I was replacing my distributor cap and rotor and while cursing at the limited clearance for an 8mm wrench, found this:



There are two leads which look like ground straps, about 8 or 10" long, coming off of the top bolt on the Oscillation Damper (black box attached to firewall).

The other ends (not shown in pic) have through-hole bolt terminals, and to my surprise were not connected to anything.

Question: What are these straps, and should they be connected to something??! A brief look at what ground connection diagrams I could find did not help me.

Thanks much,

--G.

They may be for noise suppression, but if your other grounds fail, they might just keep you on the road.

I have the same situation on 940 A. Been off sicnce I've had the car. Gotta admit the reception is crappy, due mostly to semi-raised antenna and a broken motor
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89 240 wagon, 94 940, 200K, 94 940, 135K

they are ground straps, and the loose ends go under the rearmost acorn nuts on the valve cover.

looks like you might want to clean up the connection there on the firewall, it looks pretty rusty. bad grounds can lead to all sorts of odd behavior on these cars.

john
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1989 245 245K / 1993 945 131K

As I (vaguely) remember these are only noise suppression grounds. Lacking them is not critical but you might get better radio reception/clarity with them.

Not sure on the 900s, but. On the 700s, mine run from valve cover bolts to the firewall. Will they reach to the rear bolts on the cover? Has someone ever changed the valve cover gasket?

Edit: Gearwrench works wonders on those.
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Post Back. That's whats makes this forum work.

Thanks Onkel, Dinomartino, aleekat.

Mystery solved! Love this forum.

I will see if they reach the valve cover bolts. And yeah, the valve cover has been removed and replaced a couple of times over the past year or so by our Volvo mechanic, and I'm guessing they either left these unconnected accidentally, or they just don't believe in them!

-- G.