Hey all,

I’m having problems with my ’89 Volvo 240 DL. The car won’t start. The battery (new) has still about 12.15V when measured across the posts. When starting there is no clicking sound from the solenoid. No warning lights come on when the key is turned to position II except for the Overdrive arrow. Headlights, brakelights, turn signals, and the high beam indicator seem to be working fine. The fuel pumps do not engage when starting (no sound), but with fuses 4 and 6 jumped, the pump will start operating. However, there is no voltage across fuses 4 and 6.

How did I get here? About a month ago the car was finally fixed after having spent 1.5 yrs in the garage. I exchanged the ECU (fuel), LH-2.4 Jetronic (used one in good condition); the car ran fine although the idle was a bit rough sometimes. It died again during a test drive. Turned out the wires from the camshaft sensor were corroded. After replacement the car was running relatively well, the only thing was that the idle was not smooth (idling fine for 4-5sec then kind of stalling catches itself, and so on; never actually quit). I put in a new battery since I noticed that the old one (3-4 years old) did not seem to hold a charge well.

The car ran about two weeks with the new battery, but died again while driving through the city; the headlights started to flicker, radio came and went. The engine died while pulling over. I was able to restart it with jumper cables and made it home. Since the driving belts had been squealing from time to time, I thought that perhaps the alternator was not turning as fast as it should. Note that the alternator warning light never came on during this two week period, not even when the car was losing power.

First repair after that: replaced alternator belts, swapped in used bushings, took out the battery and charged it. The car would start, but the alternator would not charge for the first few seconds; it started charging when I revved the engine (we did not connect the two at first-apparently the alternator self-exciting). The charging voltage at terminals was about 14.45V, the battery did get charged some (went from 12.5 to 12.6, or something like that). With the engine running and alternator charging the battery light would come on for some reason, but at this point I noticed that when starting / position II the other idiot lights would not turn on (perhaps with the exception of the overdrive arrow), and none of the gauges work. No idea why.

Decided to replace the v-belts, just in case. After having done that, the engine started OK, but still no idiot lights, including the alternator warning light, and the alternator stopped charging as well. Did some research: tried to check the exciter wire (smaller red wire that leaves the alternator). Ran a number of checks:

1) Grounded the alternator end of the exciter wire, which was supposed to make the alternator warning light light up with the key at position II---it didn’t. Grounded the small red wire at the instrument panel connector---again nothing as far as the alternator light or the other lights.
2) Checked the exciter wire for continuity, first from alternator terminal to firewall (grey plug and socket), resistance was less than 0.7 Ohm. Then checked continuity from alternator through to the round plug with “pins” on the instrument cluster (assuming the small red wire there was the correct one). There was continuity (similar resistance reading).
3) Checked the ground (blue wire) from the alternator – checked out fine.
4) Exchanged part of the grey plug for a new one just in case since one half of it seemed to be corroded. Checked for continuity again, still there.
5) Checked all of the fuses, sanded clean contacts on each one. No voltage across #4, #6; about 12 V across all others. Jumping 4 and 6, the fuel pump comes on with the key in position II.
6) Checked to see if something was draining the battery – nothing, no slow leaks.
7) Checked the voltage regulator - brushes have at least 1/4-3/8" left, look good, cleaned them too.

I noticed that with key in position II, the oil pressure light was on but barely noticeable. When I grounded the small red exciter wire again on the alternator body, it went away.

That’s where I am now: with key in position II, headlights, stoplights, turn signals work and overdrive arrow comes on, none of the gauges work. The starter does not start at all and the engine won’t turn. Not even a clicking sound from the starter motor.
No idea what might be going on at this point. Only thought is that maybe the instrument panel circuit board is shot. Any ideas? Any help whatsoever would be greatly appreciated.

 

There is a 25 amp blade fuse mounted on the inside of the fender near the battery. Check this for corrosion. Just follow the smaller red wire that comes off of the battery and it should lead you to this fuse. Clean this up and see if it solves yout no-crank issue. Also, check the neutral safety switch by wiggling the shifter while trying to crank.

Regarding the charging issue, the alternator will not charge if the battery warning light does not come on when the key is in the II position (engine off). This is the first thing to get working. Since your guages and some of the idiot lights aren't working properly, this is where to start first. Check the fuse mentioned above. If that is fine, check the connections to the instrument cluster. I have a '90 240 where my cluster would intermittently not work. When they didn't work, the battery would not charge. I cleaned the connections and I haven't had any issues since.

 

Hey all,

A quick update.

The bulb for the alternator warning light was not burned out.
The voltage regulator & brushes were fine.
The 25 Amp blade fuse was fine.
The connections on the instrument panel cluster were fine.

The starter problem, after some investigation, turned out to be due to a bad connection we made while replacing the grey plug at the firewall. We "hotwired" the starter and it worked (car also started with key in position II while doing so), so that clued us in to taking another look at the wiring.

We replaced the instrument panel with a "new" one pulled from a 1991 240 DL station wagon at the junkyard; the gauges and lights look the same. Now, all of the warning lights work, car starts and runs, and - most importantly - alternator is charging the battery (almost 15 V across the posts while running). It seems the charging system problem was in the instrument panel circuit board, which I had read could be a problem.

However, the "new" instrument panel has some quirks: the speedometer doesn't work well (needle won't go above 20), nor do the instrument panel illumination lights work (even with the rheostat at max). Do y'all have any idea whether this is a) fixable at home, and b) how to go about doing it?

Thank you so much for all of your help so far.

 

Well for the instrument panel lights, I would check to see if they are burnt out. There are two and from 1989-1993, they used halogen light bulbs that were crazy stupid expensive ($12 each for a small bulb) If yours is like mine(a 1990) then both are burned out.
Instrument Lighting - Welcome Fans of the Volvo 240

I don't know Volvo's reason for this as they are not really any more brighter then the conventional bulbs in the 81-88

Now I know that the 1992-1993 clusters will not work at all in a 86-91 but I am not really sure if the 1991's will work. I read on this forum that the clusters in the 1991 models with ABS will not work but the non ABS 1991's will work but i am not sure myself

Did you keep your old cluster? If so swap out the instrument panel illumination lights from your old one(assuming they worked) and you should be good to go with the gauge lighting. Then swap out your old cluster's speedo. If it does not work then that rules out the speedo being the problem

 

You're having issues w/ the cluster because there were quite a bit of changes between 89 and 91. Your 89 is almost certainly a non-ABS car while the 91 most likely is. The speed sensor mounted to the "pumpkin" of the differential is the same but inside, a non-ABS car has a 12 space cage attached to the actual differential whereas the ABS cars use a 48 space cage.
Here's the speed sensor...

Here's the inside...see the cage on the right and how large the spaces are? The sensor needs to see 12 spaces per revolution for the speedometer to read correctly.

The speedometer you swapped in wants to see 48 spaces per revolution...like you see here...

As you have it set up, the speedometer should 20 mph at actual 80 mph.
As for the panel lights, perhaps check the rheostat windings. They are getting old and easily break. A simple temporary fix is to place the two post rheostat brown wires on the other side of the switch, effectively bypassing the rheostat. The panel/cluster lights should all be at their brightest and non-adjustable. Beats a poke in the eye...

 

Thanks for the heads up. I ended up swapping in a "correct" speedo on the new panel, and new bulbs in, and the speedometer / illumination lights now work fine.

However, seems I didn't knock on wood fast enough.

While I was driving yesterday, noticed some worrisome problems: brakes got "harder" as engine lost power, and after stopping at the lights, I had to depress the gas quite far to get rolling again (i.e. the engine wouldn't rev for 2 seconds or so after pressing the gas pedal).

The car then died twice on the way home. This car has always had a really rough idle, but now it seems it's so rough as to cause it to stall. Right before stalling, the instrument panel lights would dim with the engine cycles. After stalling, I wouldn't even get a click from the starter for about 2 minutes - but then it would start OK again. I checked the battery and charging before and after starting, and the battery still had 12.9 V and charged at 14.2 - 14.5 V. I managed to drive home by shifting into neutral while rolling up to stoplights to rev the engine.

We did notice, after all the previous repairs, that we no longer heard the one fuel pump (driver side, near the back) engage when turning the key to position II, but since the car seemed to run fine, didn't think much of it. Could this be the issue? Will try to replace the fuel pump relay and see what that does.

Since these problems /seem/ to be unrelated to charging / alternator, not sure if this should be a separate thread or not.

At least the wipers work!

 

If you cannot hear that one then the car should not run as that is that pump is the main pump. I don't think you can hear the "helper" pump when the car is running. There is a test (outlined on this forum) that shows how to test the helper pump

 

I think I found the fuel pump test, will try it soon. I also will try to do as many of the relevant tests in the Jetronic LH 2.4 manual as I can. For the record, the fault tracing system is throwing codes 1-1-3 (fault in injector - break in lead, clogged, etc.) and 2-3-2 (self-adjusting lambda-sond not operating).