Have just fitted complete ignition wiring harness (from http://www.elbertbos.nl/index.php/en/wire-harnesses/engine-200/product/122-240-1980-84-b19e-b21e-b23e-engine-harness) to the B23 motor after having signed off on the water pump, timing belt, front oil seals etc etc but am now having a bit of a dilemma with the starter connections. I'm pretty confident that all the connections have been made correctly bar the ones to the starter solenoid. I didn't identify which spade terminal(s) the blue/yellow and the brown connectors go to, turning the key in the ignition I get all the lights coming up on the instrument panel but zero start.
At the moment I've got the two yellow/blue wires going to the terminal on the top of the solenoid with the two brown wires on the terminal closest to the engine block. I'm a bit concerned about switching them in case I screw something up, does anyone know the correct position as I can't find any useful info online to date?
Thanks for the quick reply, this diagram http://www.volvowiringdiagrams.com/volvo/240%20Wiring%20Diagrams/Volvo%20240%201984.pdf shows the red(30), blue/yellow(50) AND the brown(16) going to ballast resistor then to the coil. The original loom has the three connectors but I'm surprised that Volvo didn't differentiate the non-red wires by making them different sizes so they couldn't be transposed. I'm pretty much 100% sure that I unplugged two sets of wires and unbolted the main red wire when de-installing and there are two male connectors on the end of the solenoid, strange....
Looking from the front of the car, yellow/blue to terminal on the right below main input from battery, brown to left side of solonoid, Battery lead and red 4mm to center terminal. From memory (and that ain't real good ) there is an extra terminal not used on the right side up above the main imput.

Tezza
Thanks Tezza, I finally nutted it out in the meantime, on my vehicle the blue/yellow is in fact on the left then the brown and then the red. I went back to the decaying mess that is the original loom and had another look at the connectors to the starter and discovered that the brown wires did in fact go to the smaller style female connector which matched the small male connector as described. Basically it would have been impossible to force it on the larger male spade that matches the yellow/blue, cranked it over and yes indeed all good! Downside is that the battery is now knackered having sat around for some weeks (needed replacement in any case) and not enough charge to to get ignition....
Can I suggest that why your playing around with the starter and wiring that your wire in a relay to the starter system, makes a BIG difference to turning over.
Interesting tbro, auto electrical stuff is always a bit of a mystery to me and I generally try to stay away from it unless pushed (like discovering a decaying ignition loom in this case!) Are you able to give a bit of a run-down on how to go about it, relay type and wiring to and from? Thanks....
4 pin relay
yellow/blue disconnect from starter and wire it up to pin 86 on relay
make a inline fuse and wire from battery feed wire on starter to pin 30
Earth from chassis to pin 85
relay to starter where you removed yellow/blue wire pin 87

You have a pm
Tezza
Is the terminal being used on the starter the right one? As in the terminal closer to the main body?

I would fit a waterproof fuse holder between battery and relay
@tbro why introduce this relay exactly? What do you mean by "big difference"?
The ignition doesn't need to supply full amperage through the switch as once the coil is excited then the power comes straight from the battery through the relay to the starter solenoid, it get full voltage to starter and to the ballast, therefore starts easier.
This was a common upgrade back in the 70/80 when manufactures were cutting down on the wire sizes to reduce cost, made a BIG difference to hot cars especially V8s, no more lazy starters.

Hope that makes sense.

It certainly does, thanks for all the detailed input, I'm still experiencing issues with starting the vehicle. There's ample cranking power but no spark at the plugs and the coil is getting juice but the distributor (electronic not old-style) isn't putting it out. I've just done the timing belt on the car and was extremely careful regarding getting the timing marks correctly aligned but I wonder if something has altered enough to make that kind of difference? I've read online this article http://www.volvohowto.com/how-to-change-the-cam-belt-on-volvo-240-or-260-four-cylinder-petrol-engines/ and noted at the end how the author says: The car should now be ready to go. Just check that it runs smoothly as the belt may be slightly different in length and it may be necessary to slacken the distributor off and move it slightly to get perfect response. Don’t forget to retighten after. Tip mark its position before moving so you can always go back to it. This can all be set accurately if you have access to a strobe light. is that worth a shot (obviously I'd mark the original position with white-out or similar)?
Bit left field, but have you checked the ground cables? There'll be a big blue one on the side of the block on the intake side, it goes usually directly to the battery negative, and there'll be a smaller one between the firewall and one of the rear nuts on the valve cover.
I haven't but no harm in trying! I'm just going downstairs to try altering the dizzy position, if I don't get some kind of alteration in the response then I'm pulling the timing cover off and rechecking the markings just to be absolutely sure that it's all as it should be. I guess this is what happens when you do a fair bit of work on a vehicle and only at the end get a chance to check out whether everything works (or not) and when it doesn't you're left wondering which bit went wrong, this is what I've done since I took it off the road:

1) Alternator belts (matched pair) and steering pump belt
2) Both engine mounts
3) Water pump and seals/gasket
4) Camshaft, Intermediate and Crankshaft oil seals
5) Timing belt tensioner
6) Timing belt (genuine Volvo)
7) Ignition wiring loom, distributor cable, ignition harness, new battery
Yeah but even if you have the timing all wrong, you should still get spark. Like your problem sounds like no spark. Don't let the thought of timing distract you from that. Once you have spark, if it won't run, then move on to timing.
Thanks James, got the RACT roadside guy to come and have a look this morning (not the first time I've ben able to use their gear and expertise to diagnose a problem then fix it myself). He checked the coil, starter circuit and plugs etc and basically worked out that I wasn't getting any juice out of the dizzy but otherwise everything else checked out fine. He must have been getting spark from the coil lead to dizzy but not beyond that, I just sat in the car and turned it over whilst he checked, I didn't want to let on too much about the work already done otherwise he would have immediately had his doubts raised....
Well if you got current going into the distributor, but not coming out, the problem is... the distributor. Check the leads are fitted snugly, check cap and rotor are fitted correctly and in good condition.
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