Hi all,

Sorry I haven't repied in the past few days. I had an old post about my red "idiot" warning lights going on intermittently and loosing battery charge. Well, I stole my mom's battery out of her 1977 245 for a few hours and drove to my friends garage, "German Car" in Pomona (yes, I know Volvos aren't German).

If we hadn't had the car up on a lift, I don't think I ever would have found the problem using jackstands in my garage. It WAS frayed alternator wiring. You know how there is a clip to hold the alternator wiring directly under the crank pulley? Well, the clip was very loose, and the wires had rubbed for years, causing this problem for the last 2 yrs. or so. (On and off)..

Henry told me to do a nice job, solder in new wiring on the affected part, and use heat shrink tubing. I did, except the main red thick wire (going to starter) I think is 6 or 8 gauge wire, and have been unable to find it locally, so I wound up using 4 gauge, soldering it, and using a lot of duct tape. I really am embarrased to admit this, and really want to find gome proper gauge red wire and redo it (without ANY tape, just heat shrink tubing). Problem is, I need to find out how to solder such a thick wire. I don't want to trace the whole darn thing back to the alternator, and don't know if it branches off somewhere else (1985 245 turbo, by the way). I got it to start up and charge fine, but my idle is "sticking" at about 2000 rpm and my oil press warning light is on. My oil press gauge is very high, and I was told that two of the wires I replaced were wires to the oil press. switch. Guess I need to re-check those for a short, too. As far as the idle, I think the 'ol idle air stabilizer valve is stuck again. Had the same problem about 2 yrs. ago, so I cleaned it out with WD40. Major PITA to get to (just like the oil press switch wires).

Oh well, at least I'll have something to do on my next day off.

Thank you all very much for all of your posts.

Ted (Bundy) Y.