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'79 244 Stereo wiring question[240-260/1979] posted by Ken Kobayashi on
Sunday, 26 April 1998, at 11:49 a.m.
The original stereo in my '79 244 quit working recently.
I took it out to see if I can do anything about it, but it
only made things more confusing for me. Could someone answer
a few questions about it?
1) The stereo has 4 wires (or 4 bundles) - the coax is the
radio antenna, I presume, and the two black/yellow pairs are
for each speaker. The lone blue wire with a fuse is obviously
the power. So where on earth is the ground? (no pun intended)
The mounting hardware is plastic, so that can't be it.
2) If the stereo (and not the wiring on the car) turns out to
be faulty, can I just replace the head unit with a modern unit,
or will I need to also replace the speakers? A guy at a local
electronics shop said that if the negative terminals of the
speakers are grounded, it won't work with modern stereos - are they?
3) Are mounting hardware available for installing a standard
sized (1-DIN) stereo?
4) This is just out of curiosity, but the hole left behind after
I took out the stereo looks very familiar. I drove a '91 240
for a while once - did later 240's have this compartment, even
though the stereo was mounted at the top of the instrument panel?
Why two stereo compartments?
I'd appreciate any advice.
Re: '79 244 Stereo wiring question[240-260/1979] posted by Henry T. Mui on
Monday, 27 April 1998, at 12:52 a.m.
Ken,
1.) the ground wire is with the use of the Radio support brace and is bolted onto metalin the back of the radio unit! The two color leads are from + Left for one side and right for the other color then the earth pair from both left and right goes into together into one terminal on the back of your radio and the the fused line is the power supply. Since your 240 Volvo already has a clock the radio Volvo/Alpine(I think?) does not require a constant power supply. So when you shut off the engine, power to the radio will cut off.
2.) You can replace the entire Volvo radio unit with a newer radio. You just have to rewire it! You can also replace your old speakers with new speakers and wiring! If your old speakers are grounded you can re-wire them to work with the newer radio unit! If you do get a new radio unit you can cut and splice the older speaker connectors. Solder the wires and shrink wrap the wires.
3.) Not sure! Please check with local volvo parts Dept. or Radio store link enclosed.
4.) I drive an 84' 244 and the radio is mounted right below the center ashtray.
With a small storage area at the top where certain other 200 series models had the radio placed in it's place. Ine problen of wehere my present radio is located and that it it's kind of hard to pop the cassette out when you have an automatic shifted into park position and the engine running!
Henry T. Mui.
CRUTCHFIELD