I am chasing a short in the overdrive relay circuit. I have checked the wiring at the shift lever, replaced the relay and the solenoid. I'm now trying to read the wiring diagrams in the Bentley book. There is a common symbol in all of the diagrams that I can't figure out what it is. The symbol is a rectangle with a connection dot at each end inside the rectangle. They are inline in various conductors but are not numbered in the index. Any help will be appreciated.
Phil

I believe those little in-line rectangles indicate a disconnect somewhere along the wire path.
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Current rides: 2005 Volvo S80 2.5T, 2003 Volvo V70 2.4NA, 1973 Volvo 1800ES (getting ever closer to road worthiness)

Thank you, Art, for the diagrams. I appreciate your taking the time to look that up and post it.
Meanwhile, I have been CHASING THE WRONG PROBLEM! The fuse for the overdrive has blown on four different occasions. Each time I replaced a component and the problem went away. This last time there was nothing left to replace so I checked each part of the circuit for continuity and grounding. All OK. Finally after looking at the schematic for the umpteenth time I realized that the fuse also feeds the rear window defroster, which hasn't worked since I bought the car. I disconnected the defroster wire and the OD is working fine. Hopefully the problem is in the defroster circuit. One day I will replace the wiring that goes through the tail gate hinges so that the defroster and the third brake light will work again. Fortunately the license plate light and rear wiper are still working.
Thanks again to all who replied to my post.
Phil

Thank you. That make sense, I just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing something important. Going out to trace the circuit now. I will post the results.

Hi Phil,

Be careful trusting the unreferenced connectors in the wiring diagrams. There are occasions where the connector is omitted or added in the wiring harness but not in the overall wiring diagram. This can have you chasing a place to break the circuit that isn't there, or missing a corroded connector that isn't on the map. Other than this inattention to connectors, the overall wiring diagram, which is what Bentley poorly reproduces from the Volvo Wiring Diagram Manual's fold-out pages is the most accurate wiring documentation existing. The specific circuit drawings in the front hundred pages of the manual are often rife with errors. Here is an example of the detail pages for the 1992 AW-70 overdrive circuit. There aren't any errors that I've caught on these aside from the obvious missing reference to the connector for the solenoid under the car.




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Art Benstein near Baltimore

Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something -Plato

What year and model? 240, yes?

My red hard cover Bentley was stolen by the 1986 240 guy I was trying to help.

And so, we use, and do not need a magnifying glass, the:

http://volvowiringdiagrams.com/
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Give your brickboard.com a big thumbs up! Way up! - Roger Ebert.

Thank you for the link. The diagrams are a lot easier to read. Unfortunately there is no page for the overdrive circuit but there is other good stuff. I copied the Bentley book pages and increased the page size to 11 x 17 which helps a lot.

Update. RATS! The fuse held for about 40 miles, so I obviously have a dreaded intermittent short. I now realize that the rear window defroster circuit switch is a momentary contact switch so it was unlikely to be the problem. Not going to work on it until next week. I'll keep you all posted.
Phil

Yep, the Bentley diagrams are not so swell for being so small.

Though none of asked, and you did not indicate sedan or wagon.

Not very attentive on all our parts.

I get my 'help your Volvo kicks' on the facebook RWD Volvo groups and as such, that can be exhausting. Though those facegroup groups are informative, all the helpful or not so helpful response gets lost in the news feed.

Yep, them failing through the Volvo 240 (245) wagon hinges get bothersome. Though well made in the mighty and powerful Republic of Finland, them wire harness fail.

Rebuild with quality conductor, braided copper alloy meant to span a hinges gap through the harness, get the Volvo harnesses, or do as some do like I did (Swedish Baklava did it right and neat):

Don't by this as I did. Buy Volvo brand.


As I was 5 karat cheap, routed them on the inside.


Uncle Old Duke calls me and the red 1990 240 DL wagon "Bohemian"! Like a good Czech lager? Ha!

Here's a good one. HHHwhuts wrong in this image? Ha!


And another:


Happy Hollow-Dayze!!!!
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Give your brickboard.com a big thumbs up! Way up! - Roger Ebert.