Hello,

When I went to start my car ('88 Volvo 240 wagon) yesterday morning to run some errands, the starter seemed to crank slower than normal, but the car started. I drove for about fifteen minutes, turned the car off for about an hour, but when I went to start it again, it barely cranked.....but started. The next time I went to start the car, it wouldn't crank at all. Since it has a manual tranny, I was able to bump start it to get home. I charged the battery over night, and when I went to start the car this morning, it wouldn't crank at all. Not even a click from the solenoid. I checked all of my connections and the voltage at the battery terminals and the voltage read 13.9 volts. To test the solenoid, I ran a jumper from the battery positive to one of the small terminals to the solenoid, and nothing happened. So....I'm assuming the solenoid is bad. Does this sound correct?

Looking ahead at the task that confronts me, I've noticed the starter bolt heads are going to be hard to reach and the starter flange is threaded. This may not be a big deal when removing the starter, but I can see that this is going to be a real joy when trying to hold the replacement starter in place while trying to get the bolts threaded to the starter flange holes. Have there been any advances for this process that might help make this a truly joyous affair?

Thanks for any assistance,

Oscar