Well, the problem was the ignition switch. I verified this with a meter ( thanks to Chuck). I checked for 12 volts at the coil while cranking, but I had close to zero. I then replaced the switch and the car started.

Thanks to everyone who offered a suggestion.

Dave

Bright test light on coil + is good, hard to say about the - terminal as this will be pulsing as the ICU grounds this point to fire the coil.
I'd check HV from the coil tower as some one suggests. I do this by sticking a phillips screwdriver into the end of the HV wire and positioning the shank of the screwdriver near a good ground , the shock tower bolt is convenient. You should see sparking across a 1/10 inch or so gap.
If this proves OK, move on to each spark plug wire in the same fashion (screwdriver in wire positioned near shock tower bolt).
The HV system is pretty relaible, I'd guess your problem would be in the wiring from coil - to the ICU. On my 84 this was a coax (outer shield which is ground around a innerconductor which carries the ICU signal) cable which was shorting out on the case of the alternator which had worn through the underside of the cable at this point.
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745-4+OD-16v, 744-4+OD-16v, 245SE auto, 242 4+OD Turbo

Verify the timing belt isn't broken by removing the oil fill cap and watching the cam shaft turn when the starter is engaged. Check and clean the ends of all the ceramic fuses. The wiring from the distributor to the igntion module runs under the crank shaft pulley where there is lots of heat and oil. Unplug the connector at the dist. and igntion module and ring out the wires with an ohm meter to be sure there is continuity and no shorts. jp

I'm not sure about this, but perhaps lucid or B.C. (or others) can confirm...
You may get a shock so use insulated grips.

Pull the ignition coil cable from the distributor and tap it against the engine (with the ignition on). If there's spark then you know that the problem lies at the dist. (I'm assuming that your rotor is turning because the timing belt is fine.)
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1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb and M46 trans

OK, the + side of the coil seems to be getting 12 volts. I don't have a meter, but my test light is bright on this terminal with the ignition on. The negative side is also showing power with the ignition on, but not as much. The light doesn't go as bright on this terminal with the key on. When the engine is cranking over, the power on the negative side goes away. I thought that power should be present here when cranking?? BTW, I tried the coil from my other 240 and it made no difference.

When you turn on the ignition, do you have 12 volts at the coil? I changed out an O2 sensor once and disturbed a brown wire connection which is on the passenger side in the engine compartment. Seems as I recall, this brown wire supplies the 12 volts to the ignition system. I opened the connector, cleaned it & my 12 volts returned. That was 5 years ago. There are many horror stories about the biodegradable wiring harnesses. The biggest horror story IMO is the replacement of an entire harness when only 5 wires are affected by the insulation deterioration.

I have an '81, different ignition system from yours, but I've read about '80's Volvo engine wiring harness nightmares, and had an intermittent no-spark problem that kept getting worse. So I completely bypassed the original Volvo ignition system. Haven't had a problem since.

I bought a $140 Mallory electronic ignition unit, which uses the original pickup-coil in the distributor to trigger the spark. Since the ignition signal triggers the fuel pump relay, and my new system is not wired into the original ignition wire, I just wired a relay to run the fuel pumps any time the ignition is on.

My method is a fairly drastic measure, but I had tried other things and was tired of the gremlin.

Your problem could just be a bad pickup-coil (or Hall-effect sensor, depending on what your car uses.) I replaced my pickup-coil since everything else seemed to check out okay, but it didn't fix mine. It's the triggering device in the distributor. You can test it with a volt-meter. Good luck!