Hello,

I'm new to being a Volvo owner this year!

So this started out as an intermittent problem. The car runs great, except randomly it would not start, usually when I was out driving around, and has progressively gotten worse resulting in two tows. Now it will not start what so ever.

In the no-start condition I am not getting any spark. I have narrowed the problem down to being the hall effect sensor in the distributor. When I am cranking the engine the tach stays at 0 and does not move or jump around, pointing to the hall effect sensor. Using a volt meter on the connector wire to the hall effect sensor on the distributor, I show that the positive is showing 12.45v, negative is a good ground, the signal out in the middle shows 5v, all of this with the ignition key in the on position.

I removed the distributor & hooked it up to the battery with jumper wires bringing 12v to the Positive & grounding the negative connection. The middle connector of the hall effect sensor signal, I hook up to my voltmeter & spin the distributor. it registers around 4.5mv - 5 mv or 0 depending on whether the shield of the distributor is blocking the pickup sensor or leaving it open. From what I have gathered on the internet it should be around 5 volts.

Based on this I ordered a reman distributor for A1Cardone. Tried to install it & it looks different than my original distributor on my car. Apparently my distributor is the 14mm shaft distributor & the only one I'm able to purchase anywhere that I can find on the internet is the 10mm shaft distributor.

I have also tried to order just the sensor for the 14mm shaft distributor with no luck either. I have been refunded after paying for it, the seller telling me that it is no longer available.

So Based on no longer being able to get the part I need, are there any other options, like possibly just swapping out the 10mm shaft distributor instead of the 14mm shaft distributor. Obviously I would just need a to swap out the rotor & cap also. my only concern with trying this is the pick up sensor on my 14mm shaft distributor is at approx the 9 o'clock position & the 10mm shaft distributor hall effect sensor is at the 12 o'clock position, which makes me think this option is not a sound one.

Is it possible to bring my old hall effect sensor to an electronic shop & have them fix it by putting a new pick up sensor on it? I'm assuming the wiring is still good just because it is showing a difference in signal when turning the shaft.

Or do I just now own a giant rolling paperweight that I can no longer get the part for it?

Any suggestions or advise would be great!

Thanks!

1985 Volvo 244 DL manual transmission. 2.3L non-turbo