240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[360beast]

Originally Posted by Moomoo

Alan, we’ve established the caravan history, I wonder if it was a charging override for the caravan battery .
By that , I mean car battery full, caravan battery needs charging.
Just a thought!🤔

Yep Volvo used biodegradable wiring in theb80'snfor a certain period I believe, thank goodness they saw sense and went back to proper wiring.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

I don't know anything about caravans, but that makes sense. I wonder whether it goes to the permanent live on pin 4 of the 12S (grey) trailer socket, or perhaps also 6 for the fridge? One would not want the caravan drawing current unless the motor was running.

Alan

PS. I'll take the Barge out to see if all the lights work at 19:48.

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

That will be exactly what it is, a split-charge relay - common practice to take a feed for the relay coil from the warning light feed on the alternator. With the engine off, even with ignition on, the rotor in the alternator provides an earth path for the warning light and keeps the relay coil at 0V, once up and running, the alternator has +12V (battery voltage) on this terminal so powers the relay coil, connecting power through the contacts to the socket at the back.

... that is what I'd already worked out from first principles above :-)

[Othen]

Originally Posted by 360beast

Yep Volvo used biodegradable wiring in theb80'snfor a certain period I believe, thank goodness they saw sense and went back to proper wiring.

I'm not sure the intent was for biodegradable insulation Luke, I think Mr Volvo just bought cheap stuff. I had the same issue with the RB, my solution then was to make a complete new engine compartment loom:



I think I recall it took me a day and cost about £20 worth of materials. I don't think the Barge will need the full loom as the stuff near the bulkhead connector looks fine. I'll probably get away with changing the bit where it passes under the engine (just 2 wires).

Today's fix should be fine for quite a long time.

Alan

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

Thank you for your thoughts on that Dave. I've just looked up the wiring code for a 12S 7pin socket and can see the bottom pin is a permanent live. I'm not keen on having a permanent live exposed like that for something I will probably never need, so I think removing the grey socket would be a good idea. What I will probably do is terminate the 7 conductors inside an isolating enclosure (inside the boot) so it could be reinstated if someone really wanted to.

Alan

... that gives me an idea though Dave,

If I do replace the 12S 7 pin socket to maintain originality (as you suggested above) then I could put an online isolator (an inline fuse holder with the fuse removed) in the line from the battery so it isn't generally live.

Now that would be an acceptable solution.

Alan

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

PS. I'll take the Barge out to see if all the lights work at 19:48.

... I just took the Barge out for a spin in the dark, and just as I expected I found the lights to be very good - nearly (but not quite) as good as a modern car.

The interior lights are a little bit dim, but I think all 240s are like that - just get used to it.

I was quite pleased to find the dial on the right of this photo, that I was for the internal lights rheostat:



... actually controls the front/rear balance for the speakers. That is nice.

:-)

[360beast]

Originally Posted by Othen

I'm not sure the intent was for biodegradable insulation Luke, I think Mr Volvo just bought cheap stuff. I had the same issue with the RB, my solution then was to make a complete new engine compartment loom:



I think I recall it took me a day and cost about £20 worth of materials. I don't think the Barge will need the full loom as the stuff near the bulkhead connector looks fine. I'll probably get away with changing the bit where it passes under the engine (just 2 wires).

Today's fix should be fine for quite a long time.

Alan

A quick Google suggests they used biodegradable wiring from 1980-1987

[Bob 1967]

Nice loom Alan.
The guy who made some of the wiring in mine, used blue wire everywhere. Must have been only colour in stock !

[Othen]

Originally Posted by 360beast

A quick Google suggests they used biodegradable wiring from 1980-1987

I must be wrong about that then Luke (but I still think Mr Volvo used cheap wire).

Alan

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Bob 1967

Nice loom Alan.
The guy who made some of the wiring in mine, used blue wire everywhere. Must have been only colour in stock !

It is irritating when that happens Bob, it is hard to trace things afterwards.

I stripped down some trailer electrical flex, which gave me 7 different colours; that was a cheap and easy way to get fairly short lengths. It is a really simple loom - only half a dozen wires total:

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showp...postcount=1260

Alan

[360beast]

Originally Posted by Othen

I must be wrong about that then Luke (but I still think Mr Volvo used cheap wire).

Alan

They tried quite a few eco friendly things throughout production including eco friendly glue for a couple of years on the door cards of the 900 series which now allows them to wrinkle up later on in life.

I don't believe Volvo would have cut costs on anything as that was the complete opposite of their ethos, safety and very good quality parts were what they did.