Volvo won't start

[waterbound]

I have a 1994 Volvo 850 with about 136,000 miles on it. We bought it about 2 months ago with 133,000 miles and have had no real problems until now. The day we were looking at it the seller tried to start it but it didn't want to, but after letting it sit for about 15 minutes and trying again it started immediately. This concerned us but we looked into it and weren't able to find the problem. Tonight I tried starting the car after letting it sit in a parking lot for about 3 hours and it didn't want to; it was low on gas so we tried pushing it so the front end of the car was downhill (a trick which has worked one other time when it didn't want to start), adding more gas and tried waiting it out and trying to start it. We didn't have jumper cables so we couldn't try to jump start it. Has anyone heard of an issue like this before and how would it be solved?

[Jeremy airjer W]

If its cranking (you can hear the starter turning the engine over) than a jump start won't help. All a jump start does is remotely connect a charged battery to your vehicle. There would be no difference between jump starting and replacing the battery.

Did the car have fuel pressure?

Was there spark?

[waterbound]

The car did not have spark. There is power to the ignition coil. Is there a way to tell if the ignition coil would be the issue before replacing it?

[Scott K]

The coil should have power to one side when the key is on, the other side of the coil should have a triggered ground as the engine is spinning over. Hook the clip side of your test light to the positive side of the battery, and check for a flashing test light on the other side of the coil while cranking.

[waterbound]

Light goes off while cranking and does not flash.