Got my '81 240 going!!

Okay, I brought this 245DL home last weekend, it wouldn't run. Owner said it
had an intermittent problem, but it wasn't intermittent for me. Wouldn't
start. Until I pulled an injector, and tried the starter, and it sprayed.
Reinstalled injector, and it started on one cylinder, and would eventually rev
but only fire on cylinder #1. Checked #2 plug, dry as a bone but had spark and
compression.

So today, before I went looking for fuel pumps, I pulled #2 injector, and tried
starter. Presto, it sprayed. reinstalled it, now it runs on two cylinders.
What the....? So I pulled #3 and #4 and ran the starter and they sprayed.
Reinstalled them, and now it runs like the day it came off the production line
even with 280K.

Explanation? I don't know for sure, but here's a theory: There was some air
in the injector lines, and was at the highest point just above each injector.
Since air has give unlike liquids, it didn't create the hydraulic pressure
necessary to spray through the injector. When I removed the injectors, the
highest point was then the end of the injector, and the fuel pushed the air
out. I don't think I buy this completely, but I put 25 miles on it today
without a hiccup.

Any other ideas?
KennyH

Horsepower is cheaper than therapy.

 

There was a curse on the car and by opening the cylinders to the light
of day the curse was lifted.....?

You didn't, by chance, make the sign of the cross when the injector
was removed, did you...?

I am thinking, on the serious side, that the problem was not with the
injectors themselves, but with some part of the wiring harness that
you disturbed when doing the removal- like the connectors on the
injectors themselves perchance? There are some years of Volvos that
have wiring problems, could this be related to that?

from Randy & Valerie
__ __
\ \ / /
\ \/ /
\__/olvo
1993 960

 

I am thinking, on the serious side, that the problem was not with the

Funny guy, you are. Well, this has the mechanical CIS so the injectors don't
have connectors. Oddly, only the ones that had been removed functioned, first
#1, then #1 & #2, then I removed #3 and #4 together, and presto.

Now I have another problem:

I drove it Sat 30 miles or so, and Sunday I started it a couple of times, moved
it once. Now the pumps won't run, as is the case if there's no ignition
signal. I put my timing light on it, and there is no spark coming from the
coil.

I washed it Sat. a.m. and it wouldn't start until I removed the distributor cap
and dried things out a little, but then it ran for the next two days. I don't
get it.

This new problem could be part of the bad wiring problem, I suppose, but
previously I only had fuel delivery problems. Go figure.
KennyH

Horsepower is cheaper than therapy.

 

The fuel pump relay only turns on when it sees the same pulsing signal
that's also fed to the tachometer. So if you have no ignition primary,
the fuel pumps won't run. Cleaning the dist cap wouldn't have had any
effect on your problem then. You don't say if you checked the low
tension side of the ignition. Also there's 2 different ignitions, one
bought from Chrysler!, one from Bosch. The Chrysler one has the
computer mounted on the windshield washer reservoir bottle bracket.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

NOTE: new address!!
Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

Somehow, when I typed that, I KNEW the car was mechanical FI... I'll
stick to the voodoo answers, then.. ;-)
from Randy & Valerie
__ __
\ \ / /
\ \/ /
\__/olvo
1993 960

 

I'll

We all need a little entertainment. BTW, it failed the emissions test
yesterday a.m. CO limit is 1.50 PPM, and I was at 1.94 at idle.

So after perusing www.brickboard.com, I used my 3mm allen wrench to lean it out
as far as I could with it still idling smoothly, I had to increase the idle
speed with the knob.

Presto! It passed with flying colors. Now the CO is .54. Big difference.
Thanks for the advice with my other problem!
KennyH

Horsepower is cheaper than therapy.