How to change over a seat catch

[glasgowjim]

How to change over a seat catch , this is the seat relaese that allows the front seat back to tip forward so that the back seat can be accessed easily.

The photos show how to remove a seat catch but obviously the reverse procedure can be used to replace one. With a little perseverance you should be able to remove the catch without cutting the seat cover at all. However it should be noted that volvo at random put the seat cover onto the seat relaese catch in at least 2 different ways!!! One is just held between 2 halves of the catch mounting , in the second way one also has a screw hole so that the material is not only clamped but screwed through. Amazingly this was the case in the car I was breaking so figure that one out! It should take about 20 to 30 minutes a seat requiring only some patience. Putting a replacement in is very much quicker and easier.

Step 1 unclip the 2 elastics which hold down the flap at the bottom of the seat back. Now lift up and you will see a row of 6 to 8 little metal circular clips holding the material panels together with either 1 or 2 metal rods acting as a lateral support. Unclip the clips and withdraw the rod(s).

Step 2 peel back/slide up the lower back cover for about 2 inches or 5 cm. as shown


Now unclip one side of the "silver" spring and slip the ring on the end of the wire off its holder. The wire then slides out through the gap between the metal retainer and the rim of seat (move towards you). Repeat for the other side of seat.

Step 3 Now unscrew the the knob for adusting the tension in the seat back until it is free then reach up and nip the end together and pull out the removed knob looks like this...


Step 4 unscrew the 2 screws holding the outer and inner mounting together..


Step 5 roll slide the seat cover up as far as you can...


So far so good thats the easy part over with and should have only taken about 5 to 10 minutes .

Now the awkward part take a pair of pliers and release the 3 clips which hold the mounting in place but do them in this order the lower one first

then the middle one

you can feel it with a small screwdriver between the seat rim and mounting and push it towards the front of the car while maintaining pressure on mounting.
Now do the top one


remove the plastic bracket and wires

If the wire appears to jam it is because the plastic stopper on one end it caught just push it straight up with yuor fingers and it will easily pop out.


To release the upper and lower catches just nip the end together and push at same time . A lot easier said than done but patience and it is done.

[Amazin]

Ah, just what I need. Thanks, St. Jim.

I will have to catch the rest of it tomorrow, as I'm travelling early and will see the rest of it when I am there.

Maybe while the nice lady is shopping she will buy you a few more 480s.

Kind regards,

A

[Amazin]

"Step 1 unclip the 2 elastics which hold down the flap"

Sure.

Of course, with the seat not able to incline forward anyway, it is difficult to trace where the elastic goes, particularly as the driver's door can only open a crack due to being parked cheel by jowl with another car in a jam-packed garage.

However, by investigating the passenger's seat by touch, it is discovered that said elastic is on a circlip, which fits in a rail. But when the 480 has been giving sterling service for twenty-one years in the furthest reaches of the westest extremity of extreme wet Welsh Wales, with people getting in with wet wellies, galoshes, boots and shoes for all twenty one of those years, and sitting there tweentimes dripping through the seats every day of every season, you can expect said circlip to be rusted solid, can't you? You can't? Then you should. This isn't arid Edinburgh, you know!

So, Step 1 . . . fumble fumble fumble, grope grope grope, curse curse curse, - though lightly, as it's Sunday rather than Sinday - The garage is preparing to close for lunch in ten minutes . . .

Next time I will bring a cold-chisel, a knife and a little more elbow-room, and if I can't smash those circlips off, I'll just cut the elastic and at least be able to start. It goes without saying that the little round clips that hold the seat-cover on the retaining rod are also rusted solid.

But we all know about these little games, don't we, as this is a 480, bless it.

[glasgowjim]

amazin the clips are just c shaped pieces of metal that are pushed over to form a circle. I just snap or twist open with a pair of pliers and toss away using small zip ties instead with no problems. cut the elastic if necessary as you can retie and attach to a closer point. I have never reused the little clips and I changed a complete set of upholstery in Kerries car.

[Amazin]

Thanks for the comment St. Jim.

I shall try to moderate cold-chisel savagery to conform to your suggestion.

kind regards,

A

[ted clutch]

thats great jim. my catch has gone but havent looked into it yet.now i can see what im doing before ive done the job.

[yopman]

All,

I know it's cheating, but having pulled out the broken lever, inserting a cable tie into the mech correctly, and then attaching a curtain ring as a replacement latch at the other end does the job pretty well too!

Cheers,


Richard M Wade Esq.

[Amazin]

Wurl. This first chunk is posted from my recent addition to '480 ownership' -

"Well, MoT bright and early on Monday morn, and today, at Saturday midday, I found that the garage had not changed the seat catch cable as they has so-kindly offered to do. - I had previously lost patience with it and somewhat pulled the seat apart, so presumably they had sought to soothe me.

The job was not made any easier by my having to fumble around from behind at floor-level with a seat that obstinately refused to incline. But having more or less managed it once, then having had to take it apart again just to make sure that the cable I was inserting was the same as the one I had finally just managed to extract, I reassembled it and mackled the springs back into place and then suddenly the seat kindly inclined forward. I can't imagine why, but it did.

The seat will now incline back and forth but not lock back. That is probably just as well, as I can move the latch up and down, but it does sweet effay - Er nothing. There is about a foot of slack cable wafting about in there, and I can't see how the damned thing is supposed to function to move any catch anyway.

Oh well, perhaps the MoT folks won't notice.

I will add that the whole job was done - so far as it has been done - in about two hours without once seeing what I was doing, the whole process being conducted solely by touch while being somewhat claustrophoberised by being trapped in the back without a hope in hell of getting out if - when - the garage caught fire. If any feel impelled to comment, be welcome to do so in braille if you so wish in the 'how to' Manuals 'to change a seat-catch' section. I think I might well understand it quite as well I seem to have understood the task so far. "



The car - being a Volvo and only 22 years young - sailed through the MoT last Monday, but the quandry is still mine. The new cable is correctly affixed to the pins each side of the seat at floor level just as the old cable was, and the lever knob moves up and down, but no joy, and I cannot honestly and reasonably see why there should be. The seat now inclines forward for some reason, so I can access the back from the driver's side, but the driver's seat does not lock back, which is fine by me, but may not be so fine according to M0T (ITC) requirements, so I would like to please them as they're decent folks.

How is the floppy cable supposed to activate the catch, which I have still not caught sight of?

If this can all be explained and righted, I will then only have to stitch or staple the seat cover back together. Super.

[glasgowjim]

The solution to your problem lies in 8th picture the little black lug/endpiece slots into a small plate with a hole in it this gives the outer rigidity allowing the inner cable to move.

there problem solved

[Amazin]

Ah! - Thanks, St. Jim. My fingers could not detect that. Now I know.

Kind regards,

A

[glasgowjim]

will post up a photo tomorrow night mi amigo

[Amazin]

Muchas Gracias, Santo Jaime.

A

[glasgowjim]

Remember the seat shown is the UK passenger seat .

[Amazin]

A-hah! Got it! Many thanks, San Jaime. I will report on the presumed success as and when, and drink to your good and lasting health anyway.

But I'll tell you what. I could have invented a simpler and as-or-more-effective design in my sleep. But then it wouldn't be an authentic 480, would it?

A

[Amazin]

Well, another ninety minutes of unrestrained bad language (it's Saturday, not Sunday) and it is all back together again in shipshape order so far as a somewhat mauled seat will permit and . . . . The illegitimate sonofawhatsit doesn't function, and I'm afraid to use more force lest I break something more permanently.

Perhaps it is just that the catch needs a few squirts of oil, having been subjected to twenty years of wettest Wales, but that can wait until I have given my stomach something to eat other than itself.

A

[Amazin]

Further to which, it required oil and THEN for the cable to be routed via a guide so that the cable-end approaches the securing pin at an angle to activate it correctly, which it now does. But oooooooooh, the complication!

Since the Saxon tendency is to simplify, I can only imagine the Latin tendency to elaborate and complicate had a hand in this seat design.

Now I only have to make some kind of connection to attach the heating element which simply will not physically reconnect without me smashing or otherwise distorting the attachment points, stitch up the seat cover I tore apart, and hide what I cut and savaged when I couldn't legitimately otherwise separate it.

But at least now I can face the MoT (ITV) folks with a clear conscience and honest smile.


Thanks again, San Jaime, for all your help. Your wife has a real treasure there, and you can tell her I said so. Mind you, I don't have to put up with a garage full of junk. Then again, my flat is already up to here in it. In fact, the photo of your shed looks exactly like most of my rooms. So all I now need is a beautiful young maiden who doesn't think the mid-seventies is too old and has her own shovel and wheelbarrow, so if any happen to read this they can take due note and apply in their best writing, enclosing sae and photos of shovel and barrow. Thank you.