Ok so I just looked at a 84 240gl wagon. Guy says he has had issues with it dying after starting and not starting at all.
I test drove it for about 30 min both in town and on the freeway. I even stopped and put some gas in it. Had no issues other then the(4 speed manual) OD for fifth gear not working.( side note, not a deal killer unless it should be.)
He has replaced the cap and rotor. Had someone out to look at it and tested the coil and ignition module, those are fine and when he went to test the Hall effect sensor and the car just started.

Maybe it's the ignition switch I have read about. Or I suppose just cleaning fuse contacts and replacing all the fuses could even fix it. Just just wanna double check as I'm not familiar with any volvos. Car has 299,000 miles on it. Drove great but I have to commute 50+ miles a day for work and live downtown Seattle, and can't have the car just dying on me. Any ideas would be great.

 

81-87 volvos are notorious for bad wiring harnesses, they used eco friendly wiring that turned out to be biodegradable. 1988+ don't have this problem.

the hall sensor in the distributor on the LH2.2 cars (early 80s up to 1988) has 3 very delicate wires, and the insulator often cracks with age, making it very flakey... the fact that he touched that and it worked leads me to wonder if its not a wiring problem...