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Wire insulation

babbit bearings

New member
Joined
Jan 24, 2014
Location
Spring, Texas
Can someone explain why random wires in the multiple areas of my 84 245 have wire insulation just fall off? Head lights harness, engine harness, under the dash... ??? One wire in a loom of 10+ will have over a foot of the insulation turned to mush or crumbling away, but all the other wires are perfect???
 
Can someone explain ...

The most common explanation you'll hear is the insulation plastic was formulated to be environmentally responsible. I won't say I subscribe to that, but rather believe the oil economy of the decade stimulated some cost savings experimentation in the plasticizer ingredient.

rot02.jpg
 
Whatever caused Volvo to make such a terrible decision is long past evaluation. Just a mess to clean up. Must be the affects of the heat and petroleum products under the hood. Seldom see under dash wires fail.

Eighty-one seems to be the last good year until about '87. By far the simplest solution is to replace the engine wiring harness.

I rewired a '82 from scratch but as computers were added along with electronic injection that just became too complex to attempt unless you have nothing else to do.
 
One wire in a loom of 10+ will have over a foot of the insulation turned to mush or crumbling away, but all the other wires are perfect???

Different amounts of current, possibly a varying signal vs. straight power, different color dyes, who knows?

Heat and oil sure do play a part.

Main_Engine_Harness_Connector_3.jpg
 
I was told that the premature insulation deterioration was due to a plastic formula that's supposed to be non toxic when it burns.
 
Got it.

Thanks

my car was in Phoenix, so I suppose the 120+ degree temps are the reason why some wires inside the car are having the problem. I am doing an LS conversion, but was hoping to keep the dash harness... looks like a racepak dash in my future...
 
Several years ago, I completely re-wired (under the hood) all the engine circuits on my son's 82 model 240 B21F.
I used individual copper MTW conductors with soldered and heat shrink splices.

Man, that job took a lot longer than I had planned.
The further I went, the deeper I got.

If it was to do over again, I would have bought a new engine harness and installed it.

I saved money on parts and worked a lot of hours for free.

All of the 80's Volvo 240's that I've owned have had this problem with the defective wiring insulation, and a big majority of the problem has been under the hood.

I don't drive a 80's model anymore, but when I was driving one, it got to the point of fixing problems as they arose.....one or two wires at a time.
 
Got it.

Thanks

my car was in Phoenix, so I suppose the 120+ degree temps are the reason why some wires inside the car are having the problem. I am doing an LS conversion, but was hoping to keep the dash harness... looks like a racepak dash in my future...

I would just get a chassis harness out of an 89 or newer 240 and install it. Especially since you are going LS. You're not going to need any of the K-jet/LH injection portions of your existing harness.
 
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