$180.00 1983 Volvo 244 optimistic future ice racer

First off, I love Volvos. My first car was a 1993 Volvo 850 GLT and since then I've have probably a half dozen of them in various configurations, some of them modified turbo cars. I get one every few years to satisfy an old itch and I'm always looking for a deal.

Well, the internet as everyone here knows, tends to push things your way that you weren't even looking for.  One minute I'm looking for firewood for sale and then behold , an 83 244 Volvo with a stick and it's not completely rusted out.

In fact, besides a few little spots, the car is pretty straight for 35 years old and for Alaska that is a miracle. That's 35 years of dodging moose and not drifting in to a glacier. Not bad. Outstanding even.

After a week the price keeps dropping.

And dropping.

Annnnd before you know it, I'm sending a message

After going over to the house and seeing it was a nice young non-serial killer that owned it, I started asking some questions. Ok, it's got no spark but new brakes all around, 3 pedals, and it's not bent in half. Could this be the ice racer I've wanted? Solid but not nice enough to worry about hitting stuff?

His wife comes out and I can tell they just want it out of the yard.

I call a tow, hand over $180.00 American doll hairs and get the title to Heidi the Swedish Ice Queen.

Hand over another $180.00 and get it towed to my driveway.

Pros:

CHEAP

Manual transmission with newer clutch

It has new non-studded General Altimax  snow tires on the stock wheels (painted baby blue for some reason.)

Decent body

Doesn't smell like Bigfoot's genitals in the interior

Cons:

No spark. He thinks it may be the distributor since he just replaced the cap, rotor, wires and plugs. He didn't want to spend the money on the distributor so he listed it up. I got dash lights and could spin it over with my jumpbox but have the battery charging right now to see what it does with a full charge later.

Cosmetically it's not the best for a street car but for a budget race car it's great.

It's going to be outside and it's about to get super cold here and I'm not particularly motivated enough to work on it in a snow bank so It may be a while before it gets hustled on.

Since I didn't bring my 240Z to AK, I get itching for old car rowing through the gears and the attainable dream of racing crap cars. The Datsun came together and then I moved and haven't been able to do any autocrosses or rallycrosses with it. Now I'm hoping eventually I can take the Volvo out to Big Lake and give it the business one day.I may not get to race it this winter but at the price I got it for, it's worth jumping now. 

Let me get that electrical tape off the lights and make it a proper 20 footer.

To be continued...

Im interested to see how building  this works with being in alaska. Between the weather and (assumedly) higher cost of everything.  I can't imagine that this will be as simple as a challenge car in ohio.

Im watching with interest. 

Dusterbd13 said:

Im interested to see how building  this works with being in alaska. Between the weather and (assumedly) higher cost of everything.  I can't imagine that this will be as simple as a challenge car in ohio.

Im watching with interest. 

It’s not that much more expensive it’s just availability of stuff. Sometimes you get lucky but I have to order a lot of things and pay shipping. USPS is cheap but most companies think we are international and don’t want to ship here. We don’t have many good junkyards to just get stuff there. 

So as far as a build goes, I think this will be really boring because literally I want spark, clean it up, and then get it out on the ice. Don’t need a cage unless I’m in a competitive class with big studs. 

My experience has always been fwd turbo 5 cylinder when it comes to Volvo so diagnosing and fixing early efi rwd should be both easier and probably more challenging at the same time. Haha

Depending on weather, I’m going to do some easy stuff on it like hose it off, paint the wheels anything but that baby blue, charge/replace the battery, inspect fuses, re secure lights, and just see what I have actually done.

Sweet score. An '83 DL is the sweet spot in early-mid cars with the high-compression B23F, no sunroof, skinny bumpers, 5-panel taillights...I'm sure you know.

Keep it yellow & brown!

Will be interesting to see your process of turning it into an ice racer. Should make a very driftable, predictable car. Planning to weld the diff?

crankwalk said:

My experience has always been fwd turbo 5 cylinder when it comes to Volvo so diagnosing and fixing early efi rwd should be both easier and probably more challenging at the same time. Haha

 

Depending on weather, I’m going to do some easy stuff on it like hose it off, paint the wheels anything but that baby blue, charge/replace the battery, inspect fuses, re secure lights, and just see what I have actually done.

The engine wiring harness will likely give you issues unless it's already been replaced. Up until '87 or so they used a terrible graham-cracker-based insulation material that degrades in the hot engine environment, crumbles, and falls off. You end up with lots of bare wires shorting against each other but it all happens underneath the black plastic sleeve so you won't see the horrors until you dig in. It will be worth stripping the old harness out and upgrading to an aftermarket or OE replacement harness. Dave Barton's site has a ton of info on this and he sells the better harnesses too.

Clean the fuse box terminals with a wire brush or ScotchBrite really well, and replace the fuses with the brass type (vs steel) to keep galvanic corrosion at bay.

I may look in to a new harness if I can't patch this one well enough. You'll see in a moment the tomfoolery that is going on in the wiring.

I would leave this open diff. On studs and tight corners I really can't have a welded diff on ice. If it was a limited slip that's another thing but it's not in the cards. I want to spend virtually no money on this thing other than getting it running and having a heater. 

The dead battery was under warranty by a month so I got a new one at Napa for free. Score!

While that's on the trickle charger, I have to clean this thing up a little bit so I proceed to touch up paint and wash it with Pine Sol and spray paint stripper on the baby blue wheels. I fixed the front grille that was just floating with one screw and more skillfully taped the corner light in place. Still taped but more refined.

The "good enough" aerosol overhaul:

The color is "bright idea" yellow. Ahh irony.

Paint shines up ok for $180.00.

Under hood cleaned and everything plugged in that was obvious to me.

I think it is safe to say this might have something to do with no spark?

This probably has something to do with the electronic OD? 

Lastly I went through and cleaned and replaced questionable fuses. They are all present and accounted for now at least.

The engine turns over fast now but I don't hear a fuel pump running when I have the key in the on position. Does the fuel pump relay wait for something else to turn on? It could be a combination of things but I am encouraged at least by the fact I have dash lights and the engine turns over.

Here's a video of the turn over so far:

https://youtu.be/44mOOsCOUB8

Looking good. Definitely inspect the distributor wiring to see what's going on there.

You may have a bad fuel pump relay. To test this you can jump fuses #5 and #7 to directly power the in-tank pump and bypass the relay. If you can't hear the pump running at all during the jumper test, then either the fuel pump or wiring to the pump is bad.

I don't remember if the fuel pump relay needs spark before it will power up the pump, but at least with the jumper test you can start narrowing things down.

You may also try unplugging the AMM (MAF) to see if it will start. I had an '83 DL that wouldn't start after the AMM died but was still plugged in. This EFI system is Bosch LH-Jetronic 2.0 (or LH2.0 for short) and the AMMs are getting quite scarce & expensive. The workaround is a quick upgrade to LH2.2 using the ECU and AMM from a mid-80s car, with a simple re-pinning of the AMM connector. This allows use of the much more common and affordable LH2.2 AMM but requires finding a 2.2 ECU that will work.

Here's a writeup I did on my '83 about the conversion: http://www.dailyturismo.com/2013/06/dtpc-efi-system-upgrade-all-systems-are.html

Good choice! Must be the most common car on the frozen lakes back in the motherland. They can sure take a beating.

You can totally make your own ice tires with a drill, some screws, inner tubes and a load of patience.

  I had a volvo, different model, but the distributor had a optical sensor, and the oil seal leaked just a little.   The optical sensor got a oil film and it went blind, and sometimes wouldn't work very well.   If I took the cap off and washed it down with windex, it would work better for a while.  New oil seal fixed it, well and a good cleaning.

Torkel said:

Good choice! Must be the most common car on the frozen lakes back in the motherland. They can sure take a beating.

You can totally make your own ice tires with a drill, some screws, inner tubes and a load of patience.

^Oh yes I'm familiar however with the full length studs , I would have to run a cage per the rules. Rubber to ice I don't and that allows stock studs or studless winter tires so in the interest of getting in to this for cheap I'm not making my own for now. 

Here's a picture of some homemade studs on a MK II Golf I took a picture of a few years ago at one of the events. He said he made this about 10 years ago and they've still bet doing great.

So for the wiring, here is the stock 25 amp fuse holder:

And here is mine. I didn't even see this thing but it's not connected to anything and was just ziptied out of the way. There's no fuse in it so at some point somebody just jumped it with a roofing staple or something.

A photo I found as an example:

On mine you can see the fuse holder off to the side not being used and then this red wire going down in to a harness. I I have some random wires there in the vicinity but I'm not sure what wires run to it. On that picture I found, it looks like wire goes from the positive battery terminal -> 25 amp fuse -> somewhere else, possibly that red wire I'm holding. I'll try to find a wiring diagram somewhere. When the PO said it lost spark on day, I get the impression the red wires slipped out of whatever cobbled together solution was on there before.

Streetwiseguy mentioned that in another thread and it's definitely going to be an issue. When I jump fuses 5 and 7 the fuel pumps come on. I'm hesitant to say my relays are bad before I get this 25 amp fuse holder issue solved first. I before that completes the circuit and sends power to those relays first. 

I'll see if a local boat shop has these waterproof fuse holders in stock:

TED_fiestaHP said:

  I had a volvo, different model, but the distributor had a optical sensor, and the oil seal leaked just a little.   The optical sensor got a oil film and it went blind, and sometimes wouldn't work very well.   If I took the cap off and washed it down with windex, it would work better for a while.  New oil seal fixed it, well and a good cleaning.

Yeah the PO thought it could be the distributor but since I know this wiring is junk too, I'll do the wiring and then move on to the bigger ticket items.

In other news, I found some nice hubcaps in the trunk that I threw on ebay to see if I could raise a few bucks for more electrical parts. Hopefully somebody with an early 240 needs these.

The baby blue is off the wheels in favor of black now:

Tires are 3 years old but in decent shape.

The snow is creeping down as of this morning and soon it will be pretty miserable to work on the car outside. No big deal if I don't get to mess with it this winter but I wish I picked this thing up in April to have more time to get it ready.

crankwalk said:

On mine you can see the fuse holder off to the side not being used and then this red wire going down in to a harness. I I have some random wires there in the vicinity but I'm not sure what wires run to it. On that picture I found, it looks like wire goes from the positive battery terminal -> 25 amp fuse -> somewhere else, possibly that red wire I'm holding. I'll try to find a wiring diagram somewhere. When the PO said it lost spark on day, I get the impression the red wires slipped out of whatever cobbled together solution was on there before.

There's your problem for sure! That 25A fused circuit is the main power supply to the ECU and the whole LH EFI system. Without +12V to that thinner red wire, it definitely won't start. You could run a quick test by clamping that wire to the positive battery terminal - crank it over and see if it will start. You should add a fuse back in before driving it though. A generic sealed blade fuse holder will do the job better than the old original Volvo fuse holder that left things exposed to the elements.

I clamped that red wire that I was holding down to the positive terminal and still no change. I’m wondering if it’s a different red wire I’m looking for. This one seems like the pictures I’ve seen and it’s in the neighborhood but I just can’t find a diagram that shows where it’s supposed to go.

Just a head's up since you were having a differential conversation: the G80 locking differential from the later 7/940's will drop right into your housing. Well, you have to trim one of the axles down by like a 1/2 inch or so and swap over the ring gear from your open diff, but yeah. Those provide lock up to 25 mph I believe (which can be modified by shaving the counterweights down so it disengages later). Only difference may be the tone ring for the speedo, but I don't know much about earlier 240's and where they get their speedo signal.

Ok a little progress! I got the 25 amp fuse and wired it in to the red power wire for ecu. When I turn the key now, I get a click from the fuel pump relay but when I go to turn it on it still just cranks with no fuel pumps running.

So power is going to the relays now and that is an improvement but no I need to find the next piece in getting spark.

Does anybody know what this larger red wire goes to? It was spliced into a smaller black wire and the under the motor I can see it goes to the larger red wire again.

If the fuel pump primes but doesn't run when cranking, the ECU isn't getting a tach signal from the dizzy.

Re: wire that goes under the front of the engine:

I had a 1985 which I believe had the same (or similar) ignition setup, but it's been a while (see profile picture).

I believe on this car the harness that goes under the engine contains:

• Alternator power wire (alternator stud -> battery +)
• Alternator exciter (alternator little tab -> alternator dash light bulb)
• Oil pressure switch
• The whole ignition harness that goes to the ignition box next to the washer bottle

I remember that all the wiring was snaked between the block and alternator bracket, making it terribly difficult to diagnose anything down there.

Does the distributor have a 3 pin plug on the side of it, or has that been replaced by sketchy wiring?

Edit: This guy sells harnesses, which are at least useful as reference to which plugs should be where, and how things are routed. http://www.240turbo.com/volvoharnesses.html#83-84_240_non-turbo

Edit 2: I think a black wire running under the frot of the engine _should_ be the oil pressure switch.

That lowest black wire goes in to the red wire up by the distributor and if you look closely, in to the nasty oil coated red wire with the tape on it underneath the motor.

I do have a thin black wire that goes in to the oil pressure sensor and it appears to be working. When I go to crank the car, it's illuminated and then after a second of cranking it goes off when some pressure builds.

So yes my fuel pumps will work when the fuses are jumped. Now the relay clicks when the key is turned but then wont run the pumps when an attempt to start is made so yeah it makes sense that it is looking for something else like a tach input to get that signal.

Yeah this does have a 3 wire plug coming off the distributor and that connection and wiring actually looks unaltered for a change on this thing. It has 263k miles on it so it wouldn't surprise me if it was just dead. I just wanted to rule out garbage wiring before moving to that step and I think im getting closer. I'll start looking for a new distributor regardless.

Thanks so much for the help with this folks. I just hate wiring and this is very helpful to help me rule some things out. 

I've always found it very satisfying to resurrect a car with this kind of wiring hackery.  Keep fixing prior hacks one by one...it'll run and you won't be intimidated by it in the future.

Do you have spark while cranking? The ignition system is completely independent from the fuel system (ignition = box next to washer fluid, fuel = box in passenger footwell).

Matthew Kennedy said:

Do you have spark while cranking? The ignition system is completely independent from the fuel system (ignition = box next to washer fluid, fuel = box in passenger footwell).

I didn’t the last time I checked it and that was before the red wire to power and got the fuel pump relay to click. 

I figured that was just the fuel side and would effect it. I’ll check again tomorrow.

Are you  saying I may still have spark even if my distributor isn’t sending a signal to send fuel?

TED_fiestaHP said:

  I had a volvo, different model, but the distributor had a optical sensor, and the oil seal leaked just a little.   The optical sensor got a oil film and it went blind, and sometimes wouldn't work very well.   If I took the cap off and washed it down with windex, it would work better for a while.  New oil seal fixed it, well and a good cleaning.

I may attempt a good cleaning if I have trouble finding a new part or decide doubling the money in the car is too much. Haha

crankwalk said:

TED_fiestaHP said:

  I had a volvo, different model, but the distributor had a optical sensor, and the oil seal leaked just a little.   The optical sensor got a oil film and it went blind, and sometimes wouldn't work very well.   If I took the cap off and washed it down with windex, it would work better for a while.  New oil seal fixed it, well and a good cleaning.

I may attempt a good cleaning if I have trouble finding a new part or decide doubling the money in the car is too much. Haha

This was 20 years ago, but I had an ‘87 GTI 16v that had this problem. There was a hall effect sensor in there that would get oily and wreak havoc. I had to open the distributor and clean it every so often until I changed the shaft’s o-ring. It was very easy to clean as the cap only has two clips holding it in place like yours. 

I've got some electrical parts cleaner that I can try this afternoon. If not, the distributor itself is the only ignition part the PO didn't replace anyway so it wont kill me to buy a new one. 

In reply to crankwalk :

The ECU receives crank position info from the ignition controller.

Distributor -> Ignition box -> Fuel ECU

So if you don't have spark, you won't have fuel, as they're daisy chained together.

The cleaning didn't get me going (darn) and there is no point buying a used distributor so I'm going to double the budget on the car and buy a remanned unit shortly.

I dropped in a replacement remanned distributor today and it's the same symptoms.

Key on, click from the fuel pump relay, then no spark or fuel pumps running when cranking over.

On an 83, is the main relay and the fuel pump in the glove box area? I can hear a click now after the 25 amp fuse from the glove box area now but I need to dig around and test those relays. Do my symptoms even sound like they could be relay related?

According to the above photo, I believe the frayed red taped up wire  below my distributor is alternator and I'll cross that bridge once I get to it if it's not critical for spark.

Thanks for the opinions folks.