I have seen many really good answers on this forum, and I'm glad to be here.

My car is a mutt. I had an '87 240 DL wagon and bought an '86 245 DL wagon to make some body repairs. Unfortunately, the '87 got caught in a flash flood and I salvaged what I could to get the '86 running. (I'm not the mechanic, one of my customers did the work for me.) The car has been running like a champ until recently.

In the last month I've gotten a new battery, new starter and within the last two weeks, two new fuel pumps. The battery was truly dead (expired), the starter was under warranty, and the fuel pumps?...Ahh, there's the rub!

Recently, the car started sputtering and stalling at traffic stops. The external fuel pump was making a lot of noise, so I wasn't too surprised that the tech said I needed a new fuel pump. My own suspicion was that the intank fuel pump wasn't feeding the outer pump, and that they both might need replacing.

After the pump was installed I drove it, and after a few minutes in stop and go traffic it started stalling again, and I had it towed back to the garage. Sure enough, I needed an intank fuel pump also. So the car worked fine for a day, but I could feel it getting progressively rough on idle, and it started stalling at stops again. I drove it into a Denny's lot, and as long as I was going along at a steady clip I had no problems. I've been here 3 hours, and I just tried to drive it home an hour ago, but it won't start. I hear a hum from the fuel pump, it cranks nicely, but won't catch.

Possibly related; When the car has been sitting for a few hours in high humidity it takes a lot of cranking to get it started. I haven't had an opportunity to test this since the starter was installed..We've been having a dry spell here.

I was told that the fuel pumps for these cars are hard to get, and that the solution is to fit a generic pump for the repair. I need an opinion on this.

OK, so I have Bently manual, and I understand from these forums that there may be more than one reason for this behavior. (The tip on the dirty crank causing timing problems is very interesting...)

I don't want to buy a new car one small piece at a time: Can anyone suggest a troubleshooting list that leads me to the most likely problems in a good order?

Thanks,

Mike

 

fuel pumps are easy to test... to test the intank pump, disconnect the fuel line from the tank at the main pump, and aim it into a jug, and power the tank pump for a couple seconds (via jumpering the fuse panel or whatever). if you get a steady strong stream of gas, its good.

to test the main pump, connect a fuel pressure gauge to the fuel line that feeds the fuel rail at the engine, and jumper the pumps to run (or start the car). the fuel pressure should be 44 PSI +/- 2 relative to the manifold vacuum.

on a car this old, wiring issues are pretty common, and 86/87 were in the 'biodegradable wiring' era (ended in 87), where the insulation on many of these cars failed early. one particular problem spot is the tank pump wiring, it rots through right where it goes into the tank. also there's a short piece of connecting hose inside the tank, this fails, and even if the in tank pump is working, it can't deliver the fuel.

the stock fuel pumps are totally available, albeit a bit expensive. any volvo dealer can get the real volvo ones, or TascaParts.com, and vendors like IPD, FCP have both OE and aftermarket replacement pumps. http://www.ipdusa.com/prodtype.asp?C...gorycrumbs=988

whenever playing with fuel lines, take the usual precautions, have a B class (liquids) fire extinguisher handy, avoid sparks, work with good ventilation, etc etc.