Volvo 850 front seat belt stalk replacement

GaryT · Post by **GaryT** » 11 Feb 2011, 22:16

I have a 95 850 SE. The buckle for the front passenger seat belt has broken. I have a new buckle to replace the broken one. I removed the seat from the car to make it easier to do the job and was confronted by a sticker that said I could lose a finger trying to remove the seat belt stalk! There is a steel cable running from the bottom of the belt buckle into a black box that is mounted on the side of the seat base just in front of the buckle. There is a long cylinder running forward from the black box. The black box has a small red button with an arrow on it on the top. I appreciate that this is part of the pretensioner setup for the seat belt.

How do I isolate the pretensioner so that I can remove the buckle and put the new on without setting it off and losing a finger?

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 12 Feb 2011, 06:39

Hopefully you have removed a battery cable and, if you have not, you have not yet unplugged the electrical connector from the old seat belt assembly. Unplugging the seat belt firing mechanism with the battery in place will trip an SRS fault code and it requires a trip to the wallet weigh in at the dealership to get the SRS light turned off.

With the caveats out of the way, I recently had to purchase a new seat belt for my son's car and I too found that the seat belt was jammed right out of the box and I could not unreel the belt. After much searching I found two possible solutions. One solution is to go ahead and mount the new belt onto the B pillar and then try to get it to release by pulling it upward toward the headliner. Since my son is away at college and I don't have the car here I used the other suggested trick which is to use a flat blade screwdriver and pry the reel assembly upward, from the bottom of the reel, while pulling the belt outward. In my case that worked and I was able to reel off several feet of the belt itself.

The steel cable and the long cylindrical tube are there so as to tightly tension the seat belt if the SRS system detects a collision. There is little chance of an accidental firing if the belt assembly is not plugged in.

...Lee

GaryT · Post by **GaryT** » 13 Feb 2011, 03:04

Hiya, thanks for the feedback but I think we are talking about different ends of the seat belt. My issue is with the buckle end that the tongue on the seat belt plugs into. I haven't touched the reel that is mounted in the B pillar and its associated pretensioner and I don't intend to as part of this job

. I have the seat out of the car so there are no wires connected to anything anywhere.

I have taken photos of the seat belt stalk and the offending pieces.

This is the busted buckle/stalk that needs to be replaced.

: Seat belt buckle to be replaced

This is the pretensioning mechanism that I am concerned about. The red button on the top of the box with the arrow on it can be pushed down and turned 90 degrees so that the arrow is pointing sideways.

: Pretensioning mechanism

This is the bolt that secures that seat belt stalk to the frame of the seat and shows the steel cable that runs into the stalk from what looks like the pretensioning mechanism.

: Securing cable and mounting bolt

This is the new buckle to go in.

: New buckle to go in

Thoughts? suggestions?

BenRiches · Post by **BenRiches** » 05 Oct 2012, 05:47

I am about to attempt a seatbelt stalk replacement and was wondering how you went with yours?

Any tips?

Post by **Ben850** » 05 Oct 2012, 05:59

That must be specific to the australian 850s. I've replaced the seats and the belts in my '93 after an accident using parts from '94 850s, to '00 v70s and haven't come across that belt restraint at the salvage yards ever. I am , howerver, aware of the one on the belt side in the B-pillar all too well.