Tailgate wiring

[firosiro]

Yes I have some of the usual problems. Number plate lights not working but will light when the tailgate is close to horizontal (that scenario is getting more flaky though) and the third brake light comes on when the tailgate is fully open so looks like two of the wires are compromised. Heated rear window and wiper works fine as does the tailgate solenoid. I know that the earth link in the loom side is broken but the other side seems to be working fine at the moment. The loom casing in the hinge is still intact so I cant see what is happening to the 4 wires. Not taken anything apart yet, have ordered a loom from Charlton.
Question - Which colour wires go to what? There are 4 wires in the loom, Blue, Yellow and either 2 greys or a grey and a black.

[Angie]

As far as I remember - I enlisted a friend to help with the wiring about three years ago - it's more or less foolproof, as each wire has a different type of connector. It was a reasonably straightforward job, just a bit of jiggling needed to feed the wires down through the tailgate, and of course the need for two people as the tailgate is heavy.

Various people on here have worked out ways to bypass the hinges so as to avoid future problems but I prefer to keep things original if possible. I think it's sensible to replace both looms while you're about it, unless one side has been replaced recently. They're not expensive and you want to avoid the hassle of removing the tailgate again in possibly the fairly near future.

[BrianH]

I do one side at a time. Both, as Ange says is better.

In 29 years Ive done this so many times.

Open the rear door pull off the tee shaped plastic tee cover on the door, lift off the plastic base. Pop off the plastic gromets under the card carefully. Release shaped wire leads colour matched plugs. Can't go wrong.

Loose the roof lining by pulling back and hooking up and out.

I support the door with a bench to support the door.

Unplug the top wires all mached to colour by plug shape as below.

Use a socket to remove the hinge bolts.

This is messy as there is black unset sealer on the joint so much I have never added to it! Gloves are no good.

Attach a length of cord to the wire to be extracted from the top and ease down and out. Not easy. Loose it and you are lost. Make a good joint, otherwise its treading a wire through.

Bind the new wires to the cord tightly, pull through gently.

Once to the top..... beath again...... and the connecting plugs are easy.

Reposition the rubber seal carefully underneath the hinge and stuggle to locate the bolts, especially the body bolt.

Pull and streach the head lining and hook over the channel.

If there are broken plastic location buttons on the rear door card you can still get them from Swansea Volvo. Just make sure you give a good description.

I have no rear wipers at the moment....... so time.

Time to try something different, after suggestions from Mr Clurer a Volvo Club Technical Director a few years ago.

I have soldered push connections to an elongated loom so that, hopefully I can pull through the damaged portion cut and recrimp and reconnect!!

So far I have tried to pull though without loosening the bolts.....no go.

BrianH 245 GL 1989

[Stephen Edwin]

BrianH.

Thank you.

I take it you refer to opening the tailgate. Where in Earth is the tee shaped plastic tee cover please? Are you referring to the early style tailgate? On the newer style I guess one removes the rectangular panel across the lower part of the tailgate?

[Jungle_Jim]

Hi all
Facing this same recurring problem, this time I've bought some flexible cable from ebay - silicon shielded, 18awg gauge, and using connectors and a crimper, replaced each of the four wires in each side.

The wire I used was thicker, and more flexible than a normal harness. What makes it flexible is that it uses lots of very thin wires, as opposed to fewer thicker ones. Added to this is the silicon shielding which is more softer than the standard plasticy shielding.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...d=862766194023

Installing them was easy - passing the groups of four wires down the sides of the tailgate - using the old wiring to see which wire went where, and crimp in the relevant connector (you need a crimping tool and range of connectors). The only drawback is that all my wire was black - it was cheaper than buying lengths of different coloured stuff. I think 10 metres did the whole job, both sides. (each length is roughly a bit over 1 metre and you need 8 so 10 metres suffices.)

So far (a few months) it's been working very well.

One area of weakness with the 240 tailgate design is that the wiring is exposed to the elements just at the vulnerable pivot point. This means that the wiring insulation gets exposed to UV light and deteriorates. Just on this point I wrapped the wiring in some tape which I believe is UV resistant - we'll see.

When you've got 4 individual wires going through the hinge, as opposed to a 4-core, you need to make sure that - once the hinge is bolted down either side - each wire is not pinched or trapped more than it needs to be, allowing as much movement as possible, so it can slide back and forth somewhat around the pivot point - this will increase its longevity as much as possible.

Anyone else done something similar?

John

[BrianH]

Hi Stephen

Yes its the opening rear tail gate. The interior opening handle. (I only know the 1989 estate)

Further to that above you need to remove the dedicated plugs before you can thread the cable through the rear pillar. This done with a small screw driver down the back of the plug following the wire in. The aim is to fiddle the metal tag holding the wire in the plug. Sometimes this is easy, sometimes very fiddley.

Ive ignored the earth tag over the hinge itself as its always broken.

Been raining solid today. Must get round to this!!!

BrianH