One of our Volvos is an '88 GLE sedan with the B230F engine and LH Jetronic. It won't start. It's got about 129,000 on it. It sat for about 3 months and then was pressed back into service. After it's rest it never really ran right.

I went to the FAQs and tried several things. It's got a nice white spark. It turns over. So the ignition and starting systems appear to work OK. The battery has 12.5 VDC at rest. Plugs, wires, cap, rotor, and air filter were all done about 10,000 miles back (roughly three years ago). The battery is about 6 years old but I just topped off the acid with distilled water.

The fuel pumps don't turn on! I pulled the main fuel injection relay and jumpered terminals 87/2 and 30 with a manual switch. Voila! Both pumps come back to life. Attempting to start the car with the pumps on using the manual switch did not work. I assumed the relays were bad. They were original. I replaced the radio suppression relay and the main injection relay. No dice.

I did notice while attempting to start the car that when the key was just counterclockwise from engaging the starter the pumps did come on for about 1 or 2 seconds. It did this twice in about 10 tries.

I also noticed when the car ran about a week or so ago the in-tank pump was not running but the main pump was. I thought it was odd that when I use a manual switch both pumps immediately spring to life.

I tried the trick on the FAQ column about installing the main injection relay without a cover and manually engaging the contacts. I could only reach one set of contacts with my fingers, but could feel the other set close when the first one was engaged. Pulling the set of contacts closed did not cause the pumps to come on.

Any suggestions on what to try next would be most appreciated.

Doug
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D '90 745T 229k, '88 744GLE 129k, '96 328i, '73 911T 100k+