Ok, so we finally got my car on the road. It's a '91 740, b230F, automatic. 206000 km's on it. Rides nice, seems to run well, with the new head and stuff. Haven't had it on the highway yet though. Had planned to drive it to work today, which requires a 10 minute trip at 110 km/h, and then to our Volvo club meeting tonight at the dealer in Edmonton.

But this morning it wouldn't start. It did this briefly to me yesterday too. Let me start with yesterday's incident. This is after we drove the car for a couple of hours on saturday, with no problems. In the morning on SUnday, before I had started it for the day, I checked the oil to find I was a bit high. This was in the garage, so I just put the key in, turned to RUN but didn't try to start it, then put it in neutral and pushed the car back a couple feet so I had more room between the front of the car and the wall in the garage. After draining half a quart of oil and getting the level right, I closed the hood and went to start it. Heard the click under the hood, but no cranking. Got fed up with it, and put it back in neutral and pushed it back to where it was, so I could close the big door. For fun, I tried startign it again, and it fired right up. Figure that one out. Car was in park both times.

Then this morning, I again just got the click, and no cranking. Was in a rush, so had to take my Contour to work. Disappointed because the club won't get to finally see the 740, but not much I can do about that right now. This is frustrating.

Battery voltage good - charger says it's at 100% so won't charge anymore. I don't htink it's a problemt with the neutral/park safety switch, since I do get the click in park and neutral, but not in any other gear when I try cranking. Fiddled with the gear selector, that doesn't help. Can't be the starter motor- I had replaced that last year and it has less than 20 starts on it I think.

FAQ says to try a jumper wire from battery to starter, but I'm just not totally clear on which terminal on the starter to jump it to. Can you guys help? I also tightened the battery connections and they feel good. Maybe it needs new battery cables. I've replaced everything else under there, might as well do those I guess. And I have cleaned all the ground connections too. With Deoxit, per the faq. Everything is tight. I don't want to think it may be the new starter motor - which probably didn't need to be replaced in the first place but oh well.

Fortuately the car is stuck at home, and this didn't happen while I was out. Please offer up any input you may have. This is really frustrating.


Signed,

Distraught in Edmonton...