Ok, here is an interesting way to address the seat cable deal. I worked at the local Volvo dealer forever and when we had seat cable problems in the old 760's we would pull the cable out of the servo end, pull the cable out of the sheath, cut the sheath flush with the end of the little metal sleeve that is on the end, remove the piece of sheath from the metal end and refit the metal end to the existing sheath. Now when you stuff the cable back in the sheath it is effectively longer as the sheath is now shorter. Put it all back together and it works like new. Now I told you all that so I could tell you this: After Volvo I went to work for BMW for a couple of years before I opened my own shop and as it would have it the Krauts use the same power seat vendor as do the Swedes, figures. The German way, right out of one of their service bulletins, is to cut the sheath right in the middle, trim 1/2 an inch or so from one end of the sheath or the other and then fit a piece of fuel hose as a splice between the cut in half sheath. The idea is that you have trimmed 1/2" of sheath out of the equation and now you butt connect them back together with a piece of fuel hose and a couple of hose clamps. Make sure that the clamps are tight enough to hold it all together but not so tight that it impedes the rotation of the cable. Doing this repair has the same effect as the repair we would do on the Volvo's, it makes the cable longer or the sheath shorter. It is kind of a pain in the rear doing the BMW style fix up inside of the seat cover, but in my opinion it is a darn sight better than wrestling with those pain in the butt cable connection at both the motor and servo end. One other fix is to pull your cable out from one end only, take it to the local speedo shop and have them make another one just like it only 1/2" longer, slide it back in the sheath and you are good to go. I don't think you will ever save much money on parts this way but you can shave some time and aggravation off of the repair itself.


Rule 308