[[email protected]]

For you local guys especially (Volvorules and Towerymt, any suggestions on installing my new gauge upgrade to the 245. I got a full size tachometer, and smaller voltmeter and clock for our car. I don't have a Bentley manual yet, but am thinking of purchasing one. I have yet to crack open the dash of this thing and see how it is all put together. Any thoughts?

 

[towerymt]

The large tach and small clock are easy to install. You can unscrew the cluster and slide it out to the right so you have room to remove the large clock without having to disconnect the speedometer, etc. The tach only needs one wire hooked to it, and it's already part of the harness behind the cluster (it's white/red with a spade connector already attached). It gets plugged into the lone connector on the bottom half of the tach (the 3 connectors near the top are for the sm. clock). Don't forget the plug that fills the hole from the clock set knob, if you have one.

Did you get the small harness for the clock? That powers the clock from the tach. The 3 connectors on the tach are marked 30, 31, and 5x (I know it's 50-something). The 30 goes to + (power), the 31 goes to T (ground), and I believe the 5x goes to the light bulb on the clock.

For the volt meter, you'll have to run some wires. From + to a power source switched on at position II, and a wire from T to a good ground connection. There should be a spot behind the center console where there are lots of ground connections terminiating in one spot, so you can add to that with the volt gauge (I haven't looked for it, so I don't know exactly where it is). Most people recommend splicing the wire for the light bulb into the wiring (brown) for the instrument cluster so that the dimmer knob will work on the small gauges too.

I use 16 gauge wire and .250" spade connectors. Some light bulbs used really small tabs and I don't know what size they take, but you can solder the wire right onto the connector if you prefer.

Here are a couple of pages from the Brickboard archives that should be helpful when installing gauges:

How to Install Tachometer in '88 240DL?[200/88]

small gauges[200/82]

 

[[email protected]]

AWESOME! Thank you. Second question. Voltmeter isn't really critical to me. This means I have one extra slot if I care to retain my stereo and my small clock. I have been watching the oil temp gauges go across ebay, though haven't bid on one yet. Monitoring oil temps seems more important to me, or possibly oil pressure....

Do you have any experience with the Oil Temp gauge or the oil pressure gauge?

 

[towerymt]

You're welcome. I still haven't installed my oil pressure gauge that I've had for quite a while and I have the sender too, but I still need an adapter elbow to mount the sender on the block. I think oil pressure is more critical than oil temp, especially on a non-turbo engine that's getting up there in mileage like both of our 240s. The 5 bar gauges are very common since 240 Turbos had them stock for most years. Early turbos had 3 bar gauges, which usually peg during driving, but if the pressure drops then it will read more precisely at lower pressure, so each has it's advantage. At one point I had (3) 5-bar gauges (1 VW, 1 Audi, 1 Volvo), but I've sold off two leaving just my Volvo one.

I bought an oil temp gauge on ebay but I don't have it yet and I don't have the drain plug sender either. I want to do my power windows conversion first so I can change my speakers and move my cd player all at once, which will make room for more gauges (5) up top. Another option I'm considering is to use a seperate pod mounted on the dash to the left of the cluster, right next to the a-pillar, which would limit me to only 3 gauges with the radio on top. I really only need 3, so I may just do that.

 

[[email protected]]

No worries there, as the Oil Pressure gauges go much cheaper than the oil temp gauges I've seen on ebay.

I don't have the 245 right now, as I currently have three cars and lent the 245 to my sister who just turned in a lease and wants to wait a few months before getting another car.

For this reason, I can't go out and start tinkering with it in the evening.

And seeing what I care to change. I'd like to do a stereo upgrade at some point, but I'm not sure where to mount it. I like having that catch all bin down below, so I am apprehensive about changing that whole top row to gauges...though voltmeter and oil temp would be nice.

Sounds like you have quite the ladder of mods to do until you can do the gauges.

 

[11110000]

I went whole-hog and put a new stereo down below, and filled every slot with an appropriate gauge. I've got the voltemeter and clock beside the main cluster, and then vacuum/fuel econ, oil temp and oil pressure. The oil temp is a nice addition - it lets you see how hot the engine internals are getting, vs. just the regulated cooling system. You can see a difference in temps when you go from sedate to hard driving.

I don't miss the bottom storage. I put in a CD player, and I store those on the visor, so I got to empty the casettes out of my glovebox and regain that whole storage space.

 

[[email protected]]

I'd like to go with oil temp. That'd be a good one. I also noticed in an old Volvo accessories book that they did exterior temperature and fuel economy. That's pretty funny and pretty random. Not having a turbo, it might also be some of the gauges I choose to do up top if we drop the stereo down below.

 

[towerymt]

I put an ambient temp gauge in my 240 about a month ago. The hardest part is finding the gauge. The rest is easy.

Jason , nice user name! I was thinking about that a few weeks ago, but I decided not to abandon my post count.