yesterday seat belt works fine, today it keeps snagging like im yanking on it and will only come out if i jimmy it around a little.

took off the plastic cover then disconnected the battery, took out a few bolts and really worked it, pounded it a little, and now i can get it all the way out but i have to jimmy it a lot to get it to come out.

what do i need to do to repair this?

 

you need to get a seat belt from the junkyard.
once the locks and rollers go its damn near impossible to get it to work again.

 

well, ive looked up a few solutions that might work (wd40). gonna give that a try. if not, how the bloody hell do you get the bottom bolt that holds the bottom part of the seat belt in place, off?

its a 12mm bolt thats between the seat cushion and a major pita to get at. was only able to use a wrench, as a ratchet w/ swivel head was too long to get at it.

/maybe an ultra long extension from the front of the seat?

 

LOL.... Its alot easier than it looks..

Disconnect the battery...
remove the 4 bolts holding down the seat, pivot the seat forward, remove the plastic cover on the side of the seat, install the side airbag safety pin and then pull the bolt...

once you get the seat up you will see it..

 

that works. doing that now, as its being a major pita right now.

question. are the driver and passenger side seat belts interchangable? im the only one who drives the volvo and almost never take the wife with me in it. i can just make her sit in the back seat also and remove the front seat

 

LMFAO!!!

Im not sure if they can be swapped ... good question

 

swapping them right now. im guessing im going to have to use the bracket that was on the driver side explosive thingie. other than that, the holes seem to line up.

taking a quick break, then gonna put the other one on and head to the junkyard because EFF THIS NOISE repairing this seat belt would be way more hassle than its worth!

also, since the holes seem to line up, the only thing i wont be able to do is put the plastic cover back on.. but the seatbelt SHOULD function properly.

time to find out!

 

alright. so the passenger side WILL work, however you cannot 1) put the plastic cover back on and 2) you must remove one clip that gets in the way of the explosive uinit thing. other than that, its a quick solution to keep you on the road until you can get the part.

since i am the only one that drives the volvo, i can take my time on getting a replacement.

 

Youtube video here:

Volvo Driver seatbelt temporary fix with dental floss, and final replacement - YouTube

On Saturday, the driver's seatbelt on our 1996 Volvo 850 would not extend and would only retract, i.e. get tighter. After a nerve-wracking drive home without a seatbelt, I took it apart and rigged a temporary fix with dental floss to get us through the weekend.

AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, THE TEMPORARY FIX DID NOT INHIBIT SAFE AND PROPER RESTRAINT OPERATION OF THE SEATBELT, BUT I CANNOT SUBSTANTIATE, AND DO NOT GUARANTEE, ANY SUCH CLAIM. IT JUST GOT US THROUGH THE WEEKEND.

The dental floss made manual the ability to extend or release the belt under normal driving conditions, which operation is normally automatic. It was annoying because as you drove, the belt would only get tighter and would not release without a gentle pull on the floss, which was needed to look around at intersections, while backing, and such. A piece of soft foam between the belt and collar bone would have been a welcome improvement.

On Monday I got a used replacement from Ithaca Foreign Car Service (Thanks, Dave et al.!) and replaced the bad unit.

This video shows the replacement, the inertial device which seemed okay but was apparently no longer doing its job, then some details of the temporary fix with the floss.

I did forget to video the feeding of the seatbelt through the side door post plastic panel. Also, posts in some fora state that a SRS error will be generated if the battery is not disconnected during this operation. Finally, the Torx bit is a probably a Torx 30, not a Torx 20 as I state in the video.

 

DrBitBoy - many thanks for that video on youtube. Really helpful. Nicely shot and edited Sir.

I'm about to change out an 850 Front Seat Belt and Front seat, the dire warnings on the stickers were creating some mild fibrillation, I am naturally disconnecting the battery negative before proceeding.

In my case the 'donor' seat is from a 1995 and is fitted with a side-impact seat airbag, it's going into my 1994 which does NOT have an airbag, just like yours. The seat air-bag has to be disabled with a plastic key wedge, which lives inside the plastic trim on the side of the seat. But, I digress.

Greetings from Old Europe and Happy Christmas !

Cheers,

Arkon99.