twisting seat
 

Evening. I appear to have acquired a '96 960. All seems fine with it, which is nice.
Before I jump in and start taking it apart for fun, maybe someone might offer some advice..the driver's seat wants to twist when you try to move it backwards or forwards. One side is stuck. It is a powered seat. Any tips on what that is likely to be? I doubt the PO moved the seat much. Shall I just take the seat out and have a look..or is there an easier suggestion? Thanks,

I had the same problem recently.
The motor that drives the seat forwards and backwards has an output shaft at each end and uses flexible square section driveshafts housed in flexible sheathing similar to those used on bicycles.
apparently the sheathing is longer than the driveshaft and, as happened on my car, the driveshaft slides toward the motor housing and disengages from the drive gear on the runner (rhs on mine).
To fix I disconnected the offending driveshaft from the motor and pushed it into the sheathing to re-engage with the gear at the rail end. Then I slid a small piece of rigid wire (about 10-15mm) into the motor housing to remove the slack in the system.
I did the job with the seat in place but had to partially dismantle the seat base to gain access to the motor. Once I had access the fix was easy.

If it's the same as its older sister, the 760, once you've removed the 4 bolts holding the seat down, you have to physically slide the seat backwards to release it from the slots in the floorpan - there are "mushroom" shaped lugs that slot into keyhole shaped holes in the floor so even if you lose all 4 bolts, in an impact the seat remains held to the floor at 4 corners.

Be careful if the seat contains side impact air bags. These are self-contained and impact actuated. There should be a red plastic safety cover to put in place to reduce the risk of accidental activation.

all of the above.

Its a common-ish fault in this series, and not a difficult fix if you have sufficient muscle and dexterity to wrestle the seat out of the car.

My hat is off to gpl - he must be ambidextrous and double-jointed with the wrists of an oversexed schoolboy to do that with the seat in place.

I took a different approach to the same problem. The steel ferule loses its grip on the plastic outer of the cable housing. Dismantle it all from the motor and then heat the ferrule with a propane torch or similar. The cable outer will soften with the heat allowing you to push the cable outer firmly into the ferrule again. Take the heat away and the ferrule "grabs" the melted plastic as it cools.

NOT TOO MUCH HEAT! If its smoking, you've gone too far...

For what it's worth, I've the cables and gears from the seat base of a 760 if they're any use to you. :)

Amazing..thanks all. This forum is great. I spend all my time in the part for the ancient Volvos..I didn't expect a little post about a seat to get so many replies.

I think I would rather take the seat out, but I'm a bit wary now re air bags..blinkin' new fangled things. Not many of them in my Amazon..anyway..
I will check if the 960 has them. So they don't need any form of power to operate, just a hard bump potentially?..ie I can't disconnect the battery and get around them? Sorry if that's a daft question..

You should be able to do it safely if you disconnect the battery earth lead (arrange something so it can't spring back under it's own volition and reconnect itself - seen it happen!) then go and have a cup of tea and a bacon butty so at least 20 minutes has elapsed for the trigger circuits to self-discharge.

Goes without saying to make sure you have the radio code, all fobs and keys well away from the car etc before you disconnect the battery - also make sure the key operated lock in at least one door still works if you normally open it with a fob! If not, open a door and put something to prevent the door shutting again until you've finished the job.
That way you shouldn't get locked out if the keys happen to be inside the car when you reconnect the battery and it locks itself! Very embarrassing! :lol:

PS - it would have been a daft question, if you hadn't asked it! You did though so it was a great question! ;) :D

The SIPS airbags in the seat are mechanically activated and will fire irrespective of whether the battery is connected or not. Here is a video of someone deliberately activating some. They are not very big so are unlikely to injure you but will make a mess of the seat if they deploy.

+ YouTube Video