This is a 1986 245 GL wagon, a B230F engine with 236000 miles on it. It's fuel injected with an automatic transmission with OD. Car died, won' start. Robbed a coil from a running car, that's not it. Turned my attention to the distributor, when I unplugged the wiring, the plug on the dis. crumbled in my hands. $300.00 later I now have a brand new distributor, cap & rotor. This was no help. I'm getting fuel but have no spark. Replaced ignition control module ( black box about the size of a small cigar box with a 10 pin plug and a vacuum diaphragm located in the RH FT of the engine compartment, part# 1346107 ) and it started right up. Ran for about six months flawlessly (drive it almost everyday). Two weeks ago, same thing! Replaced ICM again, car started right up, ran for about 15 minutes and died. Back to square one. What am I missing? NEED HELP in Texas THX Scott

 

whats the engine wiring look like? 86 was right in the middle of the bad biodegradable insulation era for Volvos (it ended in mid 1987).

 

The first go-round I did some research and read that the ICM seldom go bad. So I started at the 10 pin plug at the ICM and pealed back the harness covering all the way back to LH side of the engine at the base of the distributor. All the wiring looked good. Did a continuity check on each wire and it all seemed to be fine. I have read that there is an ignition module located on the LH side FT of engine compartment under or behind the air cleaner box. I can't find this module. If this helps, I found the anti-knock sensor had crumbled with age so I capped the wire and left it alone. The car seemed to run fine for the six month period. When it runs, it gets great mileage and idols very smooth. THX for your reply, Scott

 

there's a power stage between the ICU (the thing you have that has the vacuum whoosit on it), and the coil. not sure where they put it on a 86.... oops. no, wiring diagrams for the 86 say it ues Chrysler ignition, and the power stage is integrated into the ICU. pretty simple wiring for the spark side of things...

• power from ignition key comes off fuse panel (unfused) on blue wire to coil pin 25 and on to ICU pin 2
• green wire from ICU pin 1 to coil pin 1
• ground to ICU pin 10 (black wire)
• hall sensor in distributor has three wires, green from "+" to ICU pin 3, yellow from 'O' to ICU pin 5, black from "-" to ICU pin 9.
• brown wire from knock sensor to ICU pin 6
• orange wire from throttle idle switch pin 2 to ICU pin 7
• green wire from ICU pin 8 to ECU pin 1.

HV wire from coil to cap, spark plug wires to plugs. thats all she wrote. when ICU grounds and releases the green wire from ICU/1 to coil/1, its supposed to go SPARK!