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Installing a 960 Ambient Temp Gauge In A 940?

fatcatbestcat

fatcatbestcat

Professional Hack
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Mississauga, ON (Canada)
Hey, it's me again with some dumb questions because the Google machine wouldn't help.

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I have a '91 940, and a cluster-mounted ambient temp gauge from a 960. I have some connectors and wire but it's not all complete and I have no idea how this is normally supposed to be wired up. If anyone can provide some diagrams or possibly links to some older threads with pictures, that would be great - I couldn't find any.
 
The 2 wire harness is already in your car. Look for it near the place where the Temp Sensor goes in the bottom grill under the bumper on the driver side.
The harness for the display is taped behind the cluster. Its either White connector or Black. The color of the connectors you are mating has to be the same.
 
PCH said:
The 2 wire harness is already in your car. Look for it near the place where the Temp Sensor goes in the bottom grill under the bumper on the driver side.
The harness for the display is taped behind the cluster. Its either White connector or Black. The color of the connectors you are mating has to be the same.
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You're kidding, it's that simple?

I guess I'll check it out Sunday when I have time to get the cluster in the car.
 
You can find the diagrams and illustrations here: http://www.v8volvo.se/mekartips/volvo/

For the Ambient Temp Gauge info click on Filer 940/Volvo Grona 940 1994.pdf and scroll down to Page 120. The Mitchell versions do not show the optional info like that IIRC so you have to look at the Volvo Factory Manual scans and the earliest they have is 1994- should be the same as 1991.
The only problem you can run into is if the display connector on the gauge is different color from the mating connector you have in your existing behind the cluster harness. Like if one is Black (Late) and the other is White (early version)- they will not mate together so you are gonna have to figure out how to deal with that.
 
2manyturbos said:
No, they aren't. The 940/960 was not pre-wired for the ambient gage until 1993 on US models. OP, that is a 940 ambient gage I sent you. The 960 gage is slightly different. John Sargent knows how to wire these up. 745TI+ is his user name.
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Thank you for the correction. I guess I was lucky to have only worked on the ones that had universal harness with this option built in.
 
This thread is motivating me to get a new sensor after a drive-through carwash blew my lower grille off with the temp sensor still stuck in it. I'm sick of my dash telling me that it's freezing outside.
 
philski o'flood said:
you have a white plug that has an extra wire for the dimmer circuit, which got dropped for later gauges
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Well, wiring it up is probably not going to be that difficult - I actually already have a redundant boost gauge I plan to get rid of, and I can steal the 12v+ and ground connections from it.

Is the extra wire a big deal, or can I just put some shrink tube on it and leave it unused?
philski o'flood said:
also you need the sender
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Uh, that might be a problem.
 
fatcatbestcat said:
Well, wiring it up is probably not going to be that difficult - I actually already have a redundant boost gauge I plan to get rid of, and I can steal the 12v+ and ground connections from it.

Is the extra wire a big deal, or can I just put some shrink tube on it and leave it unused?

Uh, that might be a problem.
Click to expand...
The senders are available for not too much - they used them in other cars too I'm pretty sure. Seems like 40 to 50 bucks on the high end for a new one or cheaper used.

I'd still personally like to figure out how to wire up one of these if anyone has any further details. Can't seem to find John Sargent on here, but maybe I'm just bad with navigating forums. I pinched the setup off of a 94 940 and I'd like to have it in my 91 740. It seems strange to me that all models aren't prewired earlier, given that the late 760 foglight front end is prewired and gauge cluster cutout was present in 1991, and the actual interface uses the old cluster style of bulb. I'm also wondering why there's a cutout on the right side of the cluster too, I've never seen any option that uses that side, US or Europe.
 
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ortho stice said:
This thread is motivating me to get a new sensor after a drive-through carwash blew my lower grille off with the temp sensor still stuck in it. I'm sick of my dash telling me that it's freezing outside.
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To follow up on this:

I grabbed an temp sensor from a '95 850 and one from a '00 V70XC at the junkyard. Bench testing showed they ohm out the same although the later car has a different sensor and wiring connector. The 850 part plugged right into my 940 wiring harness and I have my temp reading back on the dash. Since I lost the lower grille I just fabbed up a little bracket and drilled it out the size of the sensor circumference.
 
NLRegina said:
The senders are available for not too much - they used them in other cars too I'm pretty sure. Seems like 40 to 50 bucks on the high end for a new one or cheaper used.

I'd still personally like to figure out how to wire up one of these if anyone has any further details. Can't seem to find John Sargent on here, but maybe I'm just bad with navigating forums. I pinched the setup off of a 94 940 and I'd like to have it in my 91 740. It seems strange to me that all models aren't prewired earlier, given that the late 760 foglight front end is prewired and gauge cluster cutout was present in 1991, and the actual interface uses the old cluster style of bulb. I'm also wondering why there's a cutout on the right side of the cluster too, I've never seen any option that uses that side, US or Europe.
Click to expand...
Just look at what Phil posted above and it shows how the gage is wired. It that simple. Locate a ground point on your car and a 12 switched power source and hook up those two connections. Obviously you will need to run some long wires up to the front of the car where you will mount the sensor.
 
2manyturbos said:
Just look at what Phil posted above and it shows how the gage is wired. It that simple. Locate a ground point on your car and a 12 switched power source and hook up those two connections. Obviously you will need to run some long wires up to the front of the car where you will mount the sensor.
Click to expand...
I have a (now disused) aftermarked boost gauge located right near the cluster, and my intention was to steal the 12v+ and ground wire off of that.

I haven't yet gotten around to making mine work as I'm having slightly more important speedo issues at the moment. Otherwise, as everyone else has stated, it seems like a pretty simple install.
 
2manyturbos said:
Just look at what Phil posted above and it shows how the gage is wired. It that simple. Locate a ground point on your car and a 12 switched power source and hook up those two connections. Obviously you will need to run some long wires up to the front of the car where you will mount the sensor.
Click to expand...
Hmmm. I have a gauge from a 960 with 5 terminals and a gauge from a 94 940 with 6 terminals. I assume the other ones for controlling the dimmer? Do I not need that functionality?
 
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