Dials/Radio switch help.

[yragyrag90]

Hi all.
I'll probably be asking tons of questions on this as I'm not too sure how it'll all work, but...
I recently won an eBay auction for a dial cluster.


So, I'll be looking to pop these where my radio currently is.
So with that in mind, and having to place the radio (which is currently a snazzy DVD player) in to the lower position, I'm looking at my options.

Does anyone on here use the top position for gauges and the lower position for their radio.
And if so, what radio are you running?

With the clusters, there's an oil level gauge.
How do I fit the sensors and things?

There's an oil pressure gauge.
How do I fit the sensors and things?

There's an ambient temperature gauge.
How do I fit the sensors and things?

And there's a clock.
How do I... Ah, right.

Anyway, really looking forward to getting these all white dialled and LED'd up. And in.
But I'm moving house soon, so it may have to wait until after that.

But for now, what's your instrument/radio/gauge set up?

[Antz]

I was watching them but decided that all the faffing with moving the radio I couldnt be bothered haha.

I cant help you out with your questions but I look forward to seeing the end result.

[wooble]

I have a full set of Volvo gauges (made by VDO) fitted in mine, econometer/oil pressure/volts/outside temp/clock. The radio is fairly easy to move, the wiring will reach the lower position so all you have to do is remove the radio, jiggle the wiring down into the right place, and make yourself a faceplate to hold the radio. In my case, I used a melamine place mat which I butchered up with a jigsaw and drill to get the shape right, then glued some vinyl to it so the colour and texture matched the interior of the car. Looks 100% like it was meant to be there from the factory.

The gauges should be interesting, the 2 oil pressure gauges you have got are mechanical, i.e. they need to be connected to the engine's oil system by a pipe to work. The Volvo gauge is electrical, i.e. there's a sender which replaces your standard oil light switch, and this sends an electrical signal to your gauge. It also has the advantage of not having to run an oil line into the car, I have seen a mechanical oil gauge spring a leak before and proceed to spray about 3 litres of oil around behind the dash and into the carpets. Truthfully what I would do in your situation is get a Volvo gauge and sender to work with, they are fairly cheap on turbobricks.

The ambient temp gauge is pretty simple, you'll need to find a sender, the 'correct' volvo sender is practically unobtainium but you can also just use an engine coolant temperature sensor, they work fine.

As afar as wiring, the VDO/volvo gauges usually have 3 pins, one marked + which you connect to a source of ignition-switched power in the fusebox, one marked 'G' which connects to the appropriate sender, and an earth pin which you connect to a handy bolt behind the dash somewhere. Buy at least red, black and one other colour for the sender wires so you don't get mixed up!

I should have thought you would have a clock already, but if you don't, the clock has a loom which plugs into the back of the tachometer.

[yragyrag90]

Wow, great info. Thanks.

Yeah, I really just was after the enclosure bit and the temp one. I was really unsure on what even the oil pressure ones do. But I really don't like the sound of oil spraying anything.

Thanks for all that.

[jetronic63]

I got a new VDO sensor for my ambient gauge, fits behind the front bumper.

VDO Part 323-801-008-002D Temp Sender Outside Air -25°+125°C M10x1

The gauges are quite cheap to source so I guess you could swap the mechanical oil gauges for electrical versions to simplify installation if you wanted to.

[yragyrag90]

Damn it. I thought the whole load were really rare...

Wooble, you mentioned the Voltometer, is that a part I could order direct from Volvo?

[tjhuggett]

Hello yragyrag90,
If you decide to make the radio switch from upper to lower dash, would you consider selling the upper dash radio bezel? My stereo is mounted in the lower dash, but I'd like to move it up. RHD upper dash radio face plates are hard to find here in the US (and, apparently, on ebay UK and Oz and Yahoo Japan auctions). Our RHD 1987 240 hasn't arrived yet, but I'm planning ahead.
Cheers,
Tom

[rustytoba]

Just a thought you said your radio is a dvd unit if you move it to the lower position is there enough room for the screen to pop out without hitting the gear shift?

Rusty

PS I use both spaces for sereo before it chewed all my tapes I had the twin unit from a 760 GLE (radio in top and tape in the bottom) the radio is still in the top but the bottoms for new hi tech things called CD's !

[Angie]

Sorry if I'm intruding here but this thread prompted me to ask what's needed for the radio to be moved to the lower position. I've read that the wiring is fairly simple but are there fixings (brackets, anything else) already in place. I have a fairly modern cd player and the plate it's set into is obviously home made, cut out of a piece of aluminium I guess, and painted matt black, so it looks fine. It's too big to fit in the lower aperture though. Any advice appreciated.

If I ever do get it moved, tjhuggett, you're welcome to have the bezel if you can't find a proper one.

[rustytoba]

As far as I can remember there was a kit including a crackle plastic bezel but I think it was for a more old school two knob arrangement, it may also have came in the other trim colours blue, tan etc.

The space is an ideal width as it is for a normal DIN CD player to jam in with about an inch air gap above, in these pics are my old tape deck sadly dead but not forgotten, the radio is still in rude health one of the first OE fitted radios with what we now know as RDS but was called something else in 1987.

To my knowledge my CD player has only popped out once when I gave the 240 a few too many beans at the lights but it is safe enough.

Rusty