Power Seat Movement Repair - Volvo 960

PROBLEM: I have owned three Volvo 960 - S90's, all three of them had problems with the power seats moving forward and back. You try to move the seat forward or back and one side moves, the other side just sits there like something is stuck in the track. These power seats have three different motors mounted on the bottom of the seat. The most common one to have problems is the forward and aft movement. That is the one in the middle. What happens is the cable shifts in the sleeve, moving one direction or the other, usually further into the motor, away from the transmission. I assume that these cables have about 1/4" bite in the transmission when new. However, over time this shifts into the motor and looses it's grip in the transmission causing the seat to have no movement at the position of the cable slide.

TEMP FIX: All of the problems that I have seen was from the center cable, right side of the seat. For several months I put gaff tape on the cable to pull it towards the rear seat. That allowed the cable to catch just enough to engage and allow the seat to move with the controls. You have to look and reach under the seat and look at the cable that comes from the center motor. When you move the control you will see and feel the cable twitch so you can push on the right one. If you put pressure on it like you are trying to jam it into the part that moves on the track and allow it to work while pressure is applied.
WARNING: Be careful when moving the seat with your had under it, you may loose a digit.

SOLUTION: You have one of two choices. One, replace the cable. Two, shorten the cable sleeve to cause the cable to have a grip on both ends. The instructions below show you how to shorten the cable sleeve so the cable grips the motor and transmission. It is possible to repair the cable without removing the seat. However, if you can not get the bolts out of the motor, you may have to remove the seat. Instructions to do both are below. It takes 30 minutes to do the job if you do NOT remove the seat. It takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes to do the job when taking the seat loose.

Without Removing The Seat	With Removing The Seat (all tools to the left and the ones below)
8 mm Socket	Torque Bits, T-20, T-25
Socket Driver	Torque Bit Driver
Socket Swivel	Ratchet Wrench
Small Hand Torch	3/8" Socket, 14 mm
Razor or Stripper	Flat Tip Screw Driver
Crimper for cable
Pliers
Scribe or Very Small Screw Driver
Tape Measurer
Wire Tie & Cutter

Instructions:

Turn on ignition.
Raise seat as high as possible in the front and lower it some in the rear.
Look under the seat and remove the forward screw (8 mm) that secure the cable bracket to the motor that is having the problem and loosen the rear screw that holds the same bracket. Each motor has it's own bracket, so there are three brackets.
Swivel the bracket up and out of the way of the cable and pull the cable out of the motor.

NOTE: Once you have the cable loose, you can see the cable shaft. You can actually pull the cable shaft in and out of the lining.
Twist the cable shaft while pushing it in to make sure it catches in the other end, the end that goes into the transmission. When it is all the way in, it will stop turning. It should go in about 3/4" from where it catches and doesn't catch.
While holding the metal tip of the cable sleeve with the pliers (with a pulling force), heat the metal part of the cable sleeve with the lighter torch until it slides off the cable.

NOTE: The cable end has been crimped so it is almost impossible to get the end off of the plastic cable sleeve without heating it.
Once the metal end of the cable sleeve is removed, take the razor or cable splicer and remove about 1/4" of the plastic off of the cable sleeve.
Use a sharp screw, nail or small screw driver to remove any plastic from inside of the metal cable sleeve end.
Slide the metal cable sleeve end back on to the cable, you will probably need the torch to get it back on. I used the small wire tie to measure how far to slide it back on, the tie was the stop. When it is back on, you want to make sure the plastic part of the cable sleeve is not to far into the metal part of the tip. It should NOT be in the last part of the tip.
Crimp the metal tip of the cable on to the plastic part of the cable so it does not back out of the cable after you install it back on to the motor.
Work the cable back into the motor.
Put everything back together from step 4.

NOTE: If you could not get the cable loose and you need to remove the seat click here for seat removal instructions.