I have a 1989 Volvo 240 GL , for some reason when I start it and put it into Drive it dies on me. I have no idea what could be causing this? Its been sitting for a while now the battery is died we charged it and now it wont turn over at all. I am thinking the battery is shot. If you have any suggestion that would be greatly appericate.

 

insufficient information about the condition of this car to even begin to guess.

re: the battery, measure its voltage after its been sitting an hour or more. if its in the 12.6V range at 68F, its fully charged. if its down around 12.0V, its nearly dead and needs to be recharged.

when you turn on the key, before you start the engine, verify the check engine light, and the alternator light both light up. after the engine starts and is idling, those both should go out.

when you start the car, the voltage should be about 1-1.2V higher, if it is, then the alternator is working and the battery will be recharged while you drive.

hard to guess what could be broken that might make it stall when you put it in gear... is it idling smoothly and steadily at 600-700rpm ?

what if you give it a gentle touch of gas just as you put in gear ? get the rpm up to like 1000 and put it in gear?

does the check engine light stay lit when its running? a 1989 was the first year with LH2.4 and onboard diagnostics. see Engine and OBD Diagnostic Codes and follow the 'DTM 1' procedure for reading the codes, you don't need anything to do this, just push a button and count light blinks. there's fuel injection codes on pin 6 of the jumper block, and ignition controller codes on pin 2...