Hi can someone please help me?
I fitted a shock absorber to my v40 and when the spider on the driveshaft popped out the needle rollers dropped into the gearbox!!! so after a day in the rain and a bit of blood and sweat I had the gearbox out.
I then took the top cover off (the part that has the grommet on it, and couldn’t see any needle bearings so I un bolted the main unit and peeked into it, there I could see most of them stuck to the magnet. so I phoned Volvo and they said that I could open the casing by un-bolting 5 gear and the cog next to it, then undoing a bolt next to the gear selector on the outside of the casing. I did this and hey presto the case opened with a ping (he forgot to tell me to watch for the selector springs and bearings) I cleaned it all up and bolted it back together, all seemed well put it back into the car,
I drove the car up the hill and 1,2,3,4, worked fine reverse worked fine too, but when I selected 5th it carried on working till I took it out of 5th suddenly I had no gears at all. so I stopped the car, I could even get it into 6th!! I then got it into reverse. but then it wouldn’t come out, in fact the gears were locked and the car wouldn’t move at all it had jammed. I pulled the lever hard and it came out of gear, and started working in 1,2,3,4,r, until I selected 5th again and now I have lost 3,4 all I have now is 1,2, and reverse. not 3,4,5
I phoned Volvo and the engineer doesn't know.

I assume it is because I put the selector bolt/pin in while it was in a gear? and by selecting 5th it was able to move out of its selecting lugs.
I was going to try to take off the 5th gear end housing and try to undo the gear selector housing bolt, to try to get it into its correct positions.
Is this correct is there a way of lining up the selectors? or is something else wrong? the gearbox was fine before and there is no bits left in the box. I also fitted the 5th gear assembly correctly back on its splines as I never separated them. so I can only assume I disassembled or re-assembled it in the wrong gear. I hope this can be sorted without removal again as my knuckles are wearing out!! I feel lost without any solutions.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and your help I really appreciate any posts, info or comments.

I wish I could help you on this but I have never had one apart.We would just install a new gear box we never take them apart.

Just a note to say it is all fixed,

Today I took off the end cover to look at the position of the selectors and see if there was anything a miss, and there was. The 5th gear selector was missing its roll pin and therefore was able to move on its shaft. allowing the gearstick to move out of the gate and cause the troubles. I remember having to use a rubber mallet to get the selector on to the arm as it was so stiff, but because I was trying to get the gear on the shaft I forgot to put the roll pin on. When I tested the box out of the car it worked fine because the selector was stuck on the selector rod, but in use it moved and jammed, moved and was essentially a pain. At least it was fixed without taking the gearbox out of the car again.

I hope this helps someone in the future.

p.s. I dint knotice the roll pin in the bottom of the box because it rained so hard on the box of geabox parts it filled up with water!!!











(for the search engine)
volvo v40 gearbox fault or renault laguna gearbox fault

Congrats on the fix...im happy I can change my oil!!!