Have a 1998 volvo cross cross country AWD. It ran terrific when we parked at 10pm then wouldn't start at 7am. Can hear fuel pump working and getting fuel to the injectors. Have seemingly good spark from coil to distributor cap then the spark gets very weak going into the plug wires. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Spark is jumping 2 inches plus checking it at end of coil wire then soon as i snap it onto the distributor it appears to die. Its very weak to non exsistant through all 5 plug wires so stumped as to what would cause the spark to die like that coming out of the distributor cap?? Anybody know what would cause this??

 

did you inspect the rotor and cap? its possible you have a cracked distributor cap which is keeping the rotor from making good contact to all the positions or you have bad wires. Try cranking the engine in a dark garage - do you see any arcs when all is bundled up? Probably time to do new rotor/cap/wires/plugs. (PS stay away from the high end expensive plugs - Volvo turbos tend to run best on old copper core plugs... not sure why).

Then again, did you check the fuel pressure at the rail? its possible the pump is not getting up to pressure (pump, relay) or the fuel pressure regulator is bad.

 

I had already narrowed it down completely to a spark issue. Had great spark at cap end of the coil plug but it was dying at the cap which wasnt much to the plugs at all. Took the cap off and it was showing burn marks and from he rotor was really burnt. Put new cap, rotor, wires, and plugs in and its been running like new since then. Again, a BIG THANKS TO THE MEMBERS AND THIS FORUM FOR ALL THE HELP!!!!!