The saga continues...
Since last posting, I decided to remove an after-market alarm system that I suspected might be related to my non-starting problem on a 1988 Volvo 240 GL. I disconnected the sensors and bee-hive of wires that were connected to the alarm. 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). Even more alarming (excuse the pun), the coil's primary resistance is now 3.3 ohms (it was 1.2 ohms before) and there is zero secondary resistance (before it was 10.6k ohms). I fear that I inadvertently grounded one of the coil's terminals by touching it to the car fender while removing it from its bracket and that the coil is now kaput.
I don't know if this coil was the origin of my non-starting problem, whether it was the old alarm system, or something else altogether (the Hall sensor in the distributor, perhaps?).
Can anyone please tell me how my coil was hooked up before the alarm system was installed? I suspect that it has something to do with the wires that are connected to the blue and brown wires that were added on to connect to the alarm.
Thanks in advance.
Tom
blue-brown wires.JPG
blue-brown wires.JPG