I've got a big problem. Today my wife said the radio and the door locks quit working on her way home. I checked the car. It was worse than that.
no wipers
no turn signals
no brake lights
no door locks
no horn
no seat heaters
and of course, no radio (the only thing that she noticed!)
I checked all of the fuses, no burned out ones.
here is the strange thing.
the car still runs fine
heater blower works
headlamps work
door buzzer works
O/D turns off and on
and the read defoger works
I will run a test light to each fuse this weekend, but I feel that there is something unplugged or disconnected somewhere up front on one particular circuit.
I know that they were working this morning because she left for work first, and I watched her drive down the driveway. The brake lights and wipers were working then.
Has this ever happened to anyone. I've had 3 240's and this has never happened before.
Need Help fast....
Ben

I think it's the ignition switch. Try the simplest thing: just rotate the key back a little bit from the START position. In the START position, most accessories turn off. In ON, everything works- it may simply not be returning to the ON position fully. Sometimes it's as simple as a really large, heavy ring of keys. Honest! I've seen it lots of times! And all these cars are known for having sticky ignition locks, right up into the 850/S70 series.
The real fix ultimately will be to replace the switch part of the ignition- the electrical part on the back of the mechanical key/steering lock part. It's about $32 from Volvo, and shouldn't break the bank to have it installed.
You can do it yourself too if you don't mind tearing into the dashboard a bit.

That's my guess, but I would also verify condition of the fuses, and inspect the connection block behind the battery, on the left front inside fender- it's under a black cover, and you could have pulled a wire off of there, or possibly one got cut. In my 87, the bracket holding the coil got broken- the rough edge severed a wire to the headlight relay and I couldn't change the highbeams to low beams... weird stuff can happen right in that spot behind the battery. Look for a possibly disconnected or broken red wire there, but I'm betting on the ignition switch.
Good luck!!!
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 225K, 88 744GLE- 209K, 91 244 183K. Also responsible for the care and feeding of: 88 745GLE, 229K, 88 244GL, 146K, 87 244DL, 235K, 88 245DL, 236K

Rob,
I actually tried moving the key around. My boss had a 760 that would run without anything else working. No heat, lights or anything. Jiggle the key and like magic, everything would work. This did not make a difference on mine. I will try the wire from the battery to the fenderwell area. It looks iffy. The fuse in the fuse holder is not blown. I will check it for power with a test light tomorrow. It's supposed to get up into the 50's tomorrow. I hate working in the cold. Right now it's freezing and was snowing earlier. There is rust around the windshield where water could get in. I'm betting something got rusted there too, although the fuses look good. The previous owner coated them with some kind of grease too. I wiped it off. Thanks, I'll keep you posted.
Ben

I think the '87's had problems with the wiring harnesses. It sounds like a wiring harness problem.

Did she go through a carwash or if it was raining(you said she had the wipers on)then maybe water dripped into the fuse box.Did you spin the fuses or take them out and check 'em good.
--
philvo '86 245 212k,'90 240 197k,'87 SAAB 900 SPG 213k

I'm going with Rob's explanation. You may be right about water dripping in. There's rust around the windshield that would let water in is short out and corrode everything. I will look into it tomorrow.
Ben