I have a 1991 240 that has no working radio. Apparently the person who had the car before me had installed some kind of other radio in the car and took it out when they sold the car.

Now for my problem. I have aquired a raido and amp for a 1991 volvo. However the wires had been cut and the connector is missing and the wires on the car do not match the colors on the radio/amp. I can figure out the colors for the speakers but need to know which wires are the power wires on the raido and the car. One wire has to be the ignition wire that is hot when the key is on and I know that one has to be the constant power since this raido should have a security code to make it work. And that leads me to the next problem does anyone know how to get the code for the radio?

Any help with this wire color puzzle and the raido code problem will be greatly appreciated !

A couple of tips for finding which wires are pos/neg. You can do an easy test with a AA battery. This was the method I used to install my stereo when I had no idea which wire was which.

Take one end of the battery, touch a speaker wire to it. Next, touch its counterpart to the other side of the battery, you will here an audible pop (this is the speaker moving). In my case I had no idea which wires went to which speaker so I touched wires to each side of the batery until I heard the speaker pop, then I knew I had found a pair. Next, find which speaker it is (you will easily be able to see the speaker deflecting when you touch the wires to the battery). If the speaker is moving outward then you know that you are touching the positive speaker wire to the positive end of the battery, if the speakers goes inward then you are touching the negative speaker wire to the positive side of the battery.

Hope it helps,
Mike

You should post the radio model, the colors of the wires you need identifed, and the location. Some of the later head units have no power amp stage and need a power amp for speaker output. Most of the 90 and later 240s had a 4 channel power amp mounted behind the storage bin in the lower console.

Without any information the wire colors are pretty consistant from year to year.

Green is usually the constant + for memory
yellow/black is usually switched + (this may be blue at the radio)
black is usually ground
red is usually power antenna lead
brown is usually the panel lamp lead
yellow/white and white are the left front speaker leads
yellow/grey and grey are the right front speaker leads
yellow/brown and green/brown are left rear
green/yellow and green/grey are right rear

Thanks for the great info. on the wires. For the rear speakers, do you know which ones are positive and which negative? All four have stripes.

Here is some information I have on the speaker wire colors, not sure if they will help you or not.

White = Left Front Positive (LF+)
White/Black = Left Front Negative (LF-)
Gray = Right Front Positive (RF+)
Gray/Black = Right Front Negative (RF-)
Green = Left Rear Positive (LR+)
Green/Black = Left Rear Negative (LR-)
Violet = Right Rear Positive (RR+)
Violet/Black = Right Rear Negative (RR-)

Thanks again for your help. These wires match what's coming out of my Sony head unit. I'm just splicing into the existing speaker wires so I'm trying to figure out what are the corresponding stock wires. I think I have the front wires figured out, but I'm not clear on the rear speaker wires because they all have stripes:

yellow/brown and green/brown are left rear
green/yellow and green/grey are right rear

Do you know which of these are positive and negative respectively?

Also, in the stock harnes there are 3 wires I don't have anything to connect to:

red - power amp (I don't have one)
brown - panel lamp (what do I do with this one?)
white/blue - ?what is it and what do I do with it?

I can't thank you enough for your help. I'm trying to get this done tonight and I'm at a roadblock.

Thanks again.

These are the speaker colors from an aftermarket stereo. If any of the factory wiring is left, it'll follow the other list presented above, i.e. grey, white, brown, green with stripes.

There used to be a big black 14 pin (I think) plug at your amp.

I honestly see no reason to keep or reinstall a factory amp in a 91. The thing is, truthfully, total junk. It's not a good factory system.

I recently resurrected the factory wiring, all cut and hacked badly in my 92, and eliminated the amp, and installed a JVC head unit with a cd changer in the trunk. The speakers for the factory 90-up system all come from the amp connector. These needed to be pulled up to the top radio location (assuming you're using this- most people do). The radio also can fit into the storage box at the bottom BUT only if you get the box from an earlier model. I happened to have one from an 89, and I installed this deeper box for more storage, when I eliminated the amp.

If all the speaker wires have already been run to a modern DIN type head unit, you're better off connecting to them than trying to revive a factory radio. They were very commonly known for blowing amp channels and so on.

You'll really be a lot happier with a modern Alpine or Pioneer (or any quality brand) of CD player with 20W per channel or more.

Good luck with whatever you choose.
--
::: Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 92 244 M47 211K ::: 90 745GL M47 273K ::: 88 245DL AW70 190K ::: 84 242DL Project ::: 70 VW Bus ::: 70 VW Pickup Project ::: 71 VW Notchback :::

Thanks to all for the great information and assistance with my radio install. Everything went well and I know have a much better sounding system and the luxury of a disc changer. I surely couldn't have done it without the Brickboard. Big props to all!

Thanks for the great info. on the wires. For the rear speakers, do you know which ones are positive and which negative? All four have stripes.

Hi there,
I'm also trying to replace the stereo in my '92 245. I've removed the crap amplifier and the radio and now i'm looking at the harness and wondering what to do. I'm replacing the stock stereo with a Sony unit I had in my old 242. I got from your first post the speaker wires, and those wires correspond to what's in my car now. I just want to splice into them, I'm not going to bother with new speakers and wiring for the moment. I'm not installing an amplifier, just the head unit. So from the stock harness I plan to splice the Green (constant +) with the corresponding wire on the Sony. Same with the speaker wires, the ground, and the switched +. In other words, I plan to just splice into the stock harness. My concern is that there are three wires that I don't know what to do with in the stock harness. The red wire is power antenna which I don't have, then there is a brown wire and a blue/white wire. What do I do with these three wires and what are they for? Do I just leave them unattached? Thanks so much for your assistance!

Yes, leave them unattached. I just installed a nice Sony unit into my neighbor's 88 244. All of the factory wiring had been chopped and connectors (in this case the old style connectors) had been lost. In addition, new speaker wire pairs had been run to aftermarket rear shelf speakers. They were color-coded white, white/black and grey, grey/black, and of course backwards from what should have been standard.

You will find, at the original head unit plug, the following:

Green- unswitched (battery) power, connect to yellow or Memory wire on new unit

Yellow/Black- switched power, connect to red or + on new unit. Inline fuse usually connects here, but isn't necessary if the correct fuses are in fusebox.

Black- ground or earth connection, may be 1 or 2 wires.

Red- factory power antenna wire. Not present on any 240 wagons, optional on sedans, usually a blue wire on aftermarket head units, and not needed.

Brown- dashboard lights, dimmer circuit. Not needed with most aftermarket units.

The remaining wires are speaker wires. They are usually white and white/yellow, grey and grey/yellow on one side of the 9-pin plug, if present. If you're using a pigtail off an old factory stereo, you may find white, white/blue and blue, blue/white on the stereo side of things, and that's usually spliced to your white and grey speaker wire pairs for front speakers.

Now, a 92 had a different plug, and apparently there's no adapter for it- so you'll most likely find NO connector present. I used an old one, and made it plug in like an 89 or older style because I have 4 radios all ready to plug into that style connector.

Then there is this extra blue/white wire. I studied the Bentley wiring diagram and it seemed to be +12, switched, but it didn't prove to be useful for anything, so on mine, it's cut off and taped securely back in the wiring harness. Don't need it, don't know where it goes.

Good luck with your install- you'll be soooo much happier.
--
::: Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 92 244 M47 211K ::: 90 745GL M47 273K ::: 88 245DL AW70 190K ::: 84 242DL Project ::: 70 VW Bus ::: 70 VW Pickup Project ::: 71 VW Notchback :::

Thank you so much, you have no idea how helpful this info. is. I can't believe Brickboard is such an amazing resource. I guess the only question I have left are which factory speaker wires are postive and negative. This is what I know so far:

yellow/white and white are front left
yellow/grey and grey are front right
yellow/brown and green/brown are rear left
yellow/green and green/grey are rear right

But which are positive and negative? I know the wiring for my sony stereo but I just need to match up those wires correctly to the stock wiring.

Thank you again so much. You guys truly are amazing!

It does not really matter which is pos or neg as long as all the speakers are the same. If you mix them you won't hurt anthing, but the speakers will be out of phase, and will sound tinny.
The wires with the yellow are the postive wires according to the Volvo diagrams. If you look each set has a wire with a yellow stripe that volvo calls positive. You could make all the yellows negative and it should not make any difference.

Thanks so much - you're a life saver. I'm trying to get this done tonight as I need my car in the morning and my center console is shall we say AWOL! Thanks again.