Hello All,

Glad to find you,. I have recently bought a 1984 wagon in good condition for $400 just south of Seattle. Everything is fine till I lightly washed underneath the hood. Now I get power failures and stall out every now and again, sometimes I get a smell of gas,. The first occurance was immediatly following the light car wash, it was hard to start and then continued to stall out for a bit. I dried of the distributer cap and other areas. 2nd occurance was going up steep hills in Seattle. any ideas?

 

something got wet. since you're smelling fuel, I'm guessing your stalls and failures to start are due to spark. Ignition coil, power module (next to coil), funky wiring insulation (endemic on 83-87 volvos). How did the inside of the distributor cap and rotor look? if they are badly eroded, or theres carbon tracks around the inside of the cap, I'd replace the cap and rotor. new set of spark plug wires (use Bougicord or Volvo OEM, too many other cord sets, including the Bosch stuff sold at retail stores, is junk). these are the good ones: Spark Plug Wire Set

if you werent in the Pacific NorthWet, I'd say, leave it out and open in full sun for the better part of a warm day. Like that's gonna happen in April

does your 84 have the 'chrysler ignition' ? our 87 has this, the ICU (ignition control unit) is mounted just behind the right headlight, and has a vacuum bellow thing on the bottom of it, quite distinctive. anyways, the electrical connector on these is notoriously flakey, and even removing it then plugging it back in can loosen contacts. I would pull it straight out (don't rock it) and inspect it... use a tiny screwdriver to slightly tighten the sleeve contacts in the plug. spray down both sides of it with electrical contact cleaner, let that dry, then squirt quite a good amount of silicone dielectric grease in the plug and reinstall it, pushing straight on with no rocking.

 

I had an 87 wagon and the same day I bought it, I went straight to the car wash and hosed off the engine bay.....well it did not start for the next hour....sat there waiting to dry.....at night....! with thugs a lookin my way...! I could read there minds...."Geek with glasses in a Volvo wagon"...well well

 

yeah, I'm not big on washing engine compartments. especially not cars with potentially sketchy wiring harnesses :-/

 

I wash all Volvo engines prior to wrenching on them, they are quite robust as far as water intrusion and I have never (knock on wood) had a 740/940 give me grief afterward even though I always have that thought in the back of my mind. But an older model especially with suspect wiring, I'd hesitate to pressure wash.

This wash might have just been the straw that pushed your wiring over the edge... I'd inspect the wiring, you'd have to deal with this anyway sooner or later, to see the general condition of the insulation--check especially the area under the intake where the wires are bunched together, peel back some of the wrapping to gain better view.If the wiring looks relatively healthy (no exposed metal, no flaking insulation) you can go over it with some compressed air and blow out moisture. Still, do that GENTLY too, avoid contacts, switches, etc. This is a long shot though, as the heat of the engine should have dried it all by now...

 

So I parked the car on a sunny day with the engine allowed to tan, After 4 hours the i drove away and the problem hasnt returned since.. I spent the down time reading my manul and it was confusing.. Icouldnt figure out which parts are where so Im going to a buddies shop next week to get some help identifying. I wish I could post photos on here but I dont see how. Now my car wont go into 5th gear. The push button OD isnt responding..

 

to post photos, put them on a public photo site like Picasaweb or Smugmug, that allows embedded linking, get the URL to the actual photo at an appropriate size, and paste it here embedded in [ IMG ] .... [ /IMG ] (without spaces)

like, a photo of mine on smugmug, in size 'M' (medium) is http://pierce.smugmug.com/Misc/1992-...IMG_5856-M.jpg

so I paste that inside the [ IMG ] tags...

 

re: your 5th gear/OD ... could be electrical, or could be mechanical. I'm more familiar with the automatic AW7x overdrives, but the basics are more or less the same. The button toggles a relay, the relay enables a solenoid on the OD unit behind the transmission, and that actually activates the overdrive. on the manuals, the solenoid is only enabled if you're already in 4th gear, theres a microswitch on the side of the transmission that disables the OD if you're not.

the first thing to do is to test the electrical systems involved. I'll need to dig up a schematic for the 84 OD system to try and help you, and you'll need a multimeter and some patience

 

oh hey, is this a 84 240 or 740? they made both that year, AFAIK.

 

so I'm assuming this is a 1984 240, with the M46 4 speed manual plus electric overdrive....

key components...

• overdrive relay (volvo PN 1259750) behind dashboard, just to the left of the glovebox.
• pushbutton on shifter
• indicator light in dashboard
• solenoid on lower back of OD unit
• gearbox switch on top right near near front edge of gearbox
• 2 2 pin connectors E1 and E2 along bottom right side of console hump near buttom of center console.

circuitry as follows:so some tests. locate the OD relay and disconnect it.
ignition key on, verify power between OD relay socket pin 15 relative to ground (pin 31). if no power, check fuse 11.
connect volt meter to relay socket pin 86 and ground, push OD button, should see power til button released.
put meter in OHMS mode, measure resistance from socket pin 85 to ground, should be open circuit if not in 4th gear, should be short to ground in 4th gear.
take jumper wire and connect relay socket pin 15 to 87, dashboard OD light should come on and OD solenoid under car should go clunk. remove wire, should go clink.

if all that tests out, I suspect the relay is bad.

if the button doesn't work, the button wiring inside the shifter is as likely to be bad as the button itself, on autos, this is a pain to fix, I dunno about sticks.

if the 4th gear switch is defective, again, could be wiring or switch. not sure how accessible the switch is, but the next step would be to test the switch right at the transmission under the car.

if everything else is good, but the solenoid doesn't clunk/clink when you power/unpower it manually, then the solenoid is likely bad (or the wiring to it). inspect.

these overdrive units are EXACTLY the same sort used on 1970s british sports cars, Laycock J type.

 

Ok, my air conditioner is almost always on when the car is on (even in the off position)

Im driving, I slow down at the light and cant get 1st gear, Then I cant get second so I m starting in 3rd and slowly getting spped till I shift to 4th. Oy .
So to drive now I turn the car off, place the car in second (as first is too slow) and then start the car & drives. I can not shift.. Engine sounds great. Im glad the car is still driving and I'm glad the stalling problem cleared up so I dont have compound problems.


Thanks for the instructions on how to post photos, will work on.


the car is a 245 , what have i gotten myself into

 

this is a manual ? is your clutch not working?

 

A manual with push button 5th. Did my clutch go out? I thought that would smell... Hard fix? Expensive parts? I want to work on this car myself and learn something. I don't want to drop at shop and pay a bill

 

its your car, you have to tell me if your clutch went out, I can't tell. unless you want to fly me out there, all expenses paid

clutch to the floor, start the car with it in 2nd gear already (thats what you said you're doing?), and its like its in neutral ? and when you let the clutch out, does 2nd gear engage, and start pulling? and if you put the clutch back down all the way, its like its in neutral again? if so then your clutch is fine, and your problems are probably shift linkage, or transmission.

so what exactly happens when you try to shift? you put the clutch in, then move the gear shift to neutral, does it go into neutral? with it in neutral while you're already moving along, if you let the clutch out, are you really in neutral such that the engine is just freewheeling while you coast along? now, you put the clutch back in, and try to shift into 3rd, what happens?

we need concise descriptions of the symptoms and exact sequence in order to even begin to guess whats wrong.

 

While driving the vehicle will not shift at this point.. When car is off I can put stick shift in 1st 2nd 3rd 4th or reverse and car will drive but will not go into neutral. So I drive side streets real slow in second around town.

This new current problem evolved in about an hour while driving about 40 miles.

 

you never described the clutch. is the clutch working but the car stays stuck in a gear ?

if thats the case, it sounds like crunched gearbox. maybe a bent shift fork inside, something like that. its time to start trolling pick-and-pulls for M46 transmissions (assuming thats what you have). the later cars had an M47 which was a 5-speed (no overdrive), this was considered weaker, the M46 4-sp + OD was a stronger gearbox.

 

The clutch pedal will push in and out. But rarely will it allow gear shift while engine running. While in gear and driving the shifter will go in to neutral if I push clutch pedal but will not allow to go back into gear unless I stop, turn off engine and then shifting is able.
At this point I engage 2ND, start car and drive.

At first signs of problem it became really difficult to shift. It took enormous pressure, then quickly Within 20 miles of driving no pressure would allow shifting of gears. The guy I bought this from said he had put in a new clutch due to issues. I bought this car 400 miles ago and it has been shifting smoothly. Till now.

 

How would I know if the clutch went out?

 

at a full stop, clutch in, put it in 2nd gear, ease the clutch out, nothign should start engaging until the pedal is at least half way up, then the slip zone while you get rolling, finally full clutch engagement and you're driving. the inverse, you're driving, you push the clutch pedal in, when the pedal is on the floor, the engine shoudl be completely disconnected from the transmission so the car is just coasting along, and the engine is idling.

if the clutch is fully disengaging the engine when fully depressed, and you still can't shift, then the problem is probably inside the transmission.

if the clutch *is* properly disengaging... try this... run 2nd gear up to like 3500 rpm, press the clutch in and don't let completely off the gas, hold just enough gas so the engine stays at the same RPMs (3500rpm), and see if it will shift into neutral now. if it does, then let up on the gas just a touch so the RPM drops to like 2500rpm, and see if it will slip into 3rd gear.

going the other way, if you're in 3rd gear, slow down to like 2000 rpm, maintain that speed, press in the clutch and slip it into neutral while the engine is still turning at 2000rpm, it should slide into neutral smoothly since the RPMs are all matched. now in neutral, gently rev the engine up to 3000 rpm and try to slip it into 2nd gear.

 

I will attempt and report in the morning, but I haven't been able to get gear in second unless car engine is off. I then start up and car drives normal. Does this point to gearbox, tranny or clutch...

Also I have no rpm gauge