Our 240 recently had mysterious no crank, no start issue which appeared seemingly out of nowhere. I finally determined that wiggling the automatic transmission shift lever would eventually result in the car starting. So, I removed the top trim and sprayed a bit of contact cleaner into the neutral safety switch assembly. Everything worked great ... for a few days! So, yesterday it was off to Carlsen Volvo for a new switch. $45 with the VCOA discount compared to $68 for the same part at Smythe Volvo. Eeuroparts.com has the Scantech replacement for around $16, but I didn't want to wait and I have lingering concerns about the durability of Scantech parts.

Put the new switch in, aligned the little sucker and all is well now. Just for fun I took apart the old switch to find out what was wrong. It turns out that the spring action on one end of the sliding contact had failed. I was able to bend it back and restore the function, but still threw it away. In a pinch careful disassembly, cleaning and restoration of that switch looks quite doable. I've done such things to the ignition switch on my '67 Jaguar when the only new ones available were priced at over $200! That said, I would spend $16 on the aftermarket part before trying the repair/refurbish route.

These must be a common failure item as both local dealers had the part in stock.

John

i have same problem. can you be more specific about replacing neutral safety switch. location and difficulty of procedure? thanks,dick a.

The switch is inside the shifter mechanism. To reach it you have to remove the panel which covers the central electrical area, the right side plastic panel on the center stack (both to get at the wiring connectors). You also have to pop out the cover plate from the transmission selector and then remove the plastic trim around the transmission selector. Finally you remove two screws from the side which hold the neutral safety switch on and do some jiggling to get the thing out of there.

I don't really have the time right now to do a detailed technical manual page entry on the thing, sorry!

John

Something I have noticed after fixing mine(sort of) is how proper alignment influences idle. Putting slight pressure on the shift lever seems to smooth out some of the hic-ups while in park. Changed out my tranny mounts to no avail in try to firm things up.

Hi John,

In a pinch careful disassembly, cleaning and restoration of that switch looks quite doable.

I've had to fix two of these so far, but both because of the backup light portion, not the neutral safety switch. Contact pitting. Had no idea a new one could be had for $14. See "Fix Your Backup Light Switch" pictorial.

Skepticism on Scan Tech parts is an odd phenomenon. They don't, that I am aware of, make any parts, just buy them or have them made, and box them. I can't imagine them being successful in buying only substandard parts even if they wanted to be. I do understand they are marketing to customers who, in general, have already received 80-90% of the life they expect from their cars, which is a different expectation than most readers of this list have.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying. - Ed Furgol

I recently had the same part fail on my '92-- in my case the black plastic (almost looks like bakelite) had broken, causing misalignment of the internals. I took it out and glued it together with resin bond. So far, so good, but I picked up two spares on the last pick-n-pull trip.

I think the housing is made of bakelite. It sure breaks in exactly the same way as bakelite does. Don't forget, the 240 is a 1970s design based on largely 1960s levels of technology!

John