Finally, the new alternator regulator combo appears to be working, my battery is re-charging and my 122 is back on the road.

I'm still not entirely sure why the new brushes and regulator didn't work, but I suspect that some of the wires I used were bad (I salvaged a couple of what appeared to be good, lengths from my old 86 740's harness. I rewired the DF, D+ and D- grounds and hooked everything up exactly as detailed in the IPD instructions and... Voila! it works.

Changes made:
(1) Used new 14 gauge wires to extend the amp light (D+) wires to the regulator and on to the D+ on the alternator

(2) Used new 14 gauge wire and clips to ground the regulator (D-) to the car body (instead of grounding it through the alternator).

(3) Remove the D- ground wire from the alternator. (I'm relying on the Alternator's bolts to ground it through the engine)

(4) Replaced salvage heat tubing with some black wire-wrap from home depot. Nice stuff, so I hope it doesn't melt in there.

Good News
My amp light rarely comes on now, my aftermarket charging "thingy" indicates that the system is charging almost constantly. The system appears to have successfully re-charged the battery (tomorrow morning will be the test). The AMP light stayed black through almost all of my test driving. It appears that my purchase of a new regulator and brand new oem alternator brush assembly was not a waste of money.

Not as Good News
With the lights on and the car tooling around the neighborhood for an hour or so, I got a faint glow from the amp light when I also turned on the fan, or when I put the car in reverse. I had a brief issue when the charging indicator went to red and stayed there while trying to idle and charge the car. This was corrected when I started driving it around. I'm still hazy on specific of this little monitor, so I don't know when to doubt it and when to believe it.

I'ma bit bothered by the continual glow, even if rare and sporadic. It may be odd harness and fuse wiring as Shayne suggested, or it could be the limits of this 55amp alternator. However, I don't want more than a bolt-on solution. Buying a non-volvo alternator and machining it to get it to work is not a solution that I want to consider...yet.

I'll keep you posted on developments, but right now it looks like I've cleared this hurdle.









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1967 P220 Amazon, 1972 145S, 1976 245 DL, 1983 245 GL, 1986 745 GLE, 1990 745 GL, 1995 945....
You mean to tell me that Volvo makes cars that are *NOT* Wagons?!?