1990 Volvo

[Darwood]

Yesterday I went to look at a 1990 Volvo with a straight 4 to see if I couldn't get it running. The hope was that it wasn't running for a simple reason. Long story short my dad and some other folks at church want to buy a cheap running car for a homeless couple.

Well I get to looking at the thing and it turns out the distributor isn't distributing. The rotor wasn't move. Also the timing belt wasn't moving which of course meant the cam wasn't moving. The odd thing is the engine and the accessory belts would move when the starter was engaged. After taking the distributor out it was evident that the gear connected to the engine that connects to the distributor wasn't moving. I'm guessing this gear is also on the shaft that turns the timing belt.

So does anyone know anything about Volvo engines? What could be wrong here? Striped gear somewhere? Without knowing how the engine is engineered together I'm completely I the dark. I actually didn't check to make sure the pistons were moving but I'm assuming they were since the starter seemed to get things moving on that end.

And also how difficult would it be to get this thing running again. My though is the engine will have to be pulled.

 

[rusty77]

Did you check to see if the timing belt was broken? Pop open the timing cover and just try to yank the belt out. My bet is that it will come free. All the accessory belts will still spin even when the belt is broken, as they are driven by the crank shaft. B 21-B230 volvo engines are non-interference, so all you have to do is slap on on a new belt and it should be fine. These engines are incredibly tough and easy to fix, so it shouldn't be too much work to get her going again. If it's broken let me know, I can run you through the replacement process. It's pretty easy to do, although a bit time consuming. Hope this helps!

 

[roscoFJ73]

x2 These engines are good for 300000 miles. They are not difficult to fix.. If the timing belt wasnt moving it may have stripped something on the drive pulley.
You need to be careful that the problem was not caused by a stuck valve or something

I have a 740GL but I have never had to delve that deep.
Haynes are the only one who prints a manual apart from Volvo but I havent seen one of theirs

 

[Darwood]

Checked the timing belt. It was intact. Any thoughts on what would cause the distributor to not turn? Would a striped drive pulley do this? I'm thinking the drive pulley would be beyond the distributor gear but I'm probably wrong.

 

[KLF]

I assume the car was a 240-series, my GF had a '90 240DL until last summer when the rust demon took over. It had 210K on it, and the engine ran great. I had to do some general maintenance on it, and that engine is remarkably easy and simple to work on. Everything on that car was very well built.

My suggestion is to go to the local library and get a book out on the thing, start reading. Bentley makes a good book for that car, but I have a Haynes here that I just took a look thru. There is a cutaway in there that shows there is a tensioner below the upper timing pulley on the end of the cam, perhaps this tensioner has failed and the timing belt is not engaged on the teeth of the pulleys. I can't find anything about how the distributor is driven, but if it's from the crank, then perhaps the gear on the crank has broken. Kinda an odd failure, these engines are legendary in their durability.

 

[Gumby]

The timing belt broke or stripped the teeth out of it.

 

[roscoFJ73]

Checked the timing belt. It was intact. Any thoughts on what would cause the distributor to not turn? Would a striped drive pulley do this? I'm thinking the drive pulley would be beyond the distributor gear but I'm probably wrong.

I think the distributor runs off the cam at the rear ??

 

[Gumby]

I think the distributor runs off the cam at the rear ??

The distributer runs off a slot in the rear of the cam. It'd be pretty damn tough to break it. I'd say if the cam isn't turning, most likely is the timing belt.

The book says 2.2 hours to change the belt, which makes it a pretty easy one. I'd replace the tensioner pulley while yer in there.

I just did one on a 02 S60. That sucked ass. Gotta love Ford's variable valve timing with no index for the cam gear.

 

[Darwood]

The distributer runs off a slot in the rear of the cam. It'd be pretty damn tough to break it. I'd say if the cam isn't turning, most likely is the timing belt.

The book says 2.2 hours to change the belt, which makes it a pretty easy one. I'd replace the tensioner pulley while yer in there.

I just did one on a 02 S60. That sucked ass. Gotta love Ford's variable valve timing with no index for the cam gear.

I'm pretty sure the distributor doesn't run off the cam. Here's a photo I found of the same engine. The distributor is way down near the bottom end. The cam is of course in the head.

Also I checked the timing belt and even ran the starter with the belt visible. It had tension and didn't move. It needs to be replaced since it was cracking, but it seemed intact.

 

[Gumby]

given that we never got an engine size or even model of the Volvo in question I took an guess. The All Data says that 740 has the cam on the end of the distributor in 1990 even though it looks like the same engine.

That one looks like the dizzy is turned by a intermediate shaft shaft also driven by the timing belt. That is the case with the 2.3L in the 240

I the front pully moves and the timing belt doesn't there is a 99% chance that the teeth are gone from the belt where it touches the crankshaft timing pulley. There is a slight chance that the woodruf key split and the timing gear is spinning free, but that's pretty rare.

The starter turns the rear of the crank and you can see the front of the crank turning. The crank is fine.

 

[Darwood]

given that we never got an engine size or even model of the Volvo in question I took an guess. The All Data says that 740 has the cam on the end of the distributor in 1990 even though it looks like the same engine.

That one looks like the dizzy is turned by a intermediate shaft shaft also driven by the timing belt. That is the case with the 2.3L in the 240

I the front pully moves and the timing belt doesn't there is a 99% chance that the teeth are gone from the belt where it touches the crankshaft timing pulley. There is a slight chance that the woodruf key split and the timing gear is spinning free, but that's pretty rare.

The starter turns the rear of the crank and you can see the front of the crank turning. The crank is fine.

Thank you for the information. I apologize that I didn't provide more information, however I forgot to collect more info so I didn't have anymore to provide.