Was cranking the starter to find Top Dead Center, my friend had his finger over the #1 spark plug hole...(since he is a smoker, when I saw the smoke coming from near his hands, I was not too surprised) BUT then I saw it was coming from the ICU.
I think someone had switched the wires coming to the coil and....SIGH!!!
I am redoing the timing belt to make sure it has not jumped a tooth or two.
Are teh ICU's tough enough to withstand smoking?? Or did I fry it?
I have a spare one but for an automatic tranny, mine is a standard. Will it work?
Thanks for any imput,
el Raidman

Those ICUs are funny things - they can survive some big goofs sometimes, other times they drop dead from a little spark. Double, no, TRIPLE check all your ICU wiring, then try it again.

The ICU for autos is calibrated slightly differently for the higher compression B23F (which you may indeed have.) My early '83 is a 10.3:1 M46 combo, and uses the same part # ICU as the auto-tranny cars. It should certainly work acceptably in either case.
--
Speed Racer, '83 240 R, '74 164 E, '93 940 OL1 (Manchester, CT)

Thanks, GT:
I've already installed the Auto ICu and it works...if it works longer I will keep it in, otherwise, I will look for one at the pick N Pull junkyard.
Thanks for the info,
el raidman

I saw smoke when the daily driver (83 245) would not start and lifted the hood to find the "BIG" wire going to the Ign control box was shorting to the top of the alternator case. The short was causing the insulation of the wire to melt and burn. I "quick fixed" it with Duct tape and later pulled the wire out of the "factory position" and ran it in front and under the alternator --- where it should be in any case.

And to the point --- the IGN Control Box still worked just fine.

The most interesting thing about the SMOKE affair was when I fixed it I found that the BIG wire actually has a shielding on the center wire -- a type of Coaxial wire,------ I reckon it is for RF shielding from the IGN control box for the radio?????

When the new wire harness was put in the installer, he\she did not leave enough slack in the harness and the tension of the Ign wire caused sever rubbing on the alt case and therefore the short. (the BIG hot wire on the alternator output was also pulled very tight and that would have been a real big fire if it had shorted!!!)

The harness running under the front of the engine is really DUMB of Volvo. It should be routed on the fire wall and down the right side of the car where there is a a very friendly environment for wiring.

After yesterday's post I guess I'll have to say I'm surprised that it
is NOT a Lucas product!

The best way to tell if it is ruint is to try it out. Maybe you didn't
let ALL the smoke out! (Smoke is what makes them work - if it comes out
they don't work any more.)

Seriously, I'd suggest that you make sure all your wires are hooked
up right and not shorted, etc before you go much further because
you don't want the same thing to happen to the next module.
--
George Downs, The "original" Walrus3, Bartlesville, Oklahoma