Hello Folks,

My 1989 240 GL Auto gave me quite a ride last night. Two days ago I noticed my idiot light bar flashing up a storm, but then that went away and I didn't think much of it. Last night I was driving with the headlights on (usual thing to do in the dark) and noticed the dash illumination wasn't as bright as usual. About that time she started not going as fast, no matter what I did with the gas pedal. I noticed the RPM's were at zed so I coasted into a rest stop.

After getting a jump and the car starting right up, I started to drive home. When I turned on my lights, the car would slow down and die. When I turned them off again, it would rev up and cruise nicely. Luckily there were street lamps the 2 miles left to my house, but I think there's an SUV driver out there who thinks Volvo owners don't understand how to use headlamps.

Last time I had electrical problems with this car, the fix was to connect the alternator wire that had come off. This might not be so simple?

Today someone told me that it sounds like a "lack of charge", could be a feed wire broken or a failed alternator. So I went to work on it tonght and found out more info. I charged the battery and its at full charge now. When I try to start the car, it turns over vigorously, but refuses to start. The battery, engine, brake, and taillight lights light up on the idiot dash. I'm pretty confident that its not a fuel issue as this car has been quite solid on that front. Is there a wiring or fuse issue that would cause a car with a fully charged battery to turn over, yet not start?

There's a black wire coming off the alternator area that plugs into an interesting thing on the block. The female looks like a spark plug where it interfaces with the block, and has a little electrical receptor on the opposing side. Sorry I can't be more specific as I don't know what it is. The point is that black wire is frayed quite a bit, but still hanging on. It goes into a tube of other wires so I don't really know what the 'other side' of it is. Is this important? How would I replace the frayed wire?

Update: One more thing that might be of interest. There's a 25 amp fuse that looks like its in the loop from the hot battery cable and into whoknowswhere. The fuse sits by the power steering fluid resevoir. The white plastic thing that it sits in appears to be sort of pulled and streached from its normal spot, and possibly broken a little bit. Is this an important part, or could it possibly have anything to do with my issue? If so, how would I test for this?

Any hints, clues, suggestions, or laughing at me would be appreciated.


Thanks,

Russell Mann

1989 240 GL
1981 240 DL