So my old roommates are moving out of their house and my buddy has this old volvo wagon sitting in the garage. I was thinking why not give it a shot before he gets it towed to the junkyard? Its been sitting for at least 2 years. My thoughts are... drain gas tank, refill, and boost the battery to see if it will crank. What am i missing? I was thinking a compression test but i can't do that until i get it to crank at least. What should i be thinking about?

Oh yeah, Tips on draining tank?
2nd Edit! :Its a 240

 

I would ask why he isn't driving it first.

Charge battery, give it a shot of ether and see what happens.

 

He doesn't drive it cause he gave up on it. He never really tried to fix it cause he lives in a walkable town: Burlington Vermont. But, i will ask him...

 

Try start it, if it does it will go another million miles!!!!!!!

 

Give it a shot. Who knows what you'll find?

An example: a good friend of mine bought a nice looking '85 stick wagon w/130K miles. He starts having trouble. My friend doesn't turn wrenches, and before he knows it, he's sunk $2K plus into it, and it still didn't run. "I'm gonna junk it", he sez. I told him to drop it at my place before he junked it.

It would start but immediately die. The first thing I checked...... the very first thing..... was the AMM. It tested bad! The dealer's mechanic missed that [:@] ??!?! A $40.00 AMM from the pick and pull, and down the road it goes.

So: give it the once over and let us know what you find.

 

Knowing this family, the car could have run out of gas when he parked it... You'll see my thread come to the top when i check this sucker.