Sorry to flood RWD with my 960 queries but I just got it and cannot wait to get it officially on the road where it belongs. It has been sitting since Febuary and was not well taken care of at all. The 117k miles is what attracted me.

What I have now is a seat back with a dead motor, probably. But what I wanted to know is if there is any manual way of raising the seat back and leaving it there permanently. I have had the seat out and did the shortening of the cable routine to get the forward/backward movement working again so I have no fear of pulling the seat. I suppose it would not kill me to test the motor and see if it is simply dead and get another at a junk yard but I really do not need the adjustment of the seat back. There is not any sound at all when I try to do the tilt so I do not know if power is even getting to the motor.

Thanks very very much,
Jim Lee

Dear Jim Lee,

Hope this finds you well. Bravo on restoring front-to-back movement!! I hope that before you removed the driver's seat, you made safe the SRS system, by removing the negative battery cable clamp from the negative battery terminal, so cutting power to the SRs sensor!! An airbag deployment can be lethal: it is a controlled explosion.

The driver's seat has a computer (a 4"x6" black box) attached to the under-seat wires. This computer has a master relay, and six smaller relays. These direct power to the various motors, when the seat control knobs are moved. If one of these relays is stuck in the open position, power will not flow to the motor controlled by that relay.

Solution: get thee to a slavage yard, and get a working driver's seat computer. If you bring along a portable 12-volt power source and some wire, you should be able to test the switch, before you remove the seat.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

Spook

Thanks Mr. Spook.

Is it possible to restore or repair these relays or are they incredibly small and/or hard to get to. Is this the same computer as the air bag system uses?
as in this ebay listing:
"COMPUTER MODULE
# Model Year Description
VL960 96-97 Air Bag, (under drivers seat)"

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/96-97-VOLVO-960-AIR-BAG-SET-W-COMPUTER-SEAT-BELTS-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem5636936e8cQQitemZ370282819212QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

I guess that I should also check the switch on the side of the seat that you actually operate.

Thanks very much,
Jim Lee

Dear Jim Lee,

Hope this finds you well. The relays are not tiny - they are about 1/2" square. I have never tried to repair them, as I'm not sure what would need to be fixed. If someone can explain how to fix a relay that won't close, I'd sure be obliged.

These relays are easy to access. The black plastic seat computer housing is in "clam shell" format. To open the housing, disengage the clips on either side, by prying gently with a small, flat-blade screwdriver. You'll see the row of relays.

The seat control computer is separate from - and has nothing to do with - the SRS system's control module. The seat control computer is mounted to spring steel wires, on the underside of the driver's seat cushion.

The SRS control module is affixed to the floor pan, under the driver's seat (but inside the cabin, not on the underside, where it would be exposed to the elements).

The wiring to the seat control module is sheathed in black plastic. The wiring to the SRS control module is sheathed in day-glow orange plastic.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

Spook

Thanks Spook.

I guess I am just a lucky guy.
Got down to the electronics board on the driver side seat controls and lo and behold the xx pin plug that connects said board to the car brains was halfway pulled out. Plugged it in fully and all is well in Mudville once again. I even have a plan for reattaching the entire unit to the seat where it was before someone (not me I swear) yanked it out without bothering with the attaching screws. Now I am on the passenger side hoping that I will find the same issue except in this case none of the pin plug would be attached.

Others may profit from this in knowing that if one function on your power seat is working, in my cast the tilt, and others are not (seat back angle) then you might have the same issue where the pins have been half yanked out of there sockets. I did not know that was possible. So to summarize for my drivers side power seat learning experience, I started out with a seat that was stuck almost all the way back in its tracks with the seat back way, way back to accomodate the giant size previous owner. He must have been a body guard. The only control that full worked was the one that tilted the entire seat. The fore and aft only worked on the left side but was stuck on the right. The seat back made no sounds at all. First I did the cable sheath shortening trick to compensate for the expansion over time of the same to get the left side cable/gear combination working. Then I fought to get to the xx pin plug and fully pushed that in. Now I am fore and afting, tilting, reclining and declining like there is no tomorrow.

Thanks,
Jim Lee
1996 960