A couple or five years ago, the plastic handle on the rear seatback release broke off. I'm sure Volvo had some good safety reason for the overly complex cable release system, but good heavens what a contraption. We've gotten by with twine pull loops on either side, but I finally decided to fix it using the excellent BB walkthrough:

https://www.brickboard.com/RWD/volvo/1531834/220/240/260/280/240_back_seat_release_handle_replacement_walkthrough.html

Not wanting to pay IPD $20, I decided to just jerry-build a new handle. I was happy to find the plastic tube attached to the broken handle intact and already hollowed out to 5mm. I quickly broke/sawed/filed the handle remnants away and poked around the basement for something handle-like. I'd been thinking wooden dowel, perhaps Ornäs birch, but then I tripped over some aluminum angle stock. I wonder what that was for? I sawed a 2-inch length and bored out a 3/8" hole so it would fit over the plastic tube nub that does the lifting. I ran a 5x30mm bolt through the new "handle" and plastic tube, securing it on the backside with a nylock nut. Everything worked but the aluminum handle ran a little rough against the plastic backing, even though there were a couple millimeters standoff clearance. I glued a couple of pieces of cloth tape to the back of the new handle, and that did the trick. Smooth and solid! It looks like the sharp corners might be an issue in the pictures, but they aren't in practice.

If I could figure out how to reduce the binding in the cable setup, I'd spend the $20 on new plastic, but as it is this works and won't break. The rest of the mechanism, though plastic, seems solid enough.


https://www.brickboard.com/IMAGELIB/volvopic.htm?id=13376

Cheers,
joe b in portland
93 Volvo 245
336,650 mi