1989 740GL hot start problem

Hi guys and gals ,

My 89 Volvo 740GL now at 140K miles won't start. When you turn the key,
it will behave as if it's in the gear not in the park or neutral. So
not even a starter motor action.

It started doing this couple of years ago, especially after long drives
(more than 30min) and especially in hot weather. After waiting 5-30
min, it would start right away, or if you give jump, it would start
right away too. Strangely battery is good.

I thought neutrality switch at the bottom of the gear stick was the
problem, but that was taken out, checked and cleaned. That was not the
problem at all.

Now my friend is suggesting laying a direct line from battery to
starter motor, with a switch attached to dashboard, bypassing the
Volvo's system.

I heard a hot start problem mentioned somewhere, but anybody's
suggestion as to how to solve this problem is appreciated.

Sinan

PS: Anybody happen to have a useless wiring diagram laying around for a
89 740GL (nonturbo) for sale? :-]

 

Connect a wire to the terminal on the starter with the small wire attached
to it and touch that to the battery the next time it's acting up, if it
doesn't try to crank then the starter is bad.

 

If it work immediately every time you jump it, then the problem has to
be with what is being bypassed. Either your battery cables have a bad
connection to the battery (or the cable ends to the cables) or the
problem is in the battery. If you've been connecting the negative
jumper cable to the engine block, (like you're supposed to, but no one
ever does) then the problem could be in the ground cable where it's
mounted to the block.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)