You’ll never believe what I did to my car. It is a 1989 244 GL sedan. Right side drive because I bought it while stationed in Japan and brought it back home.

I’ve been hecka busy, so I haven’t started my 240 in a couple months. Of course it wouldn’t start because the battery is old and dead.

The battery cables in my Volvo are very very dirty. The red positive cable looks black with dirt. The negative cable is blue but covered, making it black. At the time I couldn’t find the (+) or (-) because they were small and covered by the cable. To make it worse the negative cable has 4 inch red sheath around near the terminal.

Needless to say I hooked up the positive jumper cable to the negative terminal, and the negative jumper cable to the chassis of my volvo…

I let the good car charge the Volvo battery (incorrectly) for 15 minutes. I tried starting it while charging approximately 5 times.

I disconnected the jumper cables and the dashboard lights wouldn’t come on. So needless to say, I guess the battery was completely destroyed. I replaced the battery (it was 7 years old anyway)

Now the engine will turn turn over, but it won’t start…

I checked all the fuses in the car near the floorboard. Those are all good.

I’m not sure where to go next.

Are there other fuses?

Could the fuel pump, alternator, or something else have been fried?

Thank you for any advice.

here are some pictures and a video.



Charging

The red sheath confused me because the other cable (red/positive) was so dirty (black)

Charging setup

 

There is a fuse in the engine bay next to the headlight relay. It is a 25 amp blade fuse that provides power to the fuel injection system. Check that fuse.

When you turn the key to the II position (no crank) do you hear the fuel pumps run for a second or two?

 

I just replaced that fuse yesterday with no luck.

I do not hear the fuel pump prime the engine. My next step was to check or replace the fuel injection relay. It’s right next to that fuse I think, need to verify that.

A guy at O’Reillys said his manager did the same exact thing to his old Volvo and it necessitated a main relay replacement.

They are fairly cheap on rockauto so I was going to order both.

 

If you connect just two batteries in series instead of parallel, the current runs in a circle until one explodes.

 

that’s not the electrical circuit I created in this scenario

 

Here is a quick and almost foolproof way to determine if you have a fuel delivery issue or an electrical issue. Get a can of starting fluid and spray about a 2-3 second burst into the air intake (remove the filter for best results). If the car sputters and tries to start, or even runs for a second or two that will tell you that you have a fueling issue. If it does nothing nut cranks, then you most likely have a spark issue. Try this and report back. We can go from there.

 

Thank you for the reply. I will keep this in my pocket for the future.

Before reading this post, I moved from the inline 25 amp fuse, to the fuel relay. To get to the fuel pump relay, I removed the glove box, and it was super easy to access. Once the fuel pump relay was plugged in, I turned the ignition to "on" and listened carefully. I heard the fuel prime, so I knew that the problem was going to be fixed. Here are some pictures.


Red circle is fuel pump relay