That's what I am hoping for, some time and enough experience should get it done. I know the SM quite well (we have dealt with him for years as well) so I am sure I can get allot of info on what has happened so far. The owner really doesn't know much about cars so she couldn't offer much more info, will be on the phone Monday to the SM for sure. For me it's a bit of a crapshoot, but for $1000 I'm willing to risk that the board as enough ideas to get it solved.

Given what we know about the owner (not a car person...she bought a Cavalier - say no more ). I'm guessing she took it to Crappy Tire or somewhere that doesn't know Volvo's. If it won't make it up the road to Paul's (He owns Burt and Jack's) then I'd take it to Ellis's. Greg's had good luck there. The old Volvo guys work at Kia or some such in Lethbridge.

Yeah she said bought the Volvo for safety and reliability and replaces it with a Crapalier...WTF? The one good decision was to take it to Saturn which is where all of the old Short Stop Volvo guys ended up. I know the SM, Murray Charles, as they have been servicing our cars for years although he is run off his feet and I have been having my doubts about who is in the back nowadays.

I have been contemplating giving Ellis a try as well lately so this may be the time to see what they can do. I'm pretty sure if Murray had the time he could figure this out, but like I said he is only one guy with allot on his plate. Paying stealership rates to service a 19 YO import isn't helping matters either. If worse comes to worse from what she was saying it would be drivable to Calgary, it's an intermittent no-start issue and runs fine once going. Bottomline I think for the price this one is a no brainer even if I can't do it myself.

Make sure the crank position sensor is tight in the bellhousing...and not damaged too.

Found out a little more info on what might be going on with this car's fuel problem. It runs fine once running but takes some jiggling of the injector harness and it starts all of the time. Going to look at it tomorrow so will be able to describe the starting procedure a little more. I talked to the SM about it the other day and got the impression that someone with Volvo experience should be able to troubleshoot it, he's just short on guys with that background and doesn't have the time to be there with them. From the description of the procedure wouldn't something simple like replacing the injector harness, or at least testing each harness and replacing as necessary make sense? I have no idea what I'm talking about, but if just jiggling the harness gets it started and it runs fine after how hard could this problem be to fix??

Like I said more info on this and the car in general tomorrow.

Check the connector at the distributor, the 3 wire harness that goes to the hall effects sensor often breaks and the wires can ground, wiggling the harness may just change the position of the wires. That being said a problem like you are describing, although it can be a pain to locate is totally fixable with some simple and logical diagnosis, I would not be too worried if this is the problem.

Yeah, my buddy's '89 did the same thing for years - it would start 90% of the time, and occasionally it just wouldn't. He could crank it and crank it and it would bring no joy. Let it sit for a few minutes and it would be fine.

It eventually became MY '89 (the green one) and one of the first things I did was change the distributor, which had a broken plug to the hall sensor. Never gave me any trouble until the dizzy started leaking oil.

Edit - duh, that gave me running problems too. It would usually start fine, and then when things began to warm up a couple of minutes in, the car would run terrible and sometimes die. I'd get it started again but never trusted it until I changed the distributor AGAIN.

I'd look for a block mounted distributor from a 90+ 240 and extend the wires. Block off the rear mount (they tend to give trouble because of the oil thing) and it might help.

You can change the seals in the distro too.

And for an LH2.4 dizzy, that's probably a better option. The LH2.2 dizzy that's in the '89 is dime-a-dozen.

Just got back from looking at this car and as always they look so much better in the pictures. The paint is pretty scratched up and oxidized with the failing clear on the one door and a few other spots that are going. No rust other than one tiny spot above the rear wheel well, the underside looked pretty good as well. The interior is in quite good condition, the drivers seat outside bolster is just starting to show some wear and is still nice and firm. The sunroof has leaked in the past so the headliner is drooping in that area. Looking at the sunroof it's obvious why it leaked as the back edge of the sunroof is sticking up as the gasket is wedged down inside.

Under the hood it's not all that clean although nothing like the turbo beater. There is a pretty good oil leak that I couldn't tell where it's coming from, not from above maybe the turbo lines or the oil filter relocation kit? There was a pre-purchase inspection report from Mr. Volvo that listed a fair amount of minor things that was only a few thousand km's ago so it's still relevant:

- wiper switch loose
- left heated seat not working
- distributor and remote oil filter seals leaking
- missing splash pan
- center muffler has holes, rear is rusty
- pcv box plugging up
- both motor mounts leaking
- throttle body service required
- heater motor starting to make noise
- no a/c
- frt brakes @ 30%, rears @ 75%
none of the above is too serious, although fixing the a/c and the motor mounts isn't cheap. Also no mention of the sagging rear end or the leaking misaligned sunroof. I never looked but I am pretty sure the a/C hasn't been converted.

Now for the starting issue, it wouldn't. The trick to starting is to ground the injector wiring harness, but it isn't a sure thing and the motor floods very easily. The owner picked it up from the body shop this morning and they killed the battery before they got it going. We tried to start it and it just wouldn't fire so we went and had lunch to give it time to dry out. When we came back we got it going but while I was sitting at the wheel giving it gas as it tried to stall my wife was still grounding out the injector... That was the end of that session as of course the engine was now flooded again.

I think we are going to go back again tonight for one more try as I would obviously like to drive it before deciding. Bottomline is it's not a bad car but not as nice as the pics and more like a $1000 car maybe with allot of little things needing attention. It currently has 279K and there are mtce. receipts from 232K when I think the second owners bought it. Thoughts???

Sounds like a lot of little things with enough big things that you'd have to do. That being said, Matt is looking at parting his 740 (last I heard) and could have some parts for you. Grounding the harness to get it started...what an adventure.

My car has a totally different fuel injection system.

I guess I will find out how much needs doing now... it's sitting in my garage

After allot of attempts we finally got it started and drove it home. Front end feels spongy and loose, very floaty ride. Turbo seems to boost nicely (I can't say from experience as this is the first 740T I have driven) but the engine wanted to die at every intersection and did so in front of my house. I think the PO (before the one I bought it from) felt that doing regular oil changes was keeping up on mtce., it looks like there is allot of items to be gone through now (probably why they sold it).

I guess the first steps will be to check the distributor and CPS as per the previous suggestions. One question, the LH 2.4 doesn't use a hall effects sensor but takes it's signal from the RPM sensor? So if I pull the dist. cap and rotor that's all that I will find in there? Andy is that what you meant when you said to check the CPS, is this the same thing as the RPM sensor?

Ya, same thing, lives on the bellhousing. Not a bad idea to pull it and check for damage, or at the very least check that its tight. Theres been a couple that have come loose before, I remember a cruise with everyone in south calgary and ben's 240 quit and after a while turned out to be the crank position sensor.