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The 245 “refrigerator” was behaving strangely last week. It’s trusty B230F would either (a) briefly cut-out or (b) briefly surge upon hitting a bump. Since this disturbance didn’t affect the headlights, I skipped the chassis electrical system and started tapping at the engine wiring harness (some of which is – gulp – vintage ’85) and electronic units. Shaking the ECU (replaced two years ago – pleas to the electron gods don’t let it be this!) reproduced the symptoms. Turned out the harness plug was loose. It’s a slip fit between plastic materials and looked like one of them had changed dimensions slightly. Too bad they (I’m told Chrysler was Volvo’s source for these?) didn’t use a screw/clamp to hold it like the Bosch ECUs in my Turbo. Anyway, you can solve the problem by wrapping a large-size RadioShack tie-down through the plug wires and around the ECU. I’ve heard that starting the engine with this ECU disconnected damages the electronics. If this is true, I’d attach a tie-down to any 240 with this type of ECU.
Second tie down story is more exciting. I was driving recently behind a flatbed truck carrying a Lincoln Town Car. We both made a sharp left turn and everything appeared fine. But then the truck entered a slight curve in the road and the Lincoln suddenly rotated 90 degrees! Now the heavy Lincoln nose was hanging over the side of the truck – but not for long. As the truck driver continued unaware of the impending disaster the rear end of the car shot up in a fair imitation of the Titanic sinking, and the Lincoln slid off the truck, hit the berm at about a 60 degree angle AND BOUNCED. An airborne Lincoln is a mighty spectacular sight. Not sure whether the moral of this story is to tie-down your town car or to stay clear of flatbed “tow” trucks.
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