1987 240 DL Wagon Rescue

I just picked up a white on blue 1987 240 DL wagon off CL for $500.00. Automatic. The owner said that he believes it has a short somewhere and does not run well and has replaced several relays recently. The car has 98,529 on what the owner claims is a working odometer. Carfax confirms this mileage. The car was originally a Florida car and is 100% rust free except for some rust around the rear lift gate. I will replace this eventually and paint the entire car. The interior needs a bit of cleaning, but that is easy. The roof rack will be removed and the holes filled before paint. No sunroof which is nice. The car desperately needed a good power-washing. Already ordered new headlights, taillights and front directional lenses.

The car had dark tint installed in 1990 and did wonders at preserving the interior. The vinyl seats are in almost perfect condition, the plastics are not all brittle like other cars I have had, the dash is ALMOST crack free.

I will start with a good strong battery, probably replace the crank position sensor to eliminate that as a potential issue causing running problems and go from there. For good measure replace vacuum lines that are probably questionable at this point. A baseline tune-up, fluids and filters and hopefully sort out the running issue.

Electrical issues are not my strong suit, but with help from here I can hopefully figure it out.

FYI... 87 is LH 2.2 so there is not a crank position sensor.

Nice project! Wanna sell me the corona small caps?

Interesting pin striping on the hood. To be honest, I can't tell if I like or not yet. I will have to wait and see it all cleaned up.

Good to know on the crank position sensor. Shows you how much I've dug into the car as I only towed it home two days ago.

I'm going to keep the corona center caps as I'll probably sell them with the Corona wheels.

Do the ignition control modules give troubles on theses cars?

1987 was the last year of the notoriously bad wiring harness that runs under the front of the engine. They got brittle and the wiring sheathing cracked causing crossed wiring.
My 86 wagon had this issue. Replaced it and it fixed all kinds of issues.
Steve

Thanks for that advice sksmith, probably not a bad thing to start with, especially if a non Volvo garage worked on sorting out the issue and didn't have the intimate knowledge of the car like those on here.

What year harness would I need to replace the one from 1987? 1988/89/90? Part number or the actual name of the harness?

I'm not sure what the PO meant by "the car needs wiring work". Clearly it was bad enough that the car was parked. He did mention that several relays were replaced. I can't see any areas that have been burnt or damage done by rodents. Of course I can easily locate and clean all the ground points. There was a spare fuel pump relay, part number 35 23 608, in the glove box and wonder if that would be an indication of what could be the issue? Also saw that the car has a new fuel filter. If the car was just running poorly it could be something other than electrical I suppose, like vacuum leaks, fuel pressure issues, bad injector/s, etc...

Is it one of these? Schematic from a 1987 car.

Schematic from a 1988 with different part numbers.

And from 1989. All from:

https://www.volvopartswebstore.com/...=7858&ukey_driveLine=394&ukey_trimLevel=28255

Found the below link to be very informative. A pretty easy fix if this is in fact the cause of the electrical issues. I will take a look at my harness, but given the known issues maybe a new custom harness would be a wise choice. I'd rather spend a bit more money and know that I am getting a quality project versus trying to save a few bucks by going with a used harness from say a 1988 car and still having a 30 plus year old harness that still may have issues.

Pictured is the new engine wiring harness and the ignition wiring harness.

https://www.240turbo.com/volvoharnesses.html

I ended up ordering both harnesses, a few female connectors to fix a few frayed wires and tomorrow I will be shipping my ignition control unit off to Programa to be rebuilt. Do it once and do it right they say.

https://www.programainc.com/item_list.aspx?ma=48736&mo=48749&ye=24664&idcategory=40

Some of the wiring with failed insulation.

Looks like a great project and will clean up real well.

I'd say this one fell into the right hands...should clean up nicely!

While pulling the interior out I discovered the carpets are in amazing condition. They need a good cleaning, but it seems the dark tint went a long way at preserving the interior. There isn't a bit of rust anywhere on the floorboards. I also found a used external fuel pump, an old ignition control module and a old ECM/ECU in the back wheel well. It seems the PO may have thought that whatever running issue the car had/has was related to fuel and or the control modules. I am hoping that if the issues were not corrected by replacing these that the new harnesses go a long way to fix any other electrical gremlins. The only other thing I can think of that could be replaced would be the AFM.

Sorry, been busy & just got a chance to get online.
You are on the right track with the harness replacement. Volvo came out with an upgraded harness in 1988, IIRC, that was made out of non-biodegradable insulation material. The original just didn't hold up. I can't remember the part number, but it was different than the original number.
When I did mine, I was able to find one of the upgraded ones used. I think Dave Barton has access to new ones though.
Looking forward to seeing this one getting cleaned up.
Steve