New Starter

My new starter finally arrived from http://www.rockauto.com/ ... well "refurbished", since they don't make new ones anymore. It's the newer style Bosch permanent magnet starter and it's a later production part than the stock starter on the P1800s. Originally for the Volvo 240s, this "newer style" starter will fit the P1800s. For those interested, just do a search at rockauto.com for part no. SR37X. The new starter has the exact terminals and mounting as the stock starters, but that's where the similarities end. The mounting holes for the 2 bolts are threaded, unlike the stock starters. I've heard that there's a chance of receiving one that is threaded metric. I was prepared to drill out the threads in case I got one of those, but I lucked-out and was able to use my original bolts to install without any modifications. As seen in the photos below, the new starter is smaller in diameter than the stock starter, and is much lighter. It also has internal gears that spin it real fast thus requiring less cranking amps and produces 3hp vs. the 1hp on the stock starters. All pluses in my opinion!

The week prior, while in "staging mode" waiting for the arrival of the new starter, I had spent the time cleaning all the electrical connections leading to and from the starter as well as removing the ground strap (passenger-side undercarriage) and cleaning it proper for this week's install. Switching out the starter was an easy enough job ... just an hour or less. What took more time was working up the courage to get under the car after jacking it up on jack-stands! I rocked the Volvo back-and-forth, sideway, and in every imaginable way while it was up on stands all while contemplating if the 40 year old jacking points would cave in and crush me while I was under the damn thing. After more than an hour of contemplating my life and prophesying my death, I had a meal, smoked a cigarrette, paid all my bills, fed the fish, dog, and cat, and went for it.

Bosch Permanent Magnet Starter:

New vs. Stock Starter:

Guess what? It didn't work! New starter installed ... turned the key in the ignition ... a click ... then nothing! There was a slight improvement over the old starter at this point. I could hear the click of the starter solenoid engaging this time. What could it be? Checking the voltage on the battery positive lead to the starter while cranking yielded about 3 - 4 volts - not good! Whereas a slight drop in voltage is normal when cranking, that much of a drop seems unusual. Am I grounding-out somewhere? Is my ignition switch bad? (Not good, as a replacement would be hard to find!) Did my engine sieze-up? (definately not good!) My head was spinning at this point. More prophesying and fortune telling went on until I came to accept the fact that my day was crap already so why not remove the starter, isolate it from the engine and bench test it with just the car battery hooked up.

Not Funny!!!

Bench Testing New Starter:

Second time around, I figured out how to pull the starter without jacking the car up. Lying flat on my back, I was able to reach under the car from the driver-side with my monkey arms and undo both mounting bolts with a socket wrench. Cool - I'm not getting crushed today! Not how I want to go anyways ... pinned under a 2000lbs Volvo! Not my style ... has to be in a blaze of glory ... big production.

With the battery positive lead attached to the starter's main terminal, and a piece of wire to ground the starter body to the engine, I used 2 more wires to "hot-wire" the starter via the ignition wire terminal on the starter and the starter's positive terminal (watch out for sparks). Detached, from the engine, the starter spun this time indicating that it is indeed working, and the problem is elsewhere. I was only able to get the starter motor to turn on once while bench testing ... which leads me to believe that the battery doesn't have enough juice to power the thing. Checking the battery last week yielded 12 volts though, and another check today yielded between 11 and 12v - which seems to me like a full charge on a 12v battery right? Maybe it's supposed to be 12v while under load? I'll take the battery to the local AutoZone store tomorrow morning to have it charged. They do it for free. Then we'll go another couple of rounds tomorrow. Things are looking up though ... there's hope!