First of all great post, finished my driver side seat today. I did have a small problem when I started a couple of days ago. I went ahead and took the whole seat out, just because I thought it would be easer to work on, and it was for me. After the seat removal the first thing I did was to attempt to remove the lumbar ****. The lumbar **** on the driver seat in my car is on the left hand side, not on the right as shown in the picture, so no big deal didn't think much about it tell I tried to take it off. So turned the **** counter clockwise till it stopped, then pulled out on the **** and tried to turn it again, no go. Tried again and again no go. Didn't want to break the **** so gave up for the day and worked on something else.
Next day tried a couple more times no go, so I removed the pin in the picture with the title (before repair at transmission) the pin is the item in the white square thing just above the cable. The lumbar **** then came right out. After I finished the job and it was all back together I started fooling with the lumber **** again because I wanted to know why my **** would not come off in the same fashion as the Techs.
So here is how My lumbar **** comes out without pulling the pin.
Step 1. Turn **** counter clockwise till it stops.
Step 2. Push in ****, and while holding **** in turn **** counter ************************clockwise till it stops.
Step 3. Pull **** out, and while holding **** out turn **** counter ***********************clockwise till it comes off.
Other then that little pain in the back the seat back works great, **************nice smooth running cable and electric motor

 

Great write up, the pictures too. I wish I would have been involved with this forum when I did that to my '97 850. Hey tech, did you ever get pictures for that manual swap?

 

Well, after 2-1/2 years, the passenger side has stopped working again. So I went back in there and decided to take the cable end loose, take the metal sleave off, cut about 1/4 inch off the cable sleave (black part) and put it back together. Hopefully is will not stop working again, ever!

 

That's a pretty good run for about 10 bucks worth of bits to fix it......hopefully this time it will stay working.

 

Thank you very much. Just did this fix in 70 minutes from finding tools to putting them away and writing this.
My tip: get very long and skinny zip ties. The extra length helps getting it all threaded through before tightening and trimming the excess.
For me the most difficult part was the little hooks on the bottom sides. I basically tore off the hooks when removing them. It went back together OK.

My still goes one 'Ek' when raising, but goes fine when using memory. Seat probably needs recalibration, but I will save that for another day.

Again thank you! I was shopping for a replacement for the 1994 850 wagon, but became fed up with new car offerings and decided to just do the fix.

 

LOL, yea, I don't know why they think you want to spend $42,000 instead of $900 (or less). When I fixed the cable again, I noticed that the cable had slipped in the sleeve. Not sure how far down it the motor it went but it was at least 1-1/2 inches in there.

 

Bought an 850 as a winter car a couple of weeks ago. The driver seat was stuck almost fully reclined. It took me a little longer, not real good with tools, but thanks to this post my seat now works! Great wkend project, mixed in with the usual family activities.

 

Glad you got it fixed. Welcome to VolvoForums.

 

rspi- I fixed my seat back in a similar way to what you did I think- I took a hobby saw and cut about 1/2" of black plastic out of the middle, then knifed it out, pulled the black parts together and taped it together with some of that aluminum duct tape. now she reclilnes as she should. kinda noisy it seems but maybe they just are noisy. Dave

 

I actually opened my seat up and found a frayed and kinked cable and broken black plastic.
I needed a new cable.
I ordered one.
But while I waited for it I repositioned my seat using a cordless drill to simulate the motor.
Simply cut the bad cable and clamp your drill onto the cut portion of the cable that connects with the seat transmission.
Works like a charm.

 

Thanks for the write up, I just finished the repair and it works great. I really appreciate your taking the time to write this up. I did not have success with heating and shortening the cable ends, so I tried a different tack:

Disconnect and remove the cable from the motor side (2 - 8mm bolts). As close to the ferrule as possible use side cutters to cut the plastic cable housing, being careful not to cut the cable itself. You now have a loose ferrule with about 1/2" of plastic housing still inside. Apply some flame to ferrule and use a screwdriver to push out the 1/2" of waste plastic. Don't worry about the sharp points of the ferrule that used to crimp the plastic housing.

Install the ferrule onto the cut end of the cable housing. I found it easiest to use a utility knife to whittle down the outside of the housing, then I applied heat (I used a candle) to soften the housing before forcing the ferrule onto the housing. After it cooled it worked fine: the ferrule was attached well to the housing, and the (now 1/2" longer) cable was not too long when reattached to the motor. (If the cable is too long to be reassembled properly, then just cut off a little of the cable end with a Dremel and a cutoff wheel. The cable end is square for a ways before it transitions to round, so this should work, although I didn't try this myself.)

P.S. I didn't read all of the pages of the this post before doing the repair. Another poster suggests cutting out 1/2" of the housing in the center and then taping it together. That sounds like it might be a little easier than the way I did it.

Good luck with your repair.

 

did the cable repair,replaced the seat and now i have no response from the seat motor in any direction,motor worked fine before i removed the seat.Did I miss a reset button or something somewhere?Any help would be appreciated,seat seems to be in perfect position for the two using it,so that's not an issue,just would like to fix for resale when I need to.Thanks

 

Always check fuses first. Its usually the last thing I check! Might be an easier fix than you think...Dave

 

Or maybe a loose connector under the seat.

 

checked fuses,checked connections,nothing seems to be working,i'll have to recheck all that again

 

I was a bit confused at first about the "cable". If we call it a drive cable then it is clear. I also wanted to understand why this thing does not work. Simple the cables are just a touch short or the ends (silver part) was installed wrong (short). That is why I took of the transmission cover and then could play with it. I pulled out the inner cable (of the drive cable assembly) and put it back into place with the worm gear. The seat moved!
I also took a small torch ( I used one that lights a BBQ and has a Blue jet type flame rather than the regular match style flame many of these BBQ lighters have)
Because I had the trans cover off I was able to pull out the cable and heat it without fear of burning the seat. I also pushed the Silver aluminum end cover up the cable. I could then see how well it fit. I put it all back together and it works. One last note I did not remove seat switch panel on the side ov the seat so there is no worry about the air bag.

[IMG][/IMG]

 

Great post.
Had doubts this would work on my car. Symptom was noise from motor but seat back stuck in full forward position. All other movement and seat
switchs worked. Followed instruction and now seat is fully functional..
Like others used zip ties to reattach. Melted both sides of cable ..
Owner of 2 used 850 Volvo's .. 1st 1996 850 turbo. 190k miles Completed all repairs and maintenance on it. Gave to daughter for College . Now working on second 1995 GLT. Have saved lots of $ with the excellent DIY found here and Mathews. AGAIN THANKS !!!

 

Ive read all 6 pages of this thread probably like 8 times, so Im about to attempt this repair on my 95 850 Turbo wagon today, my seat is stuck in a slightly reclined position and when I press the forward button to incline the seat back, i hear motor (and feel it) attempt to move for just a fraction of a second then stop, almost as if its at its physical incline limit.

One question I had was about the sips airbag during re-assembly: After removing the plastic safety clip thing that keeps the airbag sensor plates from touching, how easy is it to deploy this airbag when putting the buttons/trim/cover back on the side of the seat? Is it so sensitive that literally tapping it will set it off?

Airbags scare me

Thanks, and AWESOME writeup!

 

You have to hit the air bag trigger pretty hard to set it off.

 

Sweet thanks for the reply. Can this airbag be set off with the key out/in off position? Trying to get to the hog rings on the bottom of my seat, i cant even see them.

Also noticed there a 2 wire harness with a little white connector thats just hanging under the seat not connected to anything. Dont see another place where it would plug in.