Hello
My stock volvo radio has been giving me issues. And I have had no luck taking replacing it with a much new radio that I have. I have now learned what the wire colors mean. But I was wondering if when i take out the old radio out should i also take the stock amp with it? If anyone has suggestions and experience upgrading a 1990 volvo 240s amp please give me and suggestions and tips on it because i cannot figure this one out.
Mackenzie,
Volvo 240 217K

Your radio isn't giving you issues, your radio sucks. As much as I despise the garish looks of a new electro-spectacular radio in a subdued 240 dash, you reach a point where you gotta give in to improved performance.

It's been a while since I did a '90, but the neatest, most direct install into a '93 uses a Metra wiring harness kit. If I remember correctly, the '90 also requires an additional harness with a Molex connector for the rear (?) speakers which Metra also offers. These Metra kits are available all over the net at all sorts of price points. (ref: http://www.metraonline.com )

The stock harness remains intact and the amp is bypassed with Metra's harnesses.

The Metra stuff is Volvo-particular, but a little universal and might require some jockeying around of the mass connector terminals. The hardest part is reading the illegible wiring diagrams in the Bentley in order to align the conductors correctly at the connectors.

Since you can splice the Metra harness to the harness supplied with the radio at the bench, it makes the install into the car truly plug-n-play.

I recently changed the factory radio to a new aftermarket in both my wife's 94 model 940 and my 87 model 240.....Christmas presents.
It's still pretty fresh in my mind.
Hopefully I won't confuse the two.

I don't have a schematic for a 1990 240 with the seperate amplifier, but I do have a schematic for a 1991 with the seperate amplifier, and I'd be suprised if they weren't the same.

First of all, In you existing set-up, your speaker wires are fed from the amplifier, and not directly from the radio.

You will need to extend the speaker wires from the ampifier to the radio compartment. The amplifier is inside (center) of the dash. You can find it by following the co-axial cable (not the antenna cable) that connects the existing radio to the amplifier.

The amplifier is a (approx.4") square black box.

Simply snip the wires from the amplifier connector and using new speaker wire, extend each of the wires (use crimp connectors, or solder and cover with shrink tubing) to the radio compartment. There are 8 wires that need to be extended. 2 wires (positive and negative) to each of 4 speakers = 8 wires.

Be sure to mark the wires as to color because this is important when you connect them to the new radio.
Make a bundle of the wires and route the bundle away from any moving parts in the dash (wipers) that may damage them.

The black wire connected to the amplifier is a chassis ground, and the green wire is a (constant) hot wire from fuse #3. There is no reason to cut these two wires, simply leave them connected to the amplifier.
Uplug the co-axial wire that travels from the radio to the amplifier as it will not be used.

At this point, it only a matter of connecting the existing wiring to the new radio.

The speaker wires that you should have in the radio compartment are 4 pairs which include

Left Front Speaker
1- Yellow/White
1- White

Left Rear Speaker
1- Yellow/Brown
1- Green/Brown

Right Front Speaker
1- Yellow/Gray
1- Gray

1- Green/Gray
1- Green/Yellow

These are the wires that you extended over from the amplifier and marked the colors ....correctly I hope.

Also you will have the following wires

1- Green....This is the hot wire from fuse #3. It is constantly hot.

1- Yellow/Black....This is the hot wire from the ingition switch and is hot whenever the switch is turned on. (Acc and Run).
It is powered thru fuse #1.

1- Black....This is the chassis ground.

Blue/ White
Brown........These wires will not be used, just leave them disconnected.
They are for brightening and dimming the interior light system.
Your new radio probably doesn't have this connection.

1- Red.... This is the wire that goes to the power antenna (if equipped).

You will have to pair the wires with the wire colors on the new radio connector.
Simply connect the correct car wire to the correct wire that comes from the new radio.

It easier if you will remove the glove box and the panel that is beside the drivers right knee.

I hope this helps.
Post back with questions.

steve

I just upgraded my 1990 240 with a new Kenwood radio. I bypassed the amp since the radio had 4 channels. I remember I just cut the 4 thin looking speaker wires from the stock Volvo amp. I hooked up 2 at a time to the radio to figure out which was for the rear right and left. I then sodered the wires, wrapped them with electrical tape, and all is good.

Hello rhoneyfi
I am confused on where you soldered these speaker wires you added if you could be more specific it'd help. And I do know my new radio is also a 4-channel but I'm not sure what that means if you could clear that up it'd be great.
Thanks!
Mackenzie

No need for the extra amp most all modern radios have 4 channels, you can leave it or remove it if it is in the way.

You will need to identify the speaker wires a switched and un-switched 12 volt source, a ground and maybe an automatic antenna wire if you have one. This can be done with a volt meter and a wiring diagram.
Dan

Okay but would i snip the wires coming out of the amp and connect them to the wires going into the amp so it like a direct set of speaker wires? Or will the wires how the currently are placed work okay?
-Mackenize

I have done this with several newer 91- 93 240's but I am not sure if the 90 is the same? I just made a new harness by re-using the existing harness and connectors. There is one connector for all the power/ ground wires and front speakers and a separate one for the rear speakers. On the newer stock 240 this harness connects the radio, extra amp and all speakers and can be removed in one piece.

I would not snip wires on the car side of the harness. Post you email address and I can send a pdf of the 90 wiring diagram.
Dan

Hey Dan
My email is Mackenz45@yahoo.com thank you

When you say you have a newer radio, do you mean
a newer volvo 240 radio or a non-volvo newer radio?
If I were installing a newer non-volvo radio I
would yank out the amp. and throw it away.


Joseph in New Mexico

Joesph
It is a new aftermarket Alpine....If i do indeed pull out the amp what do i do with the wires that were going into and coming from the amp?
-Mackenzie

Mackenzie,
I would pull the amp. and the wiring harness out.
Your going to have to figure out which wires are
for power, ground, speakers (front/back/left/right),
ect., in order to install the Alpine (nice radio).

If you do eliminate the wiring harness and if it
is not broken, I need one. One of the clips of the
plug that plug into my factory 240 radio is broken and
it causes static and it is driving my nuts.

Joseph Segura
jsegura525 at aol . com

If you hurry the Sears deal of at the day is four JVC speakers and a HD Radio for $30.

I don't need one or i would have jumped on it!