So I have a 960 that will not start. It won't even respond to the key being turned to the start position (no cliking/cranking). When I put the key in the on position no indicators light up on the dash, the radio does not power on, no dinging for the doors being open etc... The interior lights work and the battery has been checked and we tried jump starting. When you turn the key to the on position you hear a 1-2 second humm form the engine area (driverside firewall area) and a click from the fuse/relay pannel in the drivers compartment next to the gauge cluster.
The car was working fine, then the battery went dead (possibly from an electrical short/fault). It sat for a little over 2 months, then we got the battery charged up and working, but now it's not starting.

Any help would be great. It sounds like something simple like a fuse, but we checked the fuses and they all seem fine.

Thanks in advance,
Tom

I had what I thought was a dead battery on one of several vehicles I'm trying to keep running just a couple of days ago. The battery was replaced with a new one and had the same result- no lights, seemingly no connection to the electrical system. My test light showed power to the fuse panel. I disconnected the negative lead at the battery and started tightening the positive lead connections down stream of the battery. First one I touched was the hot lead at the starter. It was just finger tight. snugged it down and the car started right up.

Howdy,

In the main fuse box, next to the battery, are two 50 AMP fuses. Have you checked those?

Here is a link to a page with wiring diagrams that may be helpful:
http://volvo.techno.org.pl/wiring-diagrams.html

-sd

Tom,

You need to make sure that battery is in fact good under load. It may show a full charge but with an internal short or other problem, it could drop to nothing under load as you try to crank the engine. The fact that it went dead may be an indication it's NG. A bad battery can often prevent a jump start from working as well. You may want ot swap out your battery with a known good bat and try again.

Another possibility is the your ignition switch has failed, your grounds need to be cleaned?

DanR '94 964 334,000 miles (100,000 on the new engine)
--
DanR

Try these; remove the battery terminals, clean them up and re-install. turn on the ignition try the lights and see if they work. With the lights on try and start the car; if the car doesn't start, feel the battery terminals and see if they are hot indicating a high resistance to current. if it's good here, check your 12volt cable connections for a fault.

If your battery voltages are all good and the cables hooked up correctly, you need to isolate the problem using a voltmeter. The starter could have developed a fault; but I have heard it's a pita to remove or you might have a starter/transmission interlock switch problem. I haven't worked on either of these problems. Check the FAQs at the top right of this page.
'97 Volvo 960
'00 Toyota Taco
'73 Datsun 240Z turbo track car