I know what you mean about Volvos...........I got a call one year, the day before Christmas that a car was stranded near the Siskiyou Summit on I-5. Headed up there with the wrecker, in the meantime the authorities had initiated a "chains only" requirement because it was snowing like the devil. Troopers asked if I had chains with me, and then allowed me to head up.......it was surreal, as if I was the first person ever to come this way. The freeway was a smooth white blanket, no tracks or anything.
Anyway, it was an early 80's Volvo station wagon full of Japanese, an exchange professor to the U of O and his family. I backed up to the vehicle, installed the chains on the outer wheels of my dualies, and hooked up. Returned to the station, and figured out that the alternator was toast.........bad news was that it was a Marchal. Where in the hinterlands of Oregon was I going to come up with a Marchal alternator. I made arrangements for the family to return home to Eugene, and started poring over my manuals. I found out that a Bosch alternator could be made to work, so I obtained one, and made it fit. The day after Christmas, one of the kids came back down and picked up the car.
I got a nice letter from the University, they also forwarded a letter from the Japanese consulate........
