below freezing

[cousindave]

My series III will not start below freezing! Any time it hits below 30° nothing happens, no clicking no cranking, nothing. I checked the battery and it's fully charged. The only way to start it is to jump the starter solenoid. This happened again last night and I left her. Come back this afternoon and she started right up with absolutely no issues!

[LR Max]

Replace Starter Solenoid.

I just use ones off of late 70s ford trucks. When they die, $12 at the local parts counter.

[Jeff Aronson]

Check the ground wire from the starter to the frame. If it's not clean and tight, the connection will fail when there's a greater draw on the starter, like cold weather. Check your battery terminal connections, too; a loose or poor ground at the battery, or to wherever the negative wire connects to the battery box or the frame. Again, the colder weather puts more "strain" on the starter system.

The solenoid advice above makes some sense if grease has congealed inside the solenoid, such that the colder weather prevents it from engaging the starter.

Jeff

[cousindave]

Thanks guys for the advice!! I'm going to check all grounds first and then get another solenoid!

[Terrys]

Swing by your local garage or good parts store and have them load test the battery. Also, take your battery hydrometer and see how many balls it will float at those temps. Just because it shows full voltage doesn't necessarily mean it's good. The specific gravity of the electrolyte can drop to nothing at lower temps when it's on it's last breath.

[SafeAirOne]

Swing by your local garage or good parts store and have them load test the battery. Also, take your battery hydrometer and see how many balls it will float at those temps.

FWIW, that's where I'd start.

[siii8873]

when you say "jump the solenoid" do you mean bypass the solenoid and it starts. If that's the case I would think it's the solenoid as everything works with that out of the circuit.
For what its worth I have had a few internittant starting problems; once it was the starter commutator being worn, another time it was the battery, a third time the ground strap. They all had very similar symptoms. The battery problem showed up when it was cold out.

[Alaskan Rover]

Oddly enough, my Series IIA actually seemed to HAND-CRANK easier when the ambient temperature went down to about 40 below zero....provided I remembered to plug in the block heater, of course. At zero degrees (with block heater plugged in like before), it wouldn't hand-crank nearly as easily. I sort've attribute that phenomenom to steel contracting when cold.

Regardless, I've found that when it's forty-below, I can crank-start it better than my 1200 amp battery can start the engine.

Weird, huh?

[cousindave]

Thanks everyone, headed out in "Eustis" the 300,000 mile 240 volvo that still runs like new, with battery to get load tested!

[albersj51]

I drove an 86 240DL in college....loved that brick! Had around 300,000 when I finished college and sold it.

[yorker]

Someone who used to be on this board took a Volvo 240 engine and transmission and put it in his LR with his own adapter. I always thought that was kind of a cool swap. I don't know what happened to him and his truck though.

[cousindave]

Funny you said that because I have seriously been thinking about the exact same thing. Parts are dirt cheap, fuel injected, 5 speed transmision, extremely reliable, people practically pay you to take aperfectly reliable running car out of their driveway and the volvo forums are full of extremely helpful volvoites. Oh yeah and you can turbo them for a couple hundred dollars!

[cousindave]

Oh yeah, almost forgot, 33-36 mpg in my wagon.

[SafeAirOne]

Oh yeah, almost forgot, 33-36 mpg in my wagon.

How did the battery/solenoid/no-start issue turn out?

[cousindave]

I replaced the solenoid. All is well. These solenoids are cheap so they aren't made like they used to be!