Volvo owner in France
Member
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2018
- Location
- France
I'm writing to you from France, where I live, about a 1988 Volvo GL (European model) that has me perplexed. This summer the upper connector on the radiator exploded, leaving me stranded. When I realized what had happened, I went to shut off the engine. Before I could turn the key, however, the engine cut off by itself.
I had the car towed to my home, where I changed the radiator. Since then, the car has refused to start. It turns over, but will not start. I replaced the fuel relay (and main fuel pump), and I'm getting fuel in the return fuel line.
There was a weak spark, so I checked the coil's resistance (which was OK) and the distributor. Since then, however, the coil has died (I fear that in later rechecking the coil, I inadvertently touched one of the posts to a car fender, grounding it, (and primary resistance is 3 ohms and the secondary resistance is 0)), and I also fear that the Hall impulse sensor in my distributor is bad. I'm going to replace the coil and Hall sensor, but I have another problem, involving the ignition wiring, which is why I'm writing.
My father-in-law, who had purchased this car new, had someone install an after-market alarm in it. I suspected that maybe it was somehow related to the non-starting problem (I've since changed my view to believing that water traveled down the upper radiator hose, when the upper hose connector failed, and ran on top of the distributor, causing the Hall impulse sensor to fail), so I began removing this alarm system.
I disconnected the alarm sensors and bee-hive of wires that were connected to it. I'm stymied, however, by a blue wire and a brown wire that were connected to the alarm and which then passed through a grommet in the firewall. These run through a black rubber tube to the ignition coil (see photos). The brown one is connected to two blue wires that run to what appears to be a combination ignition control unit/power stage unit (I say "combination," because I have not found a separate ignition control unit on this vehicle) that is on the fender-well beside the car's battery. The blue wire is connected to two blue wires that connect to the coil's +15 terminal.
Now that I've disconnected the alarm, I have no power at the coil. I suppose that is because of these two disconnected wires (the blue and the brown wires that were connected to the alarm, and which obviously were used to disable the coil to prevent the theft of the vehicle).
I don't know if this coil was the origin of my non-starting problem, whether it was the old alarm system or the Hall sensor in the distributor.
I would appreciate if you could tell me how my coil was hooked up before the alarm system was installed, allowing me to put the coil wiring back to how it was originally so that I can get this car back on the road.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Tom (a new forum member from France)
PS: If I figure out how to post photos, I'll publish some of these mysterious blue and brown wires.
I had the car towed to my home, where I changed the radiator. Since then, the car has refused to start. It turns over, but will not start. I replaced the fuel relay (and main fuel pump), and I'm getting fuel in the return fuel line.
There was a weak spark, so I checked the coil's resistance (which was OK) and the distributor. Since then, however, the coil has died (I fear that in later rechecking the coil, I inadvertently touched one of the posts to a car fender, grounding it, (and primary resistance is 3 ohms and the secondary resistance is 0)), and I also fear that the Hall impulse sensor in my distributor is bad. I'm going to replace the coil and Hall sensor, but I have another problem, involving the ignition wiring, which is why I'm writing.
My father-in-law, who had purchased this car new, had someone install an after-market alarm in it. I suspected that maybe it was somehow related to the non-starting problem (I've since changed my view to believing that water traveled down the upper radiator hose, when the upper hose connector failed, and ran on top of the distributor, causing the Hall impulse sensor to fail), so I began removing this alarm system.
I disconnected the alarm sensors and bee-hive of wires that were connected to it. I'm stymied, however, by a blue wire and a brown wire that were connected to the alarm and which then passed through a grommet in the firewall. These run through a black rubber tube to the ignition coil (see photos). The brown one is connected to two blue wires that run to what appears to be a combination ignition control unit/power stage unit (I say "combination," because I have not found a separate ignition control unit on this vehicle) that is on the fender-well beside the car's battery. The blue wire is connected to two blue wires that connect to the coil's +15 terminal.
Now that I've disconnected the alarm, I have no power at the coil. I suppose that is because of these two disconnected wires (the blue and the brown wires that were connected to the alarm, and which obviously were used to disable the coil to prevent the theft of the vehicle).
I don't know if this coil was the origin of my non-starting problem, whether it was the old alarm system or the Hall sensor in the distributor.
I would appreciate if you could tell me how my coil was hooked up before the alarm system was installed, allowing me to put the coil wiring back to how it was originally so that I can get this car back on the road.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Tom (a new forum member from France)
PS: If I figure out how to post photos, I'll publish some of these mysterious blue and brown wires.