The good folks at Swedish Cars in Lorton VA report that my wife's breakdown was caused by the coil overheating to the point that "oil is coming out and it's too hot to touch." I'll buy that. Sounds consistent with the slow method in which it died. I had noticed that it had a non-Volvo coil and just assumed that it was probably the right one, that is one designed to run without a ballast resistor like American cars have. Apparently not. This was the car's first long trip since I got it- hard to say if that was the only problem but the fuel pressure test turned up no trouble.

In other news, the '91 I picked up yesterday ran *great* on the way home. It rode like a homemade go-kart, but that's for another story.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 86 244DL, 87 244DL, 88 744GLE: 625K total

Evidently the coil and apparently a crappy non-Bosch rotor were the extent of the problem. It ran fine for hours afterward. Damn that's frustrating. I knew that the parts weren't real Volvo parts and I figured I'd replace them "someday." The new one is getting "zero-miled" whether it likes it or not.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 86 244DL, 87 244DL, 88 744GLE: 625K total

I love zero-mileing!
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'82 DL - 150k, '93 945 - 96k

Did the coil have "Magneti Marelli" on the side? If so, I feel your pain, speaking as a former FIAT owner.

Or - Lucas, a/k/a "Prince of Darkness"

As in, "Why do the British drink warm beer?"
A: "Because they have Lucas refrigerators."
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 86 244DL, 87 244DL, 88 744GLE: 625K total

The Lucas company moto:

"Home before Dark"

Ya know, I've never heard a positive story about Lucas electronics parts.

My '58 TR3 had Lucas parts. That was one of the reasons I sold it.
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-- Bruce / '82 244 (298k miles!), '86 745, '87 760Ti, '94 854