1984 Volvo 240 DL radio and antenna

[Roy Kasten]

I recently purchased a nice 1984 240 sedan. The radio and power
antenna need replacing or fixing, and so I'm looking for some advice.

The motor on the antenna seems to function fine (I can hear it going
up and down as it should) but the antenna itself is broken off. Is my
only option to replace the entire power unit, or can the antenna pole
itself be replaced? Would either of these replacement jobs be
difficult? I'm fairly handy, but not a mechanic or an electrician.

The cassette player on the radio is stuck in reverse play mode (the
little directional arrow points to the left). When I insert a
cassette, the fast foward and reverse seem to work, but the cassette
won't play at all. I press the direction button on the unit, and I
hear a sound that suggests it's trying to change direction or engage,
but it still stays stuck in the same reverse play mode. The radio
itself works OK, but there's not much reception (seeing as the antenna
pole is snapped off).

I'd like to keep the original radio and cassette player, but if folks
here think I should not bother with trying to fix it, I won't. Either
way I need to have music in my car!

I'd be curious to know what more knowledgable Volvo owners would do.
Thanks in advance.

Roy

 

[Mike F]

I recently purchased a nice 1984 240 sedan. The radio and power
antenna need replacing or fixing, and so I'm looking for some advice.

The motor on the antenna seems to function fine (I can hear it going
up and down as it should) but the antenna itself is broken off. Is my
only option to replace the entire power unit, or can the antenna pole
itself be replaced? Would either of these replacement jobs be
difficult? I'm fairly handy, but not a mechanic or an electrician.

The cassette player on the radio is stuck in reverse play mode (the
little directional arrow points to the left). When I insert a
cassette, the fast foward and reverse seem to work, but the cassette
won't play at all. I press the direction button on the unit, and I
hear a sound that suggests it's trying to change direction or engage,
but it still stays stuck in the same reverse play mode. The radio
itself works OK, but there's not much reception (seeing as the antenna
pole is snapped off).

I'd like to keep the original radio and cassette player, but if folks
here think I should not bother with trying to fix it, I won't. Either
way I need to have music in my car!

I'd be curious to know what more knowledgable Volvo owners would do.
Thanks in advance.

Roy

The antenna mast can be replaced separately. Put the antenna in the up
position, remove the nut on top of the fender and pull the mast out.
The new mast comes with a plastic rack with teeth, compare what your old
one came out with. If part of this is stuck inside the antenna motor
you'll have to dismantle the motor to get it out. If not, you can just
feed the plastic rack into the hole, and have a helper turn the radio
off. As the antenna goes down, the mechanism will grab the rack and
pull the new mast in. Just reassemble, turn the radio on and off and
the mast will reposition itself.

In my climate, the sleeve of the mast gets stuck inside the top of the
antenna with corrosion, making removal almost impossible. I've done
some where I've had to completely dismantle the antenna and drill out
the remnants of the sleeve!

The original Volvo radios aren't very good, and honestly aren't worth
the trouble of fixing.

 

[Roy Kasten]

The antenna mast can be replaced separately. Put the antenna in the up

position, remove the nut on top of the fender and pull the mast out.

Thanks for the advice! I'll give that a shot.

Roy

 

[Don Hodgdon]

When I bought my 740 the cassette player didn't work. I pulled the radio and
found that a small piece of plastic, broken off of a cassette, had jammed
the mechanism. After removing the piece, the cassette has worked perfectly
ever since.

--
-------------------------------------------------------------
Don

'67 122 - 1st car
'70 142 - Lemon
'72 145 - Gone But Not Forgotten
'81 242t - Esther's Turbo (Project Car)
'82 245 - POS
'89 740ti - Ilsa, Daily Driver

 

[Roy Kasten]

Turns out repeated cleaning has helped the cassette deck unstick
itself. Now it's playing cassettes, but playing them slow.

Ah, well, I'll look for a new cassette deck this week.

thanks for all the input!

Roy