huh. the radios on my 740s and 940s have all been in the lower dash, just above the ashtray. wait, you have a 240. hah! our 87 240 has a storage pocket in the top location (came that way from the factory), and I installed the stereo in the very bottom under the dashboard... that bottom compartment is the right width for a DIN stereo but too tall, but not quite double-DIN. being cheap, I didn't buy a fancy adapter, instead, I attached some 'plumbers tape' (a metal strap with holes every 1/4") to the screw stud on the back, such that it hung down, and bent it at a right angle towards the front of the radio and put a small piece of thin plywood, and some foam rubber under the stereo, held in place by that strap, to fill the space below the stereo. I never did bother to do anything about the gap in the front, its so far down you can hardly notice it, right in front of the stick shift. I've replaced that stereo now 3 times since we bought that car new, and each time, I've ended up using the same board-n-foam-n-strap, hahahaha!

 

This is my car at present: Radio removed from the top, and I've highlighted the area I want to use.



Obstacles:

I want to get the appropriate plastic to fill in the area where the radio was--which is to say, i want to be able to put gauges there. Hum... like this:

What can I say? I like gauges.
I'm also hoping to get some of the plastic to create a nice home for the radio in the bottom. But, I may end up using pierce's style solution.
I'm trying to figure out if the Volvo sound-system has any unusual quirks that I'll need to figure out.
And I also need to figure out what is going on behind that consul.

 

our 240 came wired for front door speakers which weren't present. nothing else. no amps, nada.

Volvo had a turbo gauge triple that fit in that top space. Ours has the clock where shown on your green check picture as it has a tach where the clock might otherwise be in the main cluster, and it has a storage pocket in the other space where your radio was.

 

Well, I did some more research, and found out that there is indeed an amp for the speakers. It is down behind where the radio used to go. (see picture.)


It will not be needed with the new head I will be putting in. So, I yanked it. While I was in there, I found a bunch of bulbs that were burnt out. I realized that they were the same type as the gear-shift indicator light. In post #15, I am complaining that I can't find this bulb with an obscure base--well, upon closer inspection, I realized that I can remove them. I felt really silly, because Titan Joe asked me if I had check that, and I told him it was soldered in place. Well, I'm not sure what I was looking at last time, but there's no doubt that they come out. So, that figured out, I went to the local auto store and bought a few spare light bulbs, and put 'em in. I figured while I had the console apart, it was a great time to fix that.

I will probably have to wait until a I get the new head before I decide if I will have to cut apart the wires to hook them up, or if they have an adapter that will allow me to plug straight in. The only reason I'd rather favor the adapter is if I cut the wires, I'm going to have to figure out what wires go to what. There may be a manual that describes this (in face i'm sure there is...) but I have not been able to access one or find one online.

As a side note, I went out today and bought a relatively complete Torx set. I figured I will have this car for a while, and as they are all over it, it will be quite handy.

 

The power steering problem could be one of three things or a combination of them.
1. Low power steering fluid, easy fix.
2. Loose belt, tighten the adjustment bolt, but if it is tightened all the way, get a new belt. New V-belts can cost up to $15.
3. The power steering pump. If it is bad, then it can get a little expensive. I know of a slavage yard in Atlanta you can e-mail about different parts. They have a LOT of 240s and 244s.

If you want to convert the coolant to R134, it is pretty cheap until you buy the freon. Converting it is cheap. All you need to do is replace ALL of the O-rings. Replacing some of them might get a little bit of a pain in the *** because of the close quarters. Be sure to use 2 wrenches on the metal AC lines so that you dont warp and bend the lines. If that happens, then it can get expensive. Make sure that the AC lines dont have holes in them. After that, get some AC line cleaner. All you need to do with that is take both ends off the filter dryer and the AC compresser. You will need two people. One with a ziplock bag on one end to catch what comes out of the lines and yourself with the cleaning can. You must catch as much as you can. The cleaning stuff in enviromentally harmful. Any more questions about the AC, just ask.

 

I wired up a 740 a few years back for a new radio head. I hated everything thing I did to it. I cut into the amp harness and the head harness. All I had was a wiring diagram. I even cut up the old radio and made a hole in it for the new head. It worked just fine, but I still hated it. No adapter existed then, so I doubt that they exist now, but given the popularity of the 240 over the 740 you may get lucky.

Here's what you really want:
An 8 Track!

 

actually, I have bought adapters for a 940 at least that had a long harness that plugged into the speaker connector that went into the original factory amp (bypassing it), and a short harness that plugged into the connector that went into the factory head unit... you wire these harnesses to the stereo's harness, and they worked just great.

the 740 install I just did, someone had already spliced a generic stereo into the OE wiring, so I just hacked off their splices and did my own, worked just fine. I'll never ever be putting volvo 1990 vintage OE radios back in this car, so I really don't care either way. I wrapped my wiring above the driver footwell in plastic spiral wire loom, and used a couple tiewraps to secure it, came out very neat. I used double-stick tape to put the front component speaker's crossovers on the arm that might have held the clutch pedal if I'd had a manual, came out quite neat.

240's, I have no idea if harnesses are still available. our 87 240 didn't even come with a stereo, nor was it pre-wired for one (I don't think), so I ran my own speaker wires to the rear deck where I cut in oversized 6" 2-ways....

 

I just got a wiring harness for my 740 for a new radio and a dash install kit for it at Best Buy. They might have something for it.

 

So here is what I ended up doing. I took the car apart again enough so I could see where the radio harness went. I found this strange harness that started at the top with the radio, then went to the bottom to the amp. In the middle of it, somewhere, it sent out all the sound to the system, as well as got power & told the antenna to go up and down. The harness looks like this:


I pulled the harness out, and found where the speakers, power, &c went in to the rest of the system. Then I used a meter and a AA battery to figure out what wires went to which speakers. When I figured all that out, i cut off the plugs that connected in the middle of the harness (next pic 1), soldered my radio harness into that. (Next pic 2)




I had to use some extra wire from the harness because the radio leads that came with the radio were too short to go from the bottom position where I want to place the radio up to the plugs into the main harness, which are just below the instrument cluster (acessable by driver's side knee area).

So, I got that all together... and it works great. However, mounting wasn't as simple as I thought. I considered pierce's solution... but doing some research, i figured I'd spend a few bucks and buy one of the adapters so it will fit in correctly down there. i was hesitant at first, because it was hard to be sure if you were getting a 240 kit for the dash position or the console position... however, I figured it out eventually & ordered the correct piece. Then I put the car back together--it will be a few days before that piece arrives, but everything is in place so that I can pretty easily install the adapter, plug the wires in and go. No extensive disassemble this time.

Of the speakers in my car, 3 of the 4 look great, and sound good. But the fourth (passenger side rear) looks as if someone crunched it up and put it in their back pocket, ran it through the washer & dryer, remembered it was there and re-installed it. It makes no noise at all. So... I will investigate replacing that.

In hacking up the harness to the radio, I pretty much made the choice that I would not be going back to OE radios anytime soon. Pierce: where did you put 6" speakers? I assume not in the doors?

Oh, also I changed the flavor of my radio slightly. I ended up going with an Alpine, but the CDE-133BT. I don't need Pandora controls, and I was hoping to use the Bluetooth phone features around here, as most of the states around where I live have band using cellphone handsets while driving. Here's a picture.

So, there we go for now. I'll report on other things later.

 

91-740Turbo:

For power steering, I can for sure eliminate #1. I should re-examine #2, but I never get squeeling of any type, which I would expect if it were slipping.

As for the AC--my only thing is I've tried converting to 134a with Titan Joe's 740, and the results were underwhelming at best. But, it was a cheap kit. Here is my concern: I understand that 134 is less efficient than the old stuff. Correspondingly, the pump (setup for the old stuff) will not cool as much with the 134 as with the old stuff. Is this the case, or in practical reality is there no difference?

The other thing is that I figure there must be a leak in the system--otherwise it would still have all the collant in it, right? So I need to find that first....

 

When I finally get around to replacing my A/C system I'll need a new pump (r134a) a new orifice tube (for r134a) a new drier (to keep the guarantee on the new pump) and replace all the seals on all the couplings. Then it should work like it's a new system.

 

a system designed for R134a has a larger evaporator than one for R12. the evaporator is inside the airbox under the dash, not readily upgradable.

 

Well, I have put the radio in, finally!

I ended up ordering the correct trim to put it in the lower position. However, it was not so simple. The trim held the radio in place at the front, but there was nothing to secure it from the back, once I removed that pocket. I thought about hooking the back of the radio to the ground somehow, but decided that would be too much trouble, as I think drilling a hole in the bottom under there would lead to the transmission, and the outside of the car.

So I ended up getting the pocket out that I initially removed, and but a hole in it so the radio fit (as tight as possible, and then put all of that together. Then the radio fit in nicely. Anyway, I will edit this post and add pictures when I have time.

The immediate distractions are 1) it turns out my sunroof leaks like it isn't even there. Who knew? I thought I had the drain pipes clean... but I will investigate that. In the mean time, I know the "seal" thing that is supposed to be on the sunroof is largely gone. How important is that? I rather thought that the seal didn't do much, and the water just drained out the tubes. However, since it is worse since I removed parts of it (it was loose and catching on things) I think I was in error.

2) Air Conditioning. I have read about every post on the forum i can find about 240 air conditioning, and I haven't come to any clear conclusions. My questions are a) how effective will just filling it with 134a be? b) do i need to find special lubricant? c) is it even worth my time to get a new compressor? d) do I need a vaccume pump to do this effectively? (and where on earth do I hook it?) AC is not my strong point, and I'm rather tempted to find a shop that can do a decent job fixing and/or retrofitting it.

Anyway, I will continue to post my findings.

 

even when the 240's AC was brand new and filled with R12 it was anemic at best. we are original owners of a 1987, the AC hasn't worked since about 1992, and we just haven't cared. When I replaced the radiator about 5 years ago, I ripped most of the AC plumbing under the hood out...

 

Okay, the promised Pictures. I thought instead of editing them into my post, I'd just add a new post with narration.

So, the problem was that the radio wasn't going to be supported by much. The radio went in a cage that installed in the trim. But the trim wasn't uber-substantial, and there seemed like there was no real way to fasten the radio from the rear.

Solution? Get the original pocket, and cut a tight fitting hole in it, so it would support the radio. So that is what I did.

Note in the above picture, there was a lip that I had to cut off. Basically, for these cuts, I used a drill and a hacksaw. And that little hack saw thing that you put a blade in, but it is just a handle.

Then I put the assembly together. The pocket went behind the metal part of the console (as it originally did) and the trim was designed to go in the front. The pocket was held on by the lit I cut off, but there were holes for screws. So I bolted it all together.

Then put the metal back in, and the plastic covers on it... then pulled the wires out, of the cage, attached them to the radio, and slide the radio in the cage. PRESTO! new radio in place. Actually, I think it looks pretty good. The buttons are blue, but so is the interior of the car.

There you go.

 

I have been busy in the mean time, just not online much at all. I have been looking around quite a bit on ebay... and have found a number of items, that are in varying degree of install. I replaced the center rear view mirror. It would not hold adjustment. The new one borders on being excessively stiff, but it is considerable improvement.

I bought myself a few new gauges. I debated on if I wanted to do the usual Clock to speedo and mini-clock conversion. But after I thought about it a bit, I decided to go with simply the mini (Ø52mm). I after looking for a few weeks, I found that and a volt guage at a reasonable price plus all the trim and feet. The tach was easy enough to install--the only difficult part, really, was taping into the lighting system. And that ended up being a moot point, as the bulb turned out to be burnt out. How annoying. I haven't replaced the bulb yet--the only place locally I can find to sell them to me wants to sell me no fewer than 10. And that is the only bulb of that style I have been able to find in the car. But it works, and I'm happy. I'll solve that problem later.

I never quite got the voltage gauge in, because I ended up getting the triple gauge combo from the turbo 240s. Again, this was an ebay thing--they usually run more than I'm interested in paying--but, I found a decent deal on one. I would be willing to just wait on junk yards to cycle one through... but my junkyards seem to be depleted of 240s. Anyway, in the triple gauge cluster, there is a turbo gauge, volt gauge and oil pressure gauge. I don't need the boost guage, and am considering trying to switch that out for the Tach. But I think the tach was much deeper than the other gauges... so that my not fly. The oil gauge has been some-what of an annoyance--I was hoping to pick on up for somewhere in the $20 range, but silly me--the best price online I could find was in the $90 range (about twice what I paid for the entire triple gauge set...). So I talked with Titan Joe--he's doing a similar job on his 740. He found a cheaper set that he is going to use with an adapter set so the threads will fit. I may do the same--what I have to do is confirm that my vdo oil pressure gauge ranges from 10 to 180 ohms. I haven't been able to confirm that ... but it may just be written on the gauge. Hum... running a further search, at http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=230595 they seem to indicate that it is the same. So I think I'm good to go.

Anyway, that is all I have been up to. Pictures to come.

 

Well, I have ordered a dual function oil pressure sender that will also a signal for the idiot light below 7 psi. That will be fun.

In the mean time, I went ahead and installed the gauges in the car. I removed the turbo gauge from the triple cluster, and in its place, I put the tachometer, and removed it from the top whole to the immediate right of the cluster. But the tachometer is longer than the other gauges in the cluster. So, I cut out pieces of wood so that the fastening bracket would still work.

This is the result.

Then, I attached a whole bunch of spade wire connectors to everything, and soldered together a bunch of wire squids, leaving slots available for future gauges or accessories. Anyway, it is all together now. I will have to open it all up again when I wire up the wire for the oil pressure reader, but I'm happy with it.
Two of the gauges light up--the oil pressure and the volt meter. However, the tach doesn't, owing to the fact that the bulb is burnt out. I can find them locally, but only in packs of 10. But after shipping, it may be cheaper than buying online. The thing is, this is the only guage, and so far as I can tell, the only thing on the car that uses this bulb.

Anyway, that's today's handiwork.

 

I installed the new oil gauge sender. but as of yet, I have not installed the wire to go from the sender to the gauge. But the oil pressure light seems to be working properly. I installed it from the top, which meant there wasn't really a way to get a wrench on the sender. Consequence? It leaks a bit around there. it is enough to make the block messy, but not enough to make a difference on my dipstick. I will get in there and fix that soon--I simply have to drop out the alternator and come at it from the bottom to take care of that. I probably would have done that originally, but my floor-jack is not functional... so I was avoiding using my bottle jacks to multi-stage get it up high enough to where it would be usable... but I don't want this leak to persist too long. While I'm under there, I want to see how the wiring harness is routed that goes from the alternator area through the firewall. I may just see if I can route my wire alongside that.

 

Hum... well, a relatively straight-forward job become less so.

I needed to tighten up the oil pressure sender. Only real way to do that, is to drop the alternator (or at least with the tools I have). So I did that. Tightened up the oil sender, and wired up the wire to the guage & trough the firewalll--used a darning needle to push a piece of fishing line through an existing area where a harness went through the firewall, then attached the wire to the fishing line & pulled through Worked pretty well, came out by the glovebox, and easily in to the oil gauge. That worked great.

Problem--I put the alternator back in... and it doesn't charge when I start the car. I noticed that my voltage gauge was about 12.5 or so when i was driving. I paid attention as I started it up again to head home, and exactally what I was afriad of happend--no battery light as I started the car. Dang. So the alternator isn't charging the battery. Got home, and ran some continuity tests--continuity between the + term on the Alternator and + term of the battery was fine. Continuity between housing of the alternator and the engine block was also fine (so it looks like it is grounded properly). And the wire that leads to the dash battery light IS connected. So, I sanded the battery light spade end that is connected to the alternator. No effect. So I'm not sure what is going on here. Any ideas?

I have looked around the forum and the internet to the best of my ability... but it really annoys me that when searching the 240/740/940 forum, it cuts out the term 240... that would sure narrow results nicely...

If I don't get much response in this thread, I'll repost a new thread in the main forum.

 

there's just 3 connections, B- to ground, B+ is the heavy wire to the starter and battery, and D+ is the wire to the dashboard alternator/battery light, which then goes to the ignition switch. the light is a critical part of the circuit, if its not lighting up when you turn the car on before you start it, then either the bulb is bad, or that wire isn't connected correctly.