1989 760 Turbo Wagon kind-of dead! help!

[jenniferjane]

A friend told me today, while looking at the alternator and the difficulty in changing it (he's not familiar with volvos) that what he'd do is he'd get a new battery and see if that temporarily solved the problem. But, having put the battery on slow charge for two days and it charging back fine, testing well on the machine, starting up, etc. I dont really see how that could work out? The car has, at this point, been sitting there for a few weeks. I turned it on maybe a week and a half-two weeks ago and moved it to a new spot... that couldnt kill the battery, could it?

Second thing- anyone know where there's a repair manual for a 760 online? I have a feeling if I want to do without a mechanics labor charge I'm going to need one of those.

Third thing... from all the info I've given, does it seem, to anyone, that there could possibly be a problem thats not the alternator? Or a problem in addition?

Thanks again everyone.

[lummert]

Replacing the alternator on a 760 Turbo is not a hard job. If you are going to look for a replacement alternator, the NipponDenso alternator from a 740 or 940 will work. You may need to replace the alternator drive belt with one that is one size shorter. It should not take more than thirty minutes to replace the alternator. It will take longer if you are still using the A/C and the A/C belt is there, as the A/C belt would have to be removed before the alternator belt can be removed. If you are not going to replace the alternator belt, you could just replace the alternator by loosening the alternator belt enough to get the alternator out. Also I had to remove the intercooler hose and pipe between the intercooler and the intake manifold to get the alternator out.

Also, about the 760 manual. Good luck. The manuals that I have are Haynes and Chiltons. The Haynes does not really cover an 88-90 760 and the Chilton is hard to use and is nearly worthless.