This is on my 1980 242 with K-Jet and Bosch ignition.

First of all, the car runs like a champ.

However, twice in three weeks time the engine simply died while idling normally. No slowing down or sputtering. It was as if I had turned the ignition off at the switch. Which makes me think it's an ignition problem.

The first time this happened it restarted immediately and ran as normal. The second time it cranked good but took several tries to restart. It was down for about one minute after which it ran fine.

I've started it and let it run several times since without incident but I decided not to drive it again until I can remedy the situation.

I consulted Volvo publication TP30432-2, the Green Book which covers the breakerless ignition in my car amongst others. About all I am equipped to do is check various components for resistance.

The ballast resistor is showing 1.5 Ω resistance, which is high.

The coil primary winding is showing 2.4 Ω, also high.

The coil secondary winding is showing 9.05 k Ω, which is normal.

The Ignition impulse sender is showing 1.05 k Ω, also normal.

The air gap is correct. Don't see how it could be that but as long as I was there....

The rotor was a little flaky during the resistance check with values jumping up and down but never getting as high as 5 k Ω. I cleaned up the contact surfaces and it was still flaky. I tested a new rotor for comparison and it was pretty much on the money at a steady 4.98 so I installed it in place of the old one.

So...I should probably also look at the switch connections 30 & 15.

But would either the ballast resistor or coil primary results above account for such a sudden shut down?

Maybe the control unit is going bad? Is there some way to determine this?

Or is it just a loose wire somewhere?


--
'80 DL 2 door, '89 DL Wagon