1988 Wagon

I hope someone can help. I am in the middle of repairing the rear wiring harnesses on both sides. I have the right (passengers side) off right now. The previous owner did some crappy wiring on the drivers side but I can not see which wires go to what device. I know the right side blue and yellow go to the power lock and that worked. The weird thing is almost all of the wires are broken but the wiper, 3rd light, the license plate lights all work. The defrost does not.

Does anyone know on an 88 what wires go to what device. I think I have to "undo" some of the PO's work!

Thanks,
HAwk

Thanks to everyone for the help. My repairs were successful with the exception of the defrost. I do have power to the connector but I don't think the defrost is working. Not sure what to test next. Every thing else worked fine. My wiper now parks correctly and the intermittent setting works as well. I did one side at a time. I used Art's method and replaced the ground wire on both hinges.

I did make one mistake that cost me over an hour. I dropped one of the bolts down the side and had to pull a taillight and fish down inside a boxed area inside the pillar to get it with a magnet. Pretty big pita. Of course, right before I dropped it I thought "I better not drop this" and bam, it was gone.

Thanks again,

Hawk

When I bought new Volvo wiring harnesses from IPD, I noticed the info you need on their website. I can't remember which wire goes where, but it was listed on their site.
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Thanks for all the help. DougC 1981 242, IPD bars and Turbo wheels, M46 :::::::::::::::::: 1993 245, B230 NA L-Block, M47, Turbo bars::::::::::::1984 760, B23FT, M46, waiting to donate engine to 242

The right side is supposed to be the wiper motor and power unlock. Black and Gray go to the wiper motor, and Blue and Yellow are the central locking.


The drivers or left side has the defroster and the rear lights. Blue is the center brake light,

Have to fix an intermittent in my rear brake light tomorrow in fact to pass inspection.

Good Luck,

Paul

I've rewired both sides however I don't have notes on color codes.

I do remember that the left side had two wires for the defroster running down the tailgate's side channel. Plus the center brake light and I think the license plate lights.

After rewiring all that I found that the trouble was the ground wire that merely goes across the hinge. This is a necessity because the hinge doesn't provide full electrical continuity when the car hits bumps etc. My lights blinked and did odd things whenever it got jostled. That's why there's a ground strap going across the hinge. All tailgate items are grounded to the tailgate and via ground strap to the chassis.

I provided a new ground path. There are existing grounds at two screws (brassy plating) near center of tailgate. I ran one wire from each screw; up the two side channels and out the small holes at top. From there it loops to a new stainless sheet metal screw going sideways into the car's tailgate frame opening. That takes care of bridging the connection from door to chassis. The "loop" has a bit of extra length so you can open/close the tailgate.

Of course if you remove the hinges you can just refresh the original ground strap there. But I did the whole job without removing the hinges so this was my "easy" way of building a solid ground. That was 2-3 years ago now, did it on two cars about the same time, and no problems since.
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Sven: '89 245 NA, 951 ECU, expanded air dam, forward belly pan reaches oem belly pan, airbox heater upgraded, E-fan, 205/65-15 at 50 psi, IPD sways, no a/c-p/s belt, E-Codes, amber front corner reflectors, aero front face, quad horns, tach, small clock.

See if this link helps
http://www.volvoracing.se/Volvo%20Info/El-Scheman/Volvo%20200/volvo_240__1988.pdf