OK Still no start

I did pull the dist cap & rotor and replaced them, never replaced in 8 yrs. No spark at plugs, I do have spark @ coil. My plugs are getting fuel.

I am wondering what fuel pump noise I should be hearing when I engage the key but not enough to crank the engine. All my other Volvos make a "whurr" sound as in energizing the pump(s) prior to cranking. The 740 isn't making this noise although it makes the noise after cranking.

I am puzzled, any thoughts?

TIA

Probably bad ignition wires.

Your 740 only starts the pumps after engine begins cranking and primary pulses are detected at the ignition coil. That is normal.
--
David Hunter

No spark at plugs with new cap and rotor..probably bad plug wires.

A little history.

Wife driving car, stopped in drivethru and it just died. I wasn't there.

It had sat a week while on vacation low on gas, she put a half tank in. It died shortly after. The car ran fine prior to vacation.

I wish I had been there , it would help know the full story.

If you are getting spark at the coil you should be getting spark at the plugs. Think about the route the spark takes and follow it. From the coil. do you get a spark at the dist end of the coil wire ? if so then it is getting to the cap. From there it goes inside the cap to the center of the rotor and from there out to the plugs as the rotor rotates. If you still have no spark at the plugs then it isn't getting from the coil wire out to the wires. If you haven't disturbed the distributer as far as changing the position on the gear at the bottom then you should be close to correct. Even if you have all the wires in the wrong places you should get spark at the end of the plug wires. If you do then stick a plug in the wire and hold the housing of the plug against the block to ground it. Have someone crank the engine and see if the plug is sparking. Idealy you should have a blue/white spark jumping the gap. Check the new rotor against the old one. if it is wrong it may be too short and the spark cannot jump the gap inside the cap from the rotor to the inside connector of the cap for each wire. Some old VW's had a resistor built into the rotor and when it went bad it was like cutting the wire......spark in but it coulden't get out to the plugs. Just follow the path of the current and you should find something wrong somewhere. Most likely since the cap and rotor are new, I would look at the gap between the rotor and the inside connectors first.
Good Luck,
Dennis