I have been searching the archives looking for answers to all my stereo woes and decided to just go ahead and start a new thread.

I am looking at putting a new stereo in my 84' 240 wagon.

I currently have a tape deck in the lower dash, I would like to replace it with this and relocate it to the upper dash. I saw a couple threads where people relocated the radios, is there a support built in behind the upper slot or is it just wide open back there? Is it difficult to reroute the wires, are they long enough, etc? Does anyone know of a good clean way to fill the hole in the lower dash?

Next question is this: If a vehicle does not have a vehicle speed sensor wire, you'll need one of these for the navigation to work correctly. My wagon has cruise control, does it have a VSS wire?

Lastly I currently have two speakers in the front doors and that is it. I would like to replace them and have seen some people say that 5.25" speakers will fit and others say 4", does anyone have a recommendation as to which is better? Also I plan on installing some rear speakers, has anyone done this in a wagon? If so, what size, where did you put them and how did it work?

Any help is appreciated I have about a month before embarking on a road trip and would like to have this installed by then.

All right, here's the deal. It has only been a couple days but there has been little response to my questions. I figure that is probably for one of two reasons; first is everyone is sick of questions on how to install a stereo, if so, I understand. Second, no one knows the answers.

I have done some digging around since I posted the questions and have found out some things.

The speakers in the front doors are screwed into the door panel not the door itself, meaning there is a lot of flexibility in size, the only thing to consider is depth as it is pretty shallow when the window is down.

If your car has cruise control (and may be if it doesn't, I am not sure) there are little magnets in the speedometer that generate an AC pulse that is sent to the govenor. The AC voltage rises with the speed of the vehicle. Whether or not this is the pulse that an in-dash navigation system is looking for is yet to be seen, I am still researching that, but hopefully this will work so I don't have to buy the $150 box.

Given all the measurements I took tonight, I believe an IEJ size stereo will fit in the upper slot. It looks like I may have to shave the vents a bit and it will rest very close to if not touching the heater coil behind it but I believe it will fit. There is no existing support structure but it will be so tight I am not sure it will need one.

I am thinking of chronicling my install. When I am done, I will have run all new speaker wire, hooked up a JVC DVD/NAV head unit, installed new speakers in the front doors and installed rear speakers (somewhere, I am not sure where yet). Also I am going to install a night vision camera up in the grill. If any one is interested in this let me know and I can periodically post pics and info on here, if no response, I will probably just throw the pictures deep in the annals of my hard drive.

Link to head unit: HERE

Link to Night Vision Camera: HERE

Hi there,

I am very interested in what you're doing.

I'm kinda doing something similar on my 242GT. It's an 80 model so it has the older dash but I have got myself a newer dash and am using that extra space you're putting the stereo to mount a touch screen for my carPC.

I'd love to see the work of the camera happening. I'm actually installing two webcams in the car as well, but neither have night vision capability, it's a great idea, wonder if I can find a good quality webcam that has night vision too...

I feel your pain with the speakers on the front door, there is hardly any room to install a decent set, so I'm getting my interior door panel modded by some custom people to fit some nice kenwoods.

Looks like a cool project, love to see pics.

hey,
also very interested in how this works out!
put up pics and descriptions of everything just for fun!

so will you be watching the screen for the night vision instead of the windowpane?
or is it mounted where you can see it out of your perryferell?

deers and elk are a big problem here , i would love to see what you do with this..

So, I have ordered all the parts, so far only the night vision camera has arrived, the rest should start arriving this week.

About the camera, I am not sure yet. It is suppose to see something like five times farther than the headlights. I am guessing that it will be something that you check every couple seconds. As you scan your gauges or something you look at it, or if you think you see something off in the distance you look at it or something, I'm not really sure. I attached a chart from the manufacturers website, www.FLIR.com

wow, that is bad!
it should have a low level sound that increases when it is detecting something way out there.
you should hook up a video camera to record what it sees for us!

Sounds like you're doing some very cool stuff. I'd like to fix up my stereo some day. I need some new speakers I think, but I know next to nothing about all that.

You may know this by now, but behind the top spot in the center console is pretty much wide open. There should be enough room for you to install there, depending how deep that unit is. I have an 82 wagon and I just replaced the blower motor so I had the entire dash taken apart.

Hope that helps a little at least. Best of luck.

i replied to your other post, but i just thought of something, which is dangerous, the mrs came running with a fire extinguisher thinking that something was burning in the oven. anyway, you can always just leave the stock radio in and relocate everything to either the glove box or the center console. i had an old trans am and had relocated the head unit to the center console. i had installed a small fan to the rear to cool it off and ran new wires all through the car. nobody ever caught on. just a different approach to things. definetely keep us posted with pics, this sounds reeeaaallly interesting.

I'm not sure if this will help, but my wife bought an '85, 240 DL (auto/unleaded). She had a SONY install in the lower dash, but the upper dash (just above vents between driver/passenger) had a basic compartment. I found they could be interchanged between the two, took the metal plate on the lower, moved it to the upper, and modified it with tin snips to take the current stereo. We had replaced the SONY with a cheapo Wal Mart sale brand, which started to die after a year, and now have an even cheaper SONY in place now (in the upper bracket) which seems to be doing fine. The stereo and speakers were about $100., the least we've spent so far. The front speakers required me to cut some of the door interior so I could fit them; fortunately I didn't have to cut the door metal. On the rear doors, I determined (after removing the interior), that I could cut a oval hole, (5"x9") and place the larger speaker just below the window handle (manual). Recently, I had to reinforce the mounts because the screws worked out of the door material. I also had to cut some of the door (metal) to fit the speaker. At first, it was a lot of work and a headache. But miraculously, the stereo seems to be holding up and has performed better than expected for the $100.00 it cost (amazingly it also included all four speakers!)

But beware, I feel I was very lucky. The previous stereo started to deteriorate in short order after we bought it, we lucked out on this last one.

If you are installing speakers not typically sized for an older Volvo (ours would readily accept 4".), take your time, make sure you have the tools and most important of all, be patient!!!

Breadman.

Thanks breadmeister2 for the info. I have decided (I think) to try and keep it as stock as possible, or looking as stock as possible that is. So it will probably be 4" for me, unless of course I decide otherwise, then I will definately look into your idea of relocating in the door.

A little update on my system, I had received everything by late last week and was doing some tests yesterday before begining the install and found the JVC head unit I had purchased did not work. Something wrong inside that blew the fuse whenever power was applied. I called JVC and it is now on its way back to them for analysis. For the record, it was installed correctly, I have installed many car stereos and never fried one so I am confident it was not me.

A side note, JVC has some of the worst customer service I have experienced. It doesn't matter what question you ask, you get the response on the script, it seems no one there knows enough about the products to answer any questions, very frustrating. (All told, I have been on the phone 6 times with them and had the same experience every time). Hopefully when I get it back, the features of the unit will help me forget the bad customer service I have received.

Anyway, I have added some sound deadening material to my task list. Ordered 100 square feet of FatMat, ought to quiet down that diesel a bit. I'll post when I finally start the work...

I talked to JVC today and they said they are going to repair it under warranty. They would not tell me what was wrong only that they are waiting on parts and it could be up to four weeks before I get it back. I was hoping to have the whole thing done by now. I can't imagine it taking that long, but that is what they said.

I have an 85 240GL that I have just put a JVC head unit and rear speakers in but couldn't fit the front. The speakers I have are too deep for the doors. I'd be very interested in seeing what you do with the front speakers.

I got the stereo back a little while ago and finally installed it, I have the stereo in, the speakers, and the Fat Mat. All I have left is the camera and I will be done. Once I get the camera in (hopefully this week) I will post some pics of the project.

Done, for the most part.

I think I will add a subwoofer but I need to find the right one so it is not in yet.

I tried to take some pics of the night vision camera operating but had no luck. Tried it with no flash, no good, tried it with flash on, no good, tried to drive and fuss with the camera at the same time, no good. I think I will take some video and post it on YouTube, then I will put a link on the thread here.

1984 Volvo 240 Diesel Wagon

Below are the photos I took as I relocated and installed a new stereo, installed new front speakers and added rear speakers, put sound deadening mat all through the car and installed a night vision camera.

Before Pictures


There is a nice cubby hole up near the tach and the stereo is in a very awkward spot down near the gear shift, the idea is to swap the cubby and the stereo, we will see how well it works.

This is a picture before I did anything, hopefully when I am all done and I take a picture from this angle it will look the same.

The Front Speakers


This shows the factory speaker after I had popped the grille off, unique speaker that Crutchfield doesn’t even suggest replacements for, but I have an idea.

I buy Clarion SRR1016 specifically for their size, almost all the dimensions between the two are the same except one is square and one is round, no big deal but I still want to use the factory grille, so…

I start cutting away, I remove all the speaker components from the frame, and then drill out the spot welds to remove the magnet

After that, I cut out the old speaker part leaving a nice frame for the new Clarions to slide into.

Now I can put the Clarions in place of the factory speakers and the factory grille still snaps into place, leaving the stock look I was hoping for.

Sound Deadening Mat

I don’t know about any of you, but my wagon is not very quite, may be because it is old, may be because it is a diesel, may be because I am comparing it to my XC90, I don’t know, but any way, I would like it to be a quieter ride

First, I remove the seats and the carpet

Then I install the Fat Mat

Then do the same thing in the rear, it seems to me that Volvo used the same sound dampening design for the wagon as the sedan since there was nothing behind the rear seat. I purchased 100 sq ft of mat and used almost all of it; I covered everything once then a second layer on large flat areas

Rear Speakers

Our wagon came from the factory with two 4” speakers in the front doors and that was it. Seems odd for a wagon, with so much interior space to leave the people in the back straining to hear the tiny speakers up front while the people up front get headaches from turning it up so much. So rear speakers sound good, but where to put them? May be that is why Volvo didn’t do it, hard to find a spot…

First I buy a set of these from JCWhitney for $60. For that price, I am sure the speakers are going to be terrible so I take them out and purchase the Audiobahn component speakers seen in the background

I pull the headliner back and install them on the roof right behind the rear seat, the crossovers fit nicely up there as well. The speaker wires are run above the headliner and down the post in front of the front doors to remain completely hidden. I was not sure how this was going to look and was very apprehensive about cutting up a perfectly good headliner

What do you think? Didn’t turn out too bad, the headliner is not quite as tight as I would like but it sounds great and the speakers do not stick down more than 1” beyond the normal height of the headliner

The Stereo

I chose a JVC KDX5000. Great unit, DVD player, navigation system, 40GB hard drive, and the works. It was a tight fit but it did go into the slot in the upper part of the dash

Luckily, when you remove the old stereo from the bottom, the hole is felt lined and works perfect as a cubby hole, it is also bigger and deeper than the cubby hole that used to be in the top of the dash.

In case any one is wondering, the signal sent to the governor from the speedometer will not work as a Vehicle Speed Sensor (VSS) wire if your navigation system requires one, I had to purchase a speed pulse generator for it to work. There is a nice little cubby hole next to the right rear wheel well that it fit nicely into

I put the GPS antenna at the rear between the hinges for the hatch

Since the headliner was down to install the rear speakers I ran the wire above the headliner for that to keep it out of sight

I also installed a video jack in the center console in case at some point in time I see a need to enable the kids to watch videos while we are driving

Night Vision Camera

I installed a FLIR PathFindIR night vision camera

First I installed a relay by the battery, easy access to 12v, ground, and the parking lights. I wired it so the camera will turn on with the parking lights.

There is a nice flat spot with two holes that match up perfect right next to the drivers’ side headlight.



Parts Used:
- JVC KD-NX5000 Head Unit
- JVC KV-PG1 Speed Pulse Generator
- Install kit for upper dash
- Wiring Harness
- Clarion SRR1016 4” Speakers
- Audiobahn ABC4002Q Component Speakers
- JC Whitney Part Number ZX380018Y Overhead Sound Bar
- FLIR PathFindIR camera
- NAPA Relay
- 100sq ft FatMat Sound Deadening Mat

Here is a video I found online that shows the night vision camera

http://revision3.com/systm/flir/

Can't answer all of this but do have one thing to watch out for when installing speakers in door. For the first time in my life I paid for stereo installation a year and a half ago - in the past I did my own without any trouble. I now have a chronic problem with the speaker wire on the drivers side getting tangled with the manual window control. The window crank has to be in just the right position or the speakers cut out. I've taken it apart and lengthened the wire trying to get it out of the way and am looking for a clip that will hold it to the side of the mounting cut out. Watch out for this, keep the speaker wire clear of the window crank. I think it's a problem on the driver's side rather than the passenger just because that door is used so much more and get more jaring from being closed over and over.

A cordless Dremel is wonderful for things like modifying the vent.