Antenna Down Switch

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 25 Apr 2009, 08:38

Those who are familiar with this switch probably have one and know what I'm talking about. Those who aren't, you can possibly stick around and learn something (I hope I do). Anyway, I have one of these in my S70- great little rocker arm switch that illuminates like the other ones when you have your headlights on (with dimmer function) and it works great to keep my antenna down when I want it to, such as when I'm just listening to CD's or my iPod...not radio. So, the original one I bought came with an adapter that just plugs into the back of the stock radio and then the regular connector (that normally goes in the back) plugs into this- sort of a piggy-back. Great idea and no splicing of wires, etc. is needed.

I installed a BlitzSafe iPod adapter into the 850 and so my son has great tunes now without having to rely on tapes or CD's or some crazy contraption through the cassette mechanism or even a radio signal sending unit. So... (sorry I'm getting long winded here) I bought just the Antenna Down rocker switch (for cheap) from a member over on V.S. No big deal- thought it would be easy to wire this thing up. I suppose that I could pull everything out of my S70 and see what it looks like to know where the 4 stubby wires coming out of the switch hook up to but I found that after I installed the adapter cable in my S70 I also added the boost gauge and did some other splicing in there for light to that...I would have to pretty much take everything apart to get to where I can see which wire goes where on the antenna down switch wiring.

After that long intro, my question is, can someone tell me or actually, better yet, take a picture (if you have one of these w/ the wire adapter kit) of how the wires are connected into the kit. What I would like to do is just extend the wires from my switch all the way over to the head unit and either splice them in to the existing connector or better yet, push them into the appropriate sockets before pushing in the connector...this way there won't be any splicing.

For those who have never seen this, it is the far right switch in the picture below:

In regards to the pin-outs, I have those figured out pretty well (although my colors are different than many- makes me think my switch came out of a 960 and not 850):

Larmor · Post by **Larmor** » 25 Apr 2009, 14:28

Does it plug into the existing wiring harness directly? If so, you can redirect pin 3A from this diagram through the switch's antenna contacts. Doesn't matter which side is "in" and "out", and pins 1 and 3 are connected internally. Since I didn't have the switch's wiring kit, I used crimp-on quick disconnect wire terminals; the switch contacts are just a tiny bit too wide for an easy fit, but they're easier to deal with if you force the terminals on once to widen them out before crimping them.

Pins 10A (+) and 11A (-) should work for the light contacts, but I just used insulation-piercing wire taps on the harness for the next switch over - not technically splicing, I suppose.

I should still have the extra terminals and taps somewhere, so I can figure out their sizes again.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 25 Apr 2009, 19:16

Thanks- I'll give it a go as soon as I get the PCV system put back together in my 850.

Post by **Sperry** » 25 Apr 2009, 19:54

Wow! That sounds so much more classy than pulling the fuse,
like I've been doing!

Seriously, I needed my 30A fuse, and robbing the antenna seemed reasonable.
That got me thinking about an antenna switch.
It was not an option in the 850, so I'd have to wing it?

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 25 Apr 2009, 21:22

Actually, if you buy the real kit ( www.bortonvolvo.com ) it comes with a wiring harness...so there is no winging it. I didn't get the harness- thus the questions.