Hi again.

My factory radio only works when it seems to catch a radio signal. Even if I play a tape it doesn't play unless it catches a frequency. Any ideas as to why this is hapenning. I asked car audio "experts" and they have no idea. Power antenna works fine all the wires are in place.

Also, can I replace the audio deck without a wire harness? if so is that called a "hard wire"? Do I just extend the wires and throw them into the correct inputs on the new deck?

Thank You

i have no idea why you are having that problem with the stereo ... beyond my electrical knowledge that one.

however ... regarding replacing it with a 'hard wired' unit. hard wiring it a bit pointless when for the sake of probably $15 i would guess you can get a harness adapter which plugs into the original volvo connectors and changes it to the new DIN standards which all new head units use these days.

IF your headunit has already had the wires chopped then you will probably need a wiring diagram to show you what colours are what. the new headunit will have one stuck on it

I am in the uk so i dont know if the colours are the same here as they are there.

Matt

Thank You again for your help!

I took your advice and surfed around for a wire adaptor and found an awesome site called Crutchfield.com They even had a Canadadian site and I just phoned in and ordered it.

-Ordered an Alpine on sale that comes with a free Wiring Harness, Fitting kit, and complete instructions. Amazing.

And to think, I went to one of our biggest electronics stores in Toronto and their installers said they wouldn't touch a volvo!

Thanks again!

Haanz

yeah crutchfield is good for things like that totally forgot about it tbh ... though the parts i tend to look for are cheaper from my contacts ;)

uh oh

I just got my order in from Crutchfield and the wire harness adapter doesn't have enough speaker connections. Only Left and Right Front speakers. No rear. I called and they said that they didn't stock the rear wire harnesses.

Would it be o.k for me to connect what I can and then hard wire the rest of the speakers?

Thanks in advance

haanz

yeah perfectly fine to do that, but i wouldnt recommend it incase u want to take things out again. Use some bullet style connectors or buy one of those little multi-plug kits from an electrical store/component place.

Matt

ok, I've kinda got the idea of what I need to do, but......have found another problem,

Crutchfield sent me a diagram of the colour codes for the 9-pin (power antenna, front speakers..etc) that I have to connect my crutchfield wire harness to and the 4-pin (rear speakers) that I will have to hard wire myself.

However.....the only 9 and 4 pins I can find in my car doesn't match the colour codes!!!!

the only one I can identify for sure is like the black for ground,

does anyone know anything about this??

also would there be any harm if I just assume that's the right 9-pin plug and connect my new radio and harness to it, just to see if my front speakers work?

any feedback would be greatly apreciated
thx

Hi heres a pic of what im looking at.



Attached thumbnail(s)

well in my 740:

Hot power : green with red stripe
Ignition : orange
ground : black
Power antenna : don't have one sorry

all my speaker wires were re-run for better quality cable and i cant remember exactly what colours they were ...

i can just about remember a pinky yellow white blue combination - something on that theme. i can dig out my haynes in a bit and double check.


Matt

Done! finally I got the wires hooked up.....For some reason my wires diagram is almost exactly like the wiring in a 1989 volvo rather than it's own 1988.

Well, to be honest I gave up because of the confusion and even the techie at Crutchfield stopped e-mailing me back with possible answers.

So......I got a pro who researched it and went in and did the install...the pro was...........MY HOMEMAKING WIFE!!!


Thanks for all the help. Next up speakers!

never good to admit that heh heh if it was more like the 89 then it was probably on the crossover boundary

Matt