89 245 keeps blowing fuse #1

[billofdurham]

crossing wires on the back of an instrument cluster may cause great damage...

That depends on the wires. You may be lucky as it would seem that you had no power going in to the cluster.

Bill.

[Volvo_240_Atari_2600]

Bill,

Thank you for your help.
Problem solved!
Well, problem solved and new one has everged.

I got stuck on Tuesday. Car stalled and would not start... While I waited for the towtruck, I had a screwdriver, so I opened my dash again... I calmly atached the white/red wire to the back of the tach (works) and I was able to get the one white 90 degree agle plug in place as I found a photo of a cluster with the wire in place on ebay, so that photo helped solve my issue... Everything works and my worry of frying the speedometer is at rest.

The no start...

My trusted Volvo mechanic here in Orlando (and very honest and trusted volvo specialty repair shop I have to add) informed me that my repair was a $5.00 part and labor with a total of $50.00.

There was no fuel delivery from the pump, forget which fuse he said, but the actual fuse holder was coroded and needed replacement.

He did not touch fuse 1 since there was an aftermarket radio, but he said I could very easily just bypass the fuse and go directly to the battery if I wanted.

The next issue that was discovered was that he said my OD relay must havehad issues, (overheating or something like that) and has caused the plug ro relay to melt in a way that hey could not separate them. He did not want to go further for one, he did not have a new plug or relay in stock but said it may have caused wires somewhere in the harness to overheat and melt as well.

So I am realy not sure here what came first... (The chicken or the egg) So... fuse one caused overheating in a wire in the harness that caused the OD relay to go bad? The OD relay went bad on its own and caused the fuse 1 issue? Or maybe the fact I had the cluster incomplete (wires) and that may have caused a strain/overload on the OD relay?

Note: I did not have an OD issue when fuse 1 went bad... The OD arrow would come on automatically after I re-installed the instrument cluster less the two wires mentioned earlier. Now it is stuck on the arrow mode.

I did the OD relay myself with a Brand New HELA I thing about 3 years ago and no sign of melting back then. Since this Fuse 1 issue, I noticed a smaller silver (aluminum) relay located under the drivers dash, close to the fire wall. One contact of the plug has melted back a bit... I want to say that I have seen that before all this happened, and I mean even months ago.

Any idea what the cause could be?

I am going to a local salvage yard today for a temporary replacemnt relay (both and the original plugs)

This yard has an 88 and a 90 and I think one of the two should match my 89.

Any suggestions?

I will go wire by wire to replace any damaged wires and I plan to get as much original wiring as possible from the doner cars as well so I have identical color to colr match when re-doing the wiring.

Thanks
Eric

[billofdurham]

but he said I could very easily just bypass the fuse and go directly to the battery if I wanted.

Which was what I said as a method of testing the radio in an earlier post. If you are going to make that a permanent feature then you should fit an in-line fuse holder with a fuse of 2 amps. That is sufficient for just the radio.

I noticed a smaller silver (aluminum) relay located under the drivers dash, close to the fire wall.

I'm not sure what that one is as they come in various guises depending on maker. Near the firewall you have the heated rear window relay (nearest to middle of car); seat belt buzzer (next to the HRW relay); bulb failure warning sensor (can't miss that one); just underneath the bulb sensor you have two relays virtually piggy-back, the top one is headlights and the bottom one is foglights; in the top left corner you have the fuel pump relay and the shift indicator control.

Both the '88 and the '90 should be compatible.

The fuse for the 4th gear (overdrive) is #11 which also covers the heated rear window. That should be a 16amp fuse.

Keep us informed as I like a saga.

Bill.