1987 240 volvo w/auto & push button overdrive and heated seats.
Ok, this was a free car a guy gave me. He said I'd have to drag it away. I put new fuel pumps/filters in it, started it (-12 degrees) and drove it 25 miles home. Oh yeah, I had to air up the tires too!This car hasn't been licenced for 11 years so I've been expecting other issues and there have been a few minor bulb issues and replaced the alternator and battery. Thing runs like a top.

I'm not a volvo guy, per se, but I've driven old mercedes cars for 10 years. Got two; same two! This Euro stuff just won't die and its easy to work on.

Anyway, the old 240 has a draw on the battery; pretty good draw! Like 60 ma! It all has to do with the little slim box by the battery. It has 1 large spade coming from the battery and feeds 3 smaller spade connections. The one drawing the juice is the first one next to the large spade.

Any ideas what I need to look into here?

 

hard to tell from your picture, but if thats all red wires plugged into a metal terminal strip, inside a black plastic slim box, thats the 'positive terminal', its just a distribution point for unswitched/unfused battery power. disconnect the circuit that you think is drawing this power, and see what all isn't working.

60mA is actually NOT much draw at all from a car battery, thats 0.06 amps. clock, radio memory, and so forth can be that much as a whole.

 

Well Pierce, when you put it that way, yeah! That's not much juice. The switch won't engage pretty much anything when the wire in question is disconnected. Further monkeying around has me questioning the Integrity of the starter. Today, twice, the starter has failed to engage. All its doing is clicking now. Ill do further draw tests tomorrow if it isn't to cold here. Hopefully I can get it to turn over and find out if its dragging the amperage down to hard. It could have a short to ground. It was -9 here this AM. Hopefully it'll be a little warmer tomorrow.

There were a number of things wrong with this car when I got it but the price was right. I've got a good feeling about this one. When its running it sounds real good and has good power when driving. I've done nothing in the tuning dept. yet. Can't wait to get her percolating good.

thanks for the input
BTW, your guess was correct on where the pic was taken. I got it zeroed in to close. Hard to tell where it is that close up.

 

So what is the voltage at the battery .

 

That's a good question. I really wasn't in testing mode this AM. I actually thought i was going to drive it somewhere I needed to be. Yesterday, every time I hit the key it fired. I did tests yesterday because I replaced the alternator. The new alternator was producing, roughly, 14V at the battery.
When it wouldn't start today I put the charger on it and left with another vehicle. When it gets this cold its better to be safe than sorry with a battery. When I got back from my trip the full charge light was on; on the charger so I tried it and it just clicked. It was getting dark. Ill regroup tomorrow and do more testing.
thanks

 

The starter is hanging up in this old girl. I've heard that there are two different starters for this car. One the holes are threaded for bolts. The other the holes are smooth to accommodate bolts with nuts. Any idea what this specific year has? It looks like the holes would be threaded. I've not taken it apart because it is so cold here right now but I'd like to get the starter and be ready when it's warmer.

1987 244 Volvo

 

Volvos are a bit of a 'parts bin' car, they used what they had on hand, so a given model year could have several different parts in it, you have to see what it is you have now.

 

As for the voltage question- I measured it this AM after setting all night disconnected from everything. Car, charger and all; it was roughly 13.5v.

The starter is frosted out. If you bang on the starter it long enough it'll turn over. I drove it today to get a starter 120 miles from here. I checked the mileage and got 22mpg with the ol' girl. I thought that was pretty good for something hasn't been tuned in 10 years. Besides it was well below 0 all day as well.

 

New starter cured my no start/ battery drain issues. Typical cold weather stuff here actually.
Now on to other issues of a car that hasn't been licenced for 10 years

I'm thinking timing belt should be near the top of the list
Wheel bearings
Change all fluids ( oils been done)
exhaust is rotting off
Probably tires although they seem ok but I'm watching them closely; they're old!

 

When in doubt on a timing belt it's very cheap insurance.
You need tires if they're 10 years old.

You should go into your profile and add a location so we know where "here" is when you're talking about the typical cold. I'm just happy that it's getting above zero. Seems we've been having sub zero temps night and day for two weeks !!

 

Done & yes here too. Finally yesterday the weather broke.