After much on-going problem, dead battery, car not starting and on and on, it appears that the problem has at last been found. I've had this car to the folks that rebuild my starters and alternators many times and they have not be able to find the problem. Finally, yesterday (Friday) my wife was stranded downtown and had AAA take the car back to C & H Generator. After working on it all day they finally think they have found the problem. It appears right now that the glow plug relay inside under the dash was sticking in the ON position and siphoning off just enough charge that the battery wasn't getting but just a trickle of charge. So, once the module was unplugged, the charging rate jumped back up where it should be. The folks at C & H tried everything, changing reglators, changing alternators, jumpers directly to the battery, all with no effect. We had great alt output, but only about 11.8 V showing up at the battery.

The owner of C & H told me to drive it for a week. If that was it, pay them. If not, bring it back and we would keep looking.

I love this car, but (with apologies to our female readers) it's just like some women--drives me crazy. Fortunately, in my family, only my Volvo does that, not my bride.

So, now I need a new glow plug module--Volvo part # 1324683. Our Volvo dealer has laughed at me, when asked about the part. Can I get it someplace besides the dealership?? How 'bout some of you vendors who read the board? Ken y'hep a poor ol' Texas Boy ou'cher?

Thanks guys, I appreciate you for trying to help. I faithfully did everything you said. It just turned out to be something very un-obvious!

I don't know if this will help , but the folks at Mercy motive seem to handle a lot of diesels , the may have , or know where to get that relay.

next question- if your relay was stuck on , are your glow plugs fried?

"siphon" off current from the alternator, it has to manifest itself somewhere else in the form of heat, light or something, it cannot just dissapear.That relay would be on fire if it were robbing the battery of the current from the alternator to the point of no charging. I suspect you have another problem. If there is more than a half volt difference between the output stud on the alternator, and the battery, while running, you have loose or corroded connections somewhere. A stuck relay while the car is off, would explain a dead battery on restart, but not a battery going dead while running. Mark K