Volvo 960 Seat motors and heater

[kenneth_moorhead]

Hello;

I am querying on my Wife's 1996 960 (again), but this time with a much less serious problem

The drive side seat is, of course, motorized. The right hand track seems to, at random intervals, jam up. This can be fixed by removing the seat, releasing the spring drive (it's a rubber tube with square keys on both sides and I *assume* a spring connecting the two ends. This allows it to transfer motion around corners...) to the right side. Trying your best to line up the tracks, re-installing the spring drive, and finally putting the seat back.

From there it will run for a few months and then jam up again! Once jammed the right side no longer moves, but will keep trying forever (which can not be good for the motor) sending the seat cockeyed toward the door. The only way to fix this is to go thru the above process and essentially reset the right side spring drive.

As of this writing, I'm on round four...

So, does anyone know what is causing this to happen? Could the little spring drive be the problem? Is there something I am missing? Or, moreover, what should I be looking for? AND - is there a magic way to line up the tracks with the drives removed? I suspect there are marking *somewhere* but I don't know where to look nor what to look for.

Finally, and on a different subject, in the process of tinkering with this seat I seem to have killed the seat heater. This is either a wire I missed or something more. However, to trouble shoot this correctly I need to get my hands on a wiring diagram of the seat electrics... or at least the heater... or at the very very least the specs of the heater so I can trace the wires and apply power with a good cheater cable. Any thoughts on where I might get a glimpse of such information?


TIA;

Ken

[Rule .308]

What you are referring to as a "spring drive" is actually a cable drive set up. The problem that you are having is probably the typical deal where the cable will disengage from one side or the other and the side that is disengaged will stop moving, it may appear to be jammed up but in reality it is just not moving because the cable has backed out. The fix for this is to either replace the cable completely or to shorten the sheath that it is in. One of two ways to do this, remove the cable and sheath from where it goes into one end (motor or servo, does not matter), pull the cable out of the sheath, cut the end off of the sheath with the metal end on it, cut the sheath flush with the metal end, push the little piece of sheath out of the metal end, put a bit of glue onto the end of the sheath and beat the metal end back on with a rubber mallet. Stuff the cable back in and put the sheath/cable assembly back into the end that you pulled it out of. While you have the sheath out of the motor or servo end you will need to time it all up. The other method for shortening the sheath is to leave it attached at either end, cut the sheath in the middle, pull the cable out, install a piece of fuel line and some hose clamps on the sheath, cut about a 1/4" piece of sheath off of the exposed end and then use the fuel hose and clamps to but connect it all back together. This method works very well especially where you cannot easily access the ends of the sheath. The tracks can be driven back when you have the cable outl, you carefully chuck up the cable into a variable speed drill and slowly run it to the position you want. What I do on that one though is to reach under the seat when it is malfunctioning and simply grab up the offending cable and push and pull on it while running the seat control until the cable hooks up and then I run the seat to where I want it. This is just the meat and potatoes of how you do this repair, there is more to it like in how you get everything timed back up but this should get you started in the right direction.

Have fun,
Mark