132 replies to this topic

[--Aaron--]

There is now a brand new, Genuine battery ground harness installed. I will note the systems behavior and update in a few days.

This harness is a bit different than my old, it seems as though Volvo revised the design. The old one had an 8 AWG wire running from the terminal to the transmission, this one has a 4 AWG instead. Other than that though it's what you'd expect a brand new shiny harness to be like.



Now,

Currently installed we have:

Volvo alternator
Volvo battery
Volvo B+ Cable
Volvo battery to starter cable
Volvo alternator to starter cable
Volvo battery ground harness

And this venture totals roughly $610.

I will win, I am determined.

I do plan on replacing my ground straps with new, Genuine units here soon as well.

[--Aaron--]

Initial testing with the motor hot:

Car off: 12.75

Idle, no extra load on car: 14.2

Idle, A/C on high speed, all lights on: 13.8 (kept probes on for about 10 minutes, held steady)

I think she'll handle the extra load much better now, we'll know tonight on my long commute to work.

[--Aaron--]

Well I've had quite some time to observe the car's behavior now with all the refreshments installed.

Currently installed we have:

Volvo alternator
Volvo battery
Volvo B+ Cable
Volvo battery to starter cable
Volvo alternator to starter cable
Volvo battery ground harness

Aside from the engine harness , the only thing that is not new, Genuine is my grounding straps. I might order them one day being that they're only 30 bucks but at this point there is no reason to put a rush on it.

The system is no longer dropping charge as it was while under heavy load (lights and A/C). The cooling fan still does bring it down as you'd expect but it quickly recovers which is, without a doubt improved behavior. It has been doing this consistently since the new battery ground harness was installed.

I am confidently saying that I have finally gotten the charging system performing to the specs that it was 12+ years ago.

Now onto dumping money into a different aspect of the car, whichever that may be.

Thank you for following my struggle and I can only hope that this story continues to help others. PM's are welcome if you have any questions.

Edited by --Aaron--, 04 August 2010 - 05:03 PM.

[Glenn]

--Aaron--, on 14 September 2009 - 04:40 PM, said:

Well, here are a few final pictures............proud to say the job is done, minus me cleaning up and feeding my face.

All ran and wire loomed.......minus that one upside down T junction you see the wires at......I'll come up w/ something for there.



Again....about to start reassembling.



OMFG finally coming back together!



And this wraps up this segment of Car vs. Aaron and car wins.





I would like to put a little personal experience into this thread......I made it hoping someone would try this first instead of blowing 450 bucks plus labor if you don't do it yourself. Basically I am just hoping this helps someone.

Just a few short comments.......this is not a hard job, very straight forward, remove cable, reinstall cable. The things that make it tricky are getting the old cable out of the main harness. And I think that having to remove all that crap makes it a little bit of a pain in the butt as well.

But I am done, been up since 2 pm yesterday, worked last night, worked after work, I am now off and going to sleep soon.

If anyone has any questions related to any of my voltage battle please feel free to PM me and I will help where I can. I feel your pain and I know how aggravating of a problem it is.

I will update this thread here and there with progress, not sure about the test drive today....I'm pretty beat.

I wish the pictures were still here..... Can they be seen anywhere? My 850 has been acting very weird... with charging issues...

[--Aaron--]

Chip850, on 26 September 2010 - 09:34 PM, said:

Excellent, glad you got it sorted out!

Glenn, on 29 November 2010 - 12:46 AM, said:

I wish the pictures were still here..... Can they be seen anywhere? My 850 has been acting very weird... with charging issues...

RAWR, no idea what happened to the pictures?! I'll dig around.......what type of charging issues and what have you done in terms of troubleshooting?

I emailed photobucket as well, in hopes that they might be able to shine some light.

Edited by --Aaron--, 29 November 2010 - 02:35 AM.

[--Aaron--]

There are pictures of the B+ cable process for 70 series here: http://www.matthewsv...php?f=1&t=35208

Thanks to the creator of that thread, excellent job!

[lcc014]

--Aaron--, on 31 January 2011 - 01:33 AM, said:

There are pictures of the B+ cable process for 70 series here: http://www.matthewsv...php?f=1&t=35208

Thanks to the creator of that thread, excellent job!

Hi, good troubleshooting guide !! However, all the pictures posted by you are not viewable from photobucket.com anymore. Can you repost all those pictures related to the cable replacement especially the B+ cable in 850. I would like to give it a try because I have the idle issue when come to complete stop during the cold winter morning and not so hot tailgate defroster. The defroster take so long to "warm up". Your cable replacement guide: battery to starter, starter to alternator and new ground cable may resolve my idle issue. I had replace vacuum hoses from vacuum tee to brake booster, check valve on brake booster no help at all.

Thanks,

Ching-Ho Cheng

[--Aaron--]

lcc014, on 31 January 2011 - 03:01 PM, said:

Hi, good troubleshooting guide !! However, all the pictures posted by you are not viewable from photobucket.com anymore. Can you repost all those pictures related to the cable replacement especially the B+ cable in 850. I would like to give it a try because I have the idle issue when come to complete stop during the cold winter morning and not so hot tailgate defroster. The defroster take so long to "warm up". Your cable replacement guide: battery to starter, starter to alternator and new ground cable may resolve my idle issue. I had replace vacuum hoses from vacuum tee to brake booster, check valve on brake booster no help at all.

Thanks,

Ching-Ho Cheng

Hello, the B+ cable is different in 850's. To be quite honest I've never even seen it in an 850.

Hopefully someone will be able to help you, oh and photobucket lost my damn pictures. Wish I had saved them on my computer instead of straight to photobucket.

I posted the above link, which is not my thread btw, because it has the 70 series B+ cable pictures.

[lcc014]

--Aaron--, on 31 January 2011 - 04:01 PM, said:

Hello, the B+ cable is different in 850's. To be quite honest I've never even seen it in an 850.

Hopefully someone will be able to help you, oh and photobucket lost my damn pictures. Wish I had saved them on my computer instead of straight to photobucket.

I posted the above link, which is not my thread btw, because it has the 70 series B+ cable pictures.

Yes, that link was for 70 series B+ cable replacement not 850. That's why I asked you. I didn't know that 850 may not have B+ cable If you could find all those photos then it would be great to see. I also keep photos in photobucket.com too, so far so good.
According to your posts, you did the battery negative cable replacement using Volvo cable too along with the split ground wires. Can I just replace the battery negative cable only ? This is because I'm not as lucky as you who got help from Modus to make you one set of split ground cables.

Thanks,

Ching-Ho Cheng

[--Aaron--]

lcc014, on 31 January 2011 - 04:34 PM, said:

Yes, that link was for 70 series B+ cable replacement not 850. That's why I asked you. I didn't know that 850 may not have B+ cable If you could find all those photos then it would be great to see. I also keep photos in photobucket.com too, so far so good.
According to your posts, you did the battery negative cable replacement using Volvo cable too along with the split ground wires. Can I just replace the battery negative cable only ? This is because I'm not as lucky as you who got help from Modus to make you one set of split ground cables.

Thanks,

Ching-Ho Cheng

I'm pretty sure your 850 has the B+ cable but I have never seen it.

The pictures I had posted are more a less the exact same ones in the link above. I do not have the original ones, I uploaded them to photobucket and deleted them without saving to my computer.

At first, yes, Modus made me a very nice ground cable. I wasn't clear on how to go about installing it and only used it by itself versus the OEM dual grounding point design. Therefor I wasn't happy with the voltage readings so I then replaced the cable Modus made me with a new, Genuine Volvo battery ground harness.

You most certainly can replace just the ground cable. I took the easy, expensive way but you could make your own for pretty cheap.

Just be sure to ground it to the trans area and behind the headlight, I saw low readings only using the grounding point behind the headlight with the old cable that Modus made for me.

[lcc014]

--Aaron--, on 31 January 2011 - 04:40 PM, said:

I'm pretty sure your 850 has the B+ cable but I have never seen it.

The pictures I had posted are more a less the exact same ones in the link above. I do not have the original ones, I uploaded them to photobucket and deleted them without saving to my computer.

At first, yes, Modus made me a very nice ground cable. I wasn't clear on how to go about installing it and only used it by itself versus the OEM dual grounding point design. Therefor I wasn't happy with the voltage readings so I then replaced the cable Modus made me with a new, Genuine Volvo battery ground harness.

You most certainly can replace just the ground cable. I took the easy, expensive way but you could make your own for pretty cheap.

Just be sure to ground it to the trans area and behind the headlight, I saw low readings only using the grounding point behind the headlight with the old cable that Modus made for me.

Thanks for the clarification. I will start by battery ground cable, battery/starter cable and starter/alternator cable first. If those do not work then I will consider the B+ cable replacement.

Ching-Ho Cheng

[--Aaron--]

No problem, best of luck.