Hi Irish,
700 series, and probably the 200's employed a ceramic module called a ballast resistor to spread the current equally throughout the system while under crank, and not allow voltage spikes to say, the lighting circuits, etc.
I don't think that the 800's or the V's still use these, but I'm not positive.
All I can say is that while rummaging under the hood of my 850 I haven't seen one. Take a look to the immediate left of the battery pan, there is a set of connector clips (@3 or 4) grounded directly to the engine bay. Make sure that these are not corroded and firmly in place. My assumption here is that this takes the place of the ballast resistor by spreading the ground current throughout the entire body.
Armie
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'94 850 154000kms '86 760GLE 272000kms 95 Silverado4x4