Hey guys,

Well, the hotel I'm in here in NC has internet: Great! My 960 developed a problem with the ECC fan just before I left to go away. The fan stopped working out of the blue so I grabbed a used one I had out of an '88 765 and proceeded to replace the fan. 1/2 way through the replacement I realized one of the fuses (30A) was blown (stupid me). I put everything back together and replaced the fuse. About 3 min up the road the fuse blew again. It kept blowing every fuse I put in. So, I tested the old fan = Good. I swapped the ECC control unit with another = Same problem. Anyway, that's as far as I got before I left and I had dad leave the 960 with my Vo mechanic while I'm away. I talked to my mechanic today and he's still not sure what the problem is. He guesses it's the reostat, but he suggests I bring the V90 to the shop after I get home and try the reostat out of it in the 960. He also tells me that the alternator is overcharging. He says it's putting out about 16V. I haven't had any symptoms of an overcharging alt with the car, in fact it's been working wonderfully. A couple months ago I had to replace the original battery in our '98 GMC Sierra (305 V8), so I tested the alt to make sure it was ok. My meter showed it was putting out around 16V if I remember correctly. I thought that was a bit high so I checked the alt in the 960 which read about the same. As they were both running fine, I figured it was normal or there was something wrong with my meter. They have both ran fine since with no charging problems or overboiled batteries. So, I can't figure out what's going on with the 960, it keeps blowing ECC fan fuses (# 30 *I think*) and according to my mechanic it's overcharging. He said he disconnected the alt and ran the engine to see if that would solve the fuse problem. It didn't, but he did notice that without the alt connected the charge light did not come on. It did come on when the car was started. He didn't run the car long without the alt connected, so he thought maybe the battery was overcharged and fooling the charging system... Any thoughts about my two problems?

PS- Anyone know of any good Volvo parts places/salvage yards here in NC? I'm in Wilmington right now and will be traveling to near Charlotte tomorrow afternoon.
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Chris. Halifax N.S. '98 V90 > 195K km, '94 964 > 86K mi. SOLD: '91 745T and '91 745 NA (I miss both of them!).