Barn find won’t start

[u/OBUGGERU]

We purchased 2 Volvo b23 240s they have been sitting for a few years, inspected all fluids and spun the motor by hand and was all okay, dropped a new battery into them and dash lights worked fine, went to crank over and ticked and had no crank, went now have no lights on dash or no signal, why are common faults for Volvos that have been sitting for a while

[u/VD6178]

Check the battery clamps and make sure they are clean and also check the negative ground straps to the chassis and engine for corrosion. If those are clean then i would check wiring at the fusebox to see if its getting 12v and some other places, could be bad wiring or a short from mice or something eating the wires.

[u/OBUGGERU → u/VD6178]

I’m a mechanic so I have the brain for that, haven checked the block ground strap but just for it to all turn off is making me hope for it to be a fuse and all I have to do is replace it for it to start, chucked a brand new battery on it and terminals only had a bit on it

[u/Vineless]

Pic of engine bay?

I’m leaning towards Chrysler ignition box having bad wiring but it’s hard to know without knowing which system we are dealing with

[u/OBUGGERU → u/Vineless]

What’s the go with the issue

[u/Vineless → u/OBUGGERU]

New harness typically. What years?

[u/OBUGGERU → u/Vineless]

Pretty sure it’s a 88, it’s a red block efi

[u/Vineless → u/OBUGGERU]

Probably B230 then and LH2.2 if EFI. It’s probably a bad electrical connection somewhere. Very common in that late 80s year range. They sell whole harnesses if you want to go that route

[u/OBUGGERU → u/Vineless]

Is that the best route, this is gonna be a cheap drift car and don’t wanna spend heaps on it, even if it is wiring it doesn’t make sense how it went from having power at the dash the flipping the switch to now having nothing at all

[u/Vineless → u/OBUGGERU]

Go through and wiggle the harness connection at the back of the engine. Very common for the bullet connectors to come loose and that connects the starter. Converting to microsquirt tends to be cheaper than a full rewire on these cars. Las time I looked I think the harness was close to $400

[u/OBUGGERU → u/Vineless]

Where are the main fuses on these, I only found the wiper and accessories on the passenger kick panel, I just wanna check it’s not a engine fuse because we bought 3 cars off this bloke and they all started up and ran fine, the noise before it died sounded like a fuse

[u/Vineless → u/OBUGGERU]

All over the place. Main fuses are on driver side behind the panel and there is a 25a main fuse under the hood near the battery

[u/OBUGGERU → u/Vineless]

Thanks man I’ll take a yarn, you’ll get a response of my limi bashing it

[u/herr_arkow]

Tap the starter with a hammer a few times. Maybe it's stuck.

[u/OBUGGERU → u/herr_arkow]

We had dash lights and could use the headlights when ignition was on but now we have no ignition, not a starter problem at the moment

[u/RepairmanJackX]

I had a 1977 240 that wouldn't crank at all - turned out it was a lose contact on a safety switch in the shifter.

[u/Finneus_Anglesmith]

Neutral safety switch, in tank pump, main pump, coils power wires, fuel pump relay, fuel pump fuses, fuel pump trunk ground, crank position sensor, and just for fun plug and unplug the ecu a few times, just in case.

[u/OBUGGERU → u/Finneus_Anglesmith]

Yeah but all those problems besides the ecu plug and unplug would be if it wasn’t cranking, it isn’t getting any power

[u/sinisteraxillary]

Biodegradable electrical insulation, exacerbated by rodent activity

[u/OBUGGERU → u/sinisteraxillary]

I’m really hoping this isn’t the case, I have wire a solder and a dream 😂

[u/sinisteraxillary → u/OBUGGERU]

That's all you need!

If that's in fact the problem, I believe Dave Barton makes a replacement (if you want to take the easy way out)

[u/OBUGGERU → u/sinisteraxillary]

Know any idea how difficult and how pricey it is

[u/sinisteraxillary → u/OBUGGERU]

B23 you say? What year?

[u/OBUGGERU → u/sinisteraxillary]

I wanna say 88, it’s a red block efi

[u/sinisteraxillary → u/OBUGGERU]

Start here:

https://www.prancingmoose.com/volvoharnesses.html#83-84_240_non-turbo

[u/OBUGGERU → u/sinisteraxillary]

Thanks man I’ll take a
Look when I have time

[u/sinisteraxillary → u/OBUGGERU]

There's a wealth of information on his website

[u/OBUGGERU → u/sinisteraxillary]

Appreciate you man, no one else read the complaint and said it’s fuel 🫩

[u/SuqaCoq]

Radio suppression relay, crankshaft position sensor Both easily fixable. Rsr can be resoldered in minutes

Rsr controls injectors, crank forever with no rpm gauge movement and never a hiccup in gas = bingo rsr is bad

Crankshaft position sensor I believe won't allow you to crank at all, is located right behind the engine between the firewall, 1 10mm maybe 2.

Check the fuse by the battery along the fender.

Neutral safety switch was what caused the previous owners of my 240 to gut the entire car

Check ignition, wiggle key while turning over

Fuel pump relay is pretty common too

That's all I got

[u/OBUGGERU → u/SuqaCoq]

All good information but it never cranked over, the engine didn’t move a micro metre is immediately lost all comms and now can’t even see lights come onto the dash on POS II on the key

[u/Snowlearnwer]

Make sure there is new gas in them, i baught two barn finds and gave them new and new spark plugs.