howdy. been lurking here for a few years, absorbed lots of helpful advice- but have recently come across an issue which I've found no solution for on this forum (or any other.) i have a 93 240 wagon with a badly corroded/melted battery terminal fuse block and my car will not start without much shaking, tapping, and/or finageling of this dumb part. the bottom of this thing is just an ugly mess, but the wire leading to the ign fuse seems the most effected. i understand that this four fuse holder is unique to my year 240 and is not replaceable- which leads me to my questions: why did the put it on this model in the first place, and can i safely bypass it altogether? if not, what am i supposed to do about replacing it since its no longer made and few- if any- junkyards seem to have one? seriously, the guy from the volvo salvage yard in sacramento laughed at me when i asked him about this part. i've done lots of work on my car, but never attempted something like this and wouldn't even know where to start. help!.

 

hmmm, Volvo PN 9131785 is the original fuse holder, and 979012 is the terminal that plugs into the bottom of it (presumably need 4 of the latter). ahhh, unobtanium, oops.


I believe I would get a generic 4 blade fuse holder of the right sizes of fuses, and equivalent gauge wiring and splice it in there. my schematic for that late version 1993 240 shows them as 30A, 60A, 40A, and 20A fuses, so you'd want a fuse holder that could handle those sizes, and the wire to the battery + shoudl be some seriously big stuff.

or, 4 seperate fuse holders.... 60A is a big fuse, so that one probably can't be a regular modern auto blade fuse, it has to be something bigger, like a Maxi-fuse.

wire one end of all 4 of these to the battery + terminal, being sure to use ring terminals big enough for the specified current.

ah, maybe ?
5X Maxi Blade Fuse Holder Inline Splashproof Rated to 100AMPS 32V Weatherproof | eBay

(thats 5 maxi-fuse holders, each rated at 100A)

I don't honestly know why they added that to the late production run 240's (not even all 1993's got them, just late run ones) previously, the fuel injection system was on a 25A dedicated fuse up in that general area, and everything else was either on the main fuse panel at the driver door, or was hard wired without a fuse. maybe there were some car fires in wrecks ?

 

thanks for the info. i looked up the part number you gave me and a few volvo places have it listed in their inventories, but i find that hard to believe. i'll make some calls tomorrow. i sorta figured that i'd have to just pull that thing out and wire in some fuse holders, in fact i have that same fuse in my cart on amazon but haven't yet committed to buying it. i guess i could bypass the fuse box and just try super hard to avoid car accidents.

 

well at a minimum I'd put a marine fuse holder on the injection circuit, which is the 30A pink fuse.

the 60a yellow goes to the ignition key, fuses 7/8/9/10 (always hot), and the 'positive terminal' which has the headlight step relay and other always-live stuff on it. on older 240s', it was battery -> positive terminal and the ignition key, fuses 7-10, and headlights were off the positive temrinal, along with other stuff.

the 40A Green goes to the ABS, and the 20A Blue go to the engine cooling fan. on older cars these were both wired direct to the battery + terminal.

if I was doing it, I do think I'd get 4 of those maxi fuse holders, and RTV and/or tie-wrap them together. on the battery side, I'd put a large ring connector on each wire, probably soldered and shrinkwrapped such that all 4 wires were the same length, and the ring connectors were stackable on the battery + clamp bolt. the other ends, I'd probably solder splice and heat shrink to the other wires, although maybe high grade crimp splices suitable for the wire gauges, not the usual cheap yellow/blue/red ones. soldering this sort of heavy gauge wire requires a high wattage iron or gun, and good solder and rosin flux.

 

alright, that all seems pretty simple, though i've never done any soldiering. i expect this will be interesting learning experience.

 

then you're probably better off using crimps, but that requires a proper ratchet crimper with the right dies for the crimps you're using. the cheap little wire-stripper-crimper combos are hopelessly inadequate.

 

saw a few of these type fuse blocks in some japanese cars at the pick n' pull. would this be another option?

 

so i built the fuse box thing. this is it:

worked for a week, but the problem is back with a vengeance. now i'm having to pull all the cables off the positive terminal and then put them back on every time i turn my engine off to get my car to start again. i replaced the battery and checked the grounds i could find. not sure where to go from here.

 

this morning, my car started by simply tapping on the positive battery terminal.

 

sounds like you have a loose connection in there, then.

 

simplified the fuse box, made better connections. so far, so good. thanks for the advice and stuff. very very helpful.

 

junkyard you could possibly find that