1992 Volvo 240 wagon 3.1 LH no egr, non turbo, 5 speed m47 tran


I am having an electrical issue that I cannot resolve

Fuse #6 is burning up on one end (left side of contact)-smokes and smells awful, the left contact from the fuse box is also burned
Fuse #5 and metal contact is gunky on same side (left)

I may be having a related or unrelated issue to the fuel pump (car is intermittently and randomly non responsive to acceleration via peddle or throttle after warm up I can drive all day or I can drive 10 minutes). I have replaced the fuel pump a couple of times but the fuse issue has never been resolved. I started keeping extra fuses as I was going through them so fast.

I have become disenchanted with mechanics after sooo many costly crappy repairs. I do not mind paying good money for repairs as they are needed, I am just tied of paying good money for crap.

However as this fuse issue eludes me I brought it to a local automotive electrician. They took a look at my fuse box and shrugged their shoulders...they claim they do not have the right schematics to determine what other components are on the same circuit...and some other non-sense. While the car is old she is in pretty decent condition- very minimal rust and usually runs great.

Electrical work is not for the unexperienced but there must be a way to trouble shoot this?!?

I am equipped with a multi meter and have been reading through forums and you tube videos but this is a new area for me and I do not have a solid back ground in electrical components to know what some may already understand and I would still like to know:

Can I test for a grounded or shorted wire with a multi-meter?
If so, how? and what's the difference?


How do I test for a grounded or shorted wire at the fuse panel itself? (I ask since this is where I am seeing some evidence of issues-burning

Does testing at the fuse panel terminals give any indication to the health of the wires??
If so, what reading should I get or will each have a separate reading?

 

Anybody that drives a 30 year old car needs to be able to fix it themselves. As a shop owner/technician for over 40 years - I was constantly asked to work on old cars. So I tried working on 544's in the 1980's - and every time you touched something - something else broke. A tie rod end replacement could take 2 hours since everything was seized. But you could only charge 1 hour at most. The customers never understood why their "baby" cost so much to fix, and seem to always break. I had an angry customer with a 140 that was pissed at me - because ever since I replaced his idler arm bushing (in the steering mechanism) his car had a poor idle!

You are lucky that someone is willing to work on your car, most shops (and me too) limit how old the car is to be accepted into the shop. And Hey, I have a 35 year old boat - the boat shops near me won't work on it - it's too old. So I am selling it and bought a newer boat!

I doubt the tech information services have wiring diagrams for a 30 year old Volvo. The ones I have now on computer only go back to 1994. I had the original service manuals and wiring diagrams from back then - shelves of green Volvo books - but that stuff is just not available on-line. You need to find some old Volvo mechanic who does not really care to make a living at fixing cars and is just doing it for fun if you can't fix it yourself. The people trying to make a living at fixing cars have too much work on newer stuff that can actually feed their families with the profits.

Sorry for your troubles -

 

thank you- Hoonlks for your reply it was very helpful and trust me I do understand that garages want to make a buck- my last garage bill was over $2200 (a bunch of little things and a MVI) and I have no problem paying for quality work and a professional's time- I prefer quality over anything. Cars break and consumables wear, but after I continue to have issues with the very components repaired- like my one of my shocks shook loose (don't worry-it didn't fall off) and once I got my car back after a caliper repair and the wheel hub had only one of it's four bolts put back on (Volvo "specialist"- IDK maybe the phone rang and he got distracted and thought he put them all back on) only I didn't see it right away cause he did manage to put the wheel cover back on. Then I had 3 starters replace in a week - week and a half - give or take ( just a "regular mechanic " 2 of the starters were faulty and then, funny thing, the 3rd starter was fine but I still got stuck with a no go cause I guess they didn't "tighten the bolts enough"- at least that's what they told me and I am not sure- do newer cars need to have tight bolts or is that just on older models??) and missed my son's last soccer game cause I got stuck at the grocery store with a no go after the 2nd replacement-I was very sad that day. Thankfully they only charged me for the labor on the starters replacement though. I don't know where you worked that allowed only an hour limit on labor- each of those starter replacements had been over 90minutes each time. AND that's with not even tightening the bolts!!

I was raised to just take it in when it was broken, pay the bill as it was, trust their expertise, and be happy when I got my car back. But you can imagine that after a while of big money on poor repairs I wasn't happy- I decided I couldn't be any worse than what I was paying to keep someone else's lights on for. I mean I work damn hard for my money too and I do not like to pay for professional/ specialists work and still get stuck at the grocery store in the rain because -bolts?

So, I got a few of books (one has a lot of pictures so I am very grateful), got some quality tools, helpful friends, and I am learning to fix things as I break them (like my shocks -this time: brand new locking nuts and, they did not fall off). However this is something I admittedly just don't have the experience for yet and am looking for the benefit of other's experience with similar issues so that I too may learn and fix and become more self reliant and when I can't-reach out to those who may. And perhaps one day in return offer my help, as you have so kindly done, to someone who is befuddled with issues that I may some day be familiar with. I was hopeful this garage was able to help with this issue because they specialize in electrical work on a lot of older cars (50's and 60's) but apparently, and this is the caveat: not a lot of older euro cars. Oh well it was worth a shot.

Thanks again for your helpful advice

 

actually, the 240 electrical and other greenbooks ARE available online from Online Technical Publications. They used to sell them on CD, I have a copy of this, its very copy protected so it can only be run on a single system, so when I upgraded my PC about 10 years ago, I virtualized my old XP system, uninstalled everything else, stripped it right now to just being some car stuffs like this, and run it under Virtualbox..

oh cool.... its only $50 now for the whole 240 library ... not bad.
https://store.otpubs.com/240-260-models-1974-to-1993/

 

Wow- this is awesome. Thank you so much for this!!