I sent a message to Peirce but would appreciate any help...


Basically I am installing a aftermarket head unit and speakers into a 1986 volvo 240 gl... And I am completely lost. I got the speakers in... But now that I'm trying to put my jvc head unit in... I have no idea what to do... My radio has a black harness where as the car has a 9 pin whiteish harness.... I have no idea how to make it work.. PLEASE help. I have already about needing to bypass a amp? I think I got myself in a bigger project than anticipated. But hopefully it will be rewarding in the end.


I got two 4" polk l audio speakers for the front and Polk audio 5.25 in the rear deck. Hopefully installed correctly

And. JVC 50 head unit. (Upper dash not lower)

Thanks,
Sadie. P.s. I can send pictures or anything else you need

 

240's probably don't have an amplifier, that is more a 740/940 thing. IF a 240 had an amp, it was in an 'equalizer' module down by the shifter, with the stereo up above the center AC vents.

I ran my own speaker wires on my daughter's 240, and I did it about 10 or 15 years ago, so I really don't remember the specifics, but I ran the rear speaker wires under the driver-side door sills and up under the dashboard to the stereo (which I put in the lower space as the top space was a handy storage cubby on our 240 which didn't come with a stereo).... all the stereo needs from the car itself is always-on power, switched power, and ground, and the antenna control wire, these are all on the harness connector that plugged into the original stereo, lets see if I can find the wire color codes....

ok, ignition switched power, via fuse 1, is yellow-black on pin 2 of the factory stereo connector.

unswitched power is apparently not wired to it?!? fuse 8, a green wire goes to the power antenna, that might be a good place to tap it. oh, maybe this is on pin 1 of the connector, hard to say from this diagram.

ground is a black wire to pin 9.

red wire, pin 3, is the control signal to the power antenna (you'd wire this to the blue wire from your stereo).

the left front door speaker, + is yellow-white to pin 4, - is white to pin 7
the right front door speaker, + is grey-yellow to pin 5, - is grey to pin 8

 

And what about the rear speakers? Which wires would those be? They can in this model in the rear deck.


Btw thank you

 

those were probably dealer installed, I dunno. our 87 had no wiring or provision for them, and the wiring diagrams in Volvo's greenbooks for 86 showed front speakers only.

 

Does it make any difference that it is a GL sedan not DL?

 

nope, ours was a GL too. we bought it new in 1987. the stereo was a dealer installed option. the factory wiring diagrams ONLY show the front speaker wiring as I described above, ours had speaker grills in the front doors but no speakers, and nothing at all on the rear deck. I used an electric jigsaw to cut out 6.5" holes (ok, there MIGHT have been cutouts for smaller speakers, this was 25 years ago and I really don't remember). We're actually on our 2nd set of rear speakers, the first ones, JBL Grand Touring Series 6.5", wore out and crumbled after about 20 years, so I upgraded them to JL Audio ZR650 something 2-ways with external crossovers.

if yours had rear speakers, there's wire in place? what colors? I'd look in the compartment in front of the shift lever and see if there's any connector(s) down there. if you find a connector that mght be rear speaker wires, look for solid color and color w/ stripe pairs, and hook a AA battery across them and you should hear the speaker crackle when you make/break the connection. figure out which speaker is what pair. the stripe is usually +, the solid -

typically, Volvo factory stuff used a round "DIN" connector (like a older style PC/AT Keyboard connector) to connect the amp and the radio... you'd just ignore this, and wire your new deck directly up to the speakers.

 

i literally just did this in my 87

the amp is most likely in the passenger foot well just undo the thumb screws and you will see it
there is a harness going from the amp to the passenger door that is the wiring for your rear speakers

what i did was cut the harness at the stock HU wire that to the aftermarket HU so kind of diy harness in case of rewire (solder if possible)
Green=Battery
black=ground
Yellow=Ignition
red=power antenae
*This is on mine milage may vary*

I then cut the harness going from the amp and did the same thing just with the rear speaker wiring.

and bam my stereo sounds awesome as hell......now to add a sub