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Very nice Art.

The why part is not so evident. In all my 240's, sometime around 150K to 200K, the brushes wear out. When you're a neophyte like me, or a 17 year old that is strangely attractive to old Volvos, you don't replace the brushes preemptively unless you have a voltmeter that tells you that trouble's brewin' and you spend some "educational" time on the BB. In fact, now that I've had problems with alternators on every single 240 I've owned, I've learned that a spare (rebuilt) alternator on the shelf is a good investment, especially when I get a call at 10pm from sonny boy stranded 100 miles away. The problem is that in most vehicles, the alternator along with the car is in the junk yard, while our cars are still on the road, and these alternators do wear out.

I've since installed a cigarette lighter volt meter that works swell, but certainly a nice orig Volvo meter is much more attractive and, of course, frees up the cig lighter for some other 12v accessory.

Nice job Art.

Marty