1984 Volvo 244 Power Door Lock Flutter/Stutter?

Remote diagnosis time!

Actually, that sounds like a bad game of telephone. What I'm really hoping for, and didn't manage to find for myself on the Internet, is that what my dad's experiencing with his '84 244 is something super common with a well-known diagnosis and fix. Fingers crossed.

Most of the time the power door locks work fine, but sometimes as he goes to walk away after locking the car, the locks will flutter like they can't decide whether to go up or down. The other day it did it badly and he didn't catch it as he often does, and it ran the battery into the ground.

The mechanisms are probably a bit gummy, and I figure one possibility is that one or more doors are failing to "throw" completely and putting it into a funny state (but I don't know whether the system actually gets any feedback from the passenger doors). He's working on ungumming stuff a bit right now. He's also got an '85, whose power locks work much more firmly/quickly, but it's also got different interior controls for these, and we're not sure whether the PDLs changed between '84 and '85, so the feel may not tell us anything useful.

Many thanks for any insights!

240s have only two lock switches.  One on the driver's door lock cylinder, and one on the inside pull rod.  Sometimes the little spring in the pullrod breaks, and the switch goes down to send the lock signal, bounces up and sends the unlock signal, and so on.  The wires from the switch on the pull rod will crack and break from bending, so you could have wires touching there, or in the rubber bellows between the door and the A pillar.  

Most likely is the pullrod, based on your symptom.  You can just unplug that switch by taking the door panel off to confirm.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

That narrows things down a bunch! Thank you!

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

And again, thank you! It appears to have been bare wires, which he's now sorted with some heat shrink tubing. I thought this was earlier than the Incredible Biodegradable Insulation, but hey... there's just old, too.