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92 244 Radio Job - Partial Success, Cruise Control Side Effect

Well, Using my Metra harness and bezel kits, I have managed to partially install my new radio. I discovered after the fact that the speaker wires on the *power plug* connector are the ones to the front, not the connector with front and back wires all together.

Luckily I know how to get the little spade plugs out of the connectors using a paper clip, so I was able to swap my wires around and plug the one connector right into the harness down by the driver's foot.

I also extracted the Volvo amplifier and believe that the rear speakers plug into a little 4-terminal connector down there near where the amplifier was. I intend to snip off the wires for the amp side of that small connector and solder in patch wires back over to the radio for the rear speakers, per advice in a previous thread.

But an unfortunate side effect is that my cruise control isn't working anymore. I presume that I must have knocked off a vacuum hose or wire down there somewhere but I haven't spotted it yet. The hose is attached to the pneumatic actuator on the accelerator pedal so the problem must be somewhere else. I'll be attempting to scope it out, I'm going to pull that annoying bulb-failure indicator light from the instrument cluster while I'm at it :-)

If anybody has any insight into the cruise control that would be great. Surely it doesn't draw power from the amp->radio portion of the harness which is now disconnected? Hmmm, I guess that would be easy to test at least.

Reply to
Douglas
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I haven't seen exactly the same Cruise Control failure you describe, but I've seen a few failure causes. My car with C.C. is an '86.

1) Multiple vacuum hoses help run the C.C. The main unit is on the firewall in engine compartment, driver's side. Shaped like a cylinder with one end rounded. Trace all the hoses in and out of it as far as you can see, looking for leaks or bad rubber.

2) Oil or trans. fluid or brake fluid leaks spraying onto a sensor (??) on the driveline. Old systems ahd a C.C. pickup sensor on driveshaft, but I think these 240's use the same speedo sensor that feeds to the speedometer. But look for messy slime down there anyway, it's good to know about if you have it!

3) 3- (or 4??) wire harness going to the speedometer itself not clipped on fully - even though speedometer is working! I had a rarely-working C.C. for months. After I pulled the instrument cluster to change some bulbs and had so had to remove and reattach that wire set, my Cruise Control came back to life. Speedometer had been working perfectly, giving me no clue that the problem was with the clip there. I'd clean the male and female parts of the connector with electrical cleaner, and maybe pinch the female part with pliers to make sure the contacts grip well.

4) Engine wire harness rotted away, causing a short or a wire break. Not likely in a '92, but i suppose anything's possible.

Bruce Pick

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Reply to
Bruce Pick

Thats probably it. I remember that plug from when I was in there last time installing my mini-tach and fuel economy gauge. IIRC, I think I broke some flimsy plastic retainer clip on the back of it. If its like a 4-wire plug, white plastic I think, then that may be it.

I was reaching in there trying to poke my radio harness down through the wires and I bet I knocked it loose. Going out here in a sec to work on it some more. I'll check into it.

Thanks!

Reply to
Douglas

Yes - I've had two of those out of the dash, and the one in an '89 that probably had not been fooled with before did have some kind of retaining clip on the connector. I believe you can live without the clip, but the terminal connector has to be on well.

Good luck - I'm curious to hear how it goes.

Bruce

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Douglas wrote:

Reply to
Bruce Pick

Got it. You're gonna laugh but the reason that my cruise control wasn't working was because it wasn't *the amplifier* that I removed :-)

I was going by a guide for a 740 I believe and it showed the amp up under the steering wheel. When I looked up there there was a aluminum box with about eight wires coming out of it. Bingo, I thought.

Heh, the real amplifier was down behind the lower radio/storage compartment. I yanked it out, and fixed up my rocker switch lights while I was at it, and got it all put back together real nice.

After replacing the cruise control module and reconnecting its wires, its working again (whew).

One last thing to do is fix the left rear speaker. Its not making any sound (it never did) and the power window switch is erratic also. Maybe next weekend I'll take that door apart and see what I can find out.

Nice radio. Its a Jensen MP7720 cd/mp3 player. It sounds pretty good, has all the features I wanted, looks reasonable in the 240 (the blue glow is a bit flashy perhaps) and at $110 I don't have to be overly paranoid about it getting ripped off.

Thanks for all the tips. Mission accomplished!

Reply to
Douglas

Excellent.

For the door speaker and power window problems, look for worn wires and wire insulation where those pass through the door hinge area. Getting a view inidet he rubber boot is a pain, so look for problems at the speaker and motor device also.

Bruce

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Douglas wrote:

Reply to
Bruce Pick

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