Saturday, an 83 245 came in the shop (without an appt) with a similar problem. The first thing I checked was the thermostat. 87 degree C. No problem. Next I felt the surface of the radiator through the fan shroud. I felt cool areas, which could indicate partial plugging ie no heat, no water passage. I doubted that it was the radiator, but took it out anyway. I blew out the fins with the pressure washer and stuck it back in. Still the same. I knew it would be. I felt the hoses and noticed that the lower hose had a spring in it. On this application there is no need for a spring, so I took the hose off and removed the spring. Upon inspection of the spring I noticed the end all chewed up. Since the water pump top seal was about to fail anyway, and it had a GMB pump, I told the customer that I wanted to take the pump off and at least re-seal it. He gave me the go ahead an 10 minutes later the pump came off.........IN TWO PIECES ! It dosent matter if it was the fault of the pump shaft breaking, or the hose that shouldn't have a spring in it, but that's what lesser quality parts do. According to the customer, the car had this problem for a week. It's hard to believe that the car was still driveable with in essence NO waterpump. BTW the temperature compensator boards came with the fishtank headlights. You do however have a Voltage stabilizer. Normally the transistorized ones are ok, but do fail although more rarely. Not always but often, the fuel level gauge does weird things at the same time. The v stabilizer is screwed to inst panel behind temp/fuel gauges. It looks like a spider, with one half of it"s legs missing, doing push ups. Don't forget to check for bad harness disease. --
George Swift / volvo car care