcome,

I know nothing about variomatics, but your English is far better than my German and I can understand you perfectly - so no need to apologise.

Pete

Hi Alex and welcome! I'm only guessing at the moment, but from your description which I understood perfectly, it may well be a loose connection which is under the gear selector cover. There is a wire on a spade connector that either comes loose or the wire breaks. If your remove the cover, where P, N, D and R are written, which is I think held in by the two screws in the centre console infront of the gear selector towards the front of the car, or you may needs to pull the carpet back which is stuck using velcro to the centre tunnel console towards the centre of the car under the gear selector. You'll see a wire on the bottom of the gear selector, it has a long way to travel, so is prone to wear, this will most likely be hanging off! The spade connectors it uses are very small, smaller than a standard normal size, as a temporary fix I used a normal one and clamped it tighter, and as it worked never got around to replacing it properly!

This should stop the crunching noise you get, as sometimes you probably cannot move the selector out of or into park without a lot of resistance then a crunching noise.

As for the other problems, has the car had a service recently, as if it isn't running right or it may have an air leak, which the 1.4's are famous for, which would result in it maybe running badly and stalling when you slow down or stop.

Do you have a rev gauge in the car? As the 340 variomatic clutch needs adjustment to keep the tolerances right so there isn't excessive slippage, which would result in faster wear of the clutch plate material. It is spaced out on shims to keep the time it engages and disengages correct matched to the engine revs. Also the 340 variomatic system works on a vacuum, and if the pipes are broken or leaking, or a part has failled it will not be working correctly.

Hope that helps for now.

Pete

Hi!

Thanx for this perfect analyzing of my Vario-probs and your competence!
The carreburator-bolts where responsible for the stalling because one of them get lost anywhere and the others where not very firmly pulled.

I found a broken cable under the gear selector.
After reconnecting the car drives perfect again.

Thanx a lot for helping, Pete!

Hello people,

there is a problem for me with variomatic too. I can not switch the gear selector to position P, could it also be the wire that's at the bottom of the selector? Otherwise, it runs smooth at the moment

cheers,

Julius

Does the car shift normally from R to N to D??
There could be an adjustment to the gear lever looming in your future, if this is the case.
Check for any obstructions under the P position and make sure all the wiring is properly connected.

John

thanks, i removed the plastic covers today, to take a look at it. i don't know the reason, but it seems it was some kind of obstruction that did not let me to push the button deep enough to let the gear selector move to P . Now it shifts well again!

thebear54 wrote:Does the car shift normally from R to N to D??
There could be an adjustment to the gear lever looming in your future, if this is the case.
Check for any obstructions under the P position and make sure all the wiring is properly connected.
ut l
John

Perfect !!! Problems solved. Happy motoring, again.

John