740 electrical: complete power loss!

My 1989 740 wagon has some sort of intermittent electrical problem. I took
a sharp left turn at about 30 mph yesterday, and midway through the turn
everything shut down. The engine went off, the radio went off. When I
completed the turn, the engine lights came on and I was able to restart the
car. I lost all the presets on the radio, so I am assuming this is a fairly
systemic loss of power.

Has anyone heard of a problem like this? Any suggestions?

My basic plan is to just start jiggling connections with the radio on; I
hope to hear the static or 'click' of a bad contact. But where to start?

Allen

 

I had a 1986 Volvo 740GL estate and I suffered a lot from intermitant
electrical failures. The Volvo Agent I took it to (no longer a Volvo Agent)
was worse than useless. A work colleague had a 240 with the same B23 engine
and he told me that he had the same fault. The fault lies with the negative
connection from the battery to the engine block where it attaches to the
block - it is situated away down under the engine and difficult to get to,
therefore easy to ignore. The cable is too tight a fit and with the
movement of the engine the conductor inside the sheathing breaks thus the
intermitant fault - make and break dependant on engine movement when
running. You cannot see the conductor inside the sheath and taking it off
sometimes does not reveal the fault. The remedy is very simple - I bought
two lengths of braded earthing srap from an accessory shop and used them to
make an earth path over the engine mountings - remove one nut at a time fit
the new earth strap then connect to the otherside of the engine mounting. I
did this both sides and I never had any more trouble for the 15 years that I
had the car. Also make sure that the negative lead form teh battery to the
bodyshell is good and if necessary add another negative lead.

Ken

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