Any idea on how i should go about fixing this? I can see the wires are cut and broken in the hinge.

 

you pull the headliner and tailgate liner out, and splice in new wires far enough back from where they are frayed. use some plastic wire loom to protect them where they have to move around the hinge. use some high grade wire with tough insulation and good flexibility.

 

Its best to use the wiring harness from the dealer. If you look at the wires in the harness, they used very fine stranded wire to allow for the flexing. I'm not sure of the quality of the aftermarket but if I remember correctly, the factory harness lasted just over 10 years on my '89 wagon. I replaced it with a Volvo branded harness and it was still ok when my son totaled the car about 7 years later.

 

is this a 89 240 or 89 740 wagon?

 

assuming this is a 240 wagon, VADIS looks to show two harnesses in the tailgate hinges. one on the left feeds the left lights plus connects to the license plate/wiper/etc harness, and the other feeds the right tail light.

the left tailgate harness is 3544695, its $55 at a dealer, somewhat less online
the right one is 1348019, and is the same price.

its parts 4 and 5 here, Cable harness, Cable harness, bottom rail- boot LID/TAILGATE. Fits: Volvo | VolvoPartsWebstore.com

 

If you are skilled then you can create your own harness. I was not going to pay all that money on a new Volvo harness when I might face the same issue in a few years. It was a stupid design.

I decided to make my own harness instead. I bought wiring from the parts store(in different colors) and cut the wires off where they went to the hinge and cut off the bad section and used solder and shrink wrap to create a new harness. I even added a better ground.

I opted to make it run outside the tailgate instead of through it to add slack and allow the wires not to be pulled or tugged. It looks a bit unsightly but I value function over form and a tag light out ticket is far more important then cosmetic things

Plus it is a hauling/take to dump/backup car so it is not driven a lot to be bothered in making it more hidden

Here is a couple of pics of it. It ain't pretty but it is wired up correctly and I don't even notice it anymore

 

$100-ish for the 2 volvo harnesses, that typically last 15-20+ years, vs how many hours to ghetto-rig that?

hmmm.

 

Exactly. I choose to spend put that $100 towards other things for that car that are more important(such as tune up parts(crucial to the car running), brakes(crucial to stopping), tires (crucial to safe driving) etc ), tie rods(needed to steer the car) and a fuel pump(need to start/drive and run the car)

A $100 "pretty" harness set is not high on the priority list for me. Even one that "may" last 20 years. The car has 539,912 miles on it(as of today), the paint is ugly and faded(the hood paint is atrocious) and it is a winter beater/haul crap to the dump/2nd/backup car that is going to get scrapped eventually when I am done with it

It took me less then 2 hours(while stopping for lunch) to wire, solder and put everything back together. I simply took the existing connectors and soldered and shrink tubed new wires to it. All wires were the same color as the old wires.

In retrospect I did overdo it a bit as the only wires I care about are for the 3rd brake light and the tag lights. The defroster grid is dead with many breaks in it and rear wiper is something I never use(I have never used the rear wiper in any of my wagons) and the central locking system is gone(I took the relay out when I put the radio in because it was causing issues)