I have scored an excellent pair of front seats from a wrecked 93 960, care of my mechanic. He is performing a seat swap, and it is more work than expected as the seatbelt mechanism on the 960 only retracts at the pillar, not top and bottom like the 760. He is concerned, however, that due to the 960 set up with airbags, there is a nitrogen sensor in the mechanism that won't be used. does this mean the seatbelt function itself may be compromised>??

thoughts appreciated

Peter

Logic would dictate that the seatbelt pretensioners would work without being wired, because they would then be reliant on something that could fail to operate, which would be a disaster at the least.

The pretensioner that the front seat belts have is active when the airbags deploy. What it does is it tightens the seat belt. In most cases the belts are thereafter unuseable, as they are locked in one position.

However, it would be utterly stupid to build seat belts that no longer had any function for normal tensioning in a crash or a hard stop. That, however, is very easily tested by nailing the brake pedal and seeing if they do their job.

If the 960 was hit such that the SRS system deployed and the SRS seat belts were activated, don't reuse them (whether or not they're being used with or without the rest of the SRS system).

Also, the seat frame might be the same in 92 and pre-92 models but that is just a wild guess. If it is, you could probably switch the seat belt from the old seat to the new one, along with the accompanying side panel from the 760 seat. That, again, is just a wild guess. But with Volvo, they often kept basic things like seat frames and whatnot the same.

"Often".
--
1992 940 wagon, low miles
as well as others.

Forgot to comment on the last bit of your post. No, you cannot use the 760 belt mechanism with 960 seats. The 760 base is much wider to accomodate the two tensioner things and it just isn't interchangable. the wiring and bolt pattern seem ok, its just a space thing that is the issue

peter

That's interesting to know. They LOOK to be similar, but obviously aren't.

You can usually test seat belt mechanisms by simply tilting them to see if they lock. Tilting them is usually enough to set off the little deceleration weight and make it "think" that the car is stopping. That will give you your answer.

I'm almost sure that no automaker would hinge seat belt performance on strictly a fallible explosive/electronic mechanism. Mechanical would have to be a 100% backup.
--
1992 940 wagon, low miles
as well as others.

Thanks for the thoughts and info. Should we not reuse the seatbelt mech due to it being designed for one time (crash) use? What component is it that can't be resused. I saw the wreck, the airbags were not deployed so i'm not sure if the belt mech is ok or not. i like the idea of a mini panic stop to see if the belts lock up.

My guy is wary of doing the swap for ethical and liability reasons in case of any issue. i feel good about that, but also want this swap to happen if at all possible.

I have also been considering a 900 seat swap for my 1988 765, with the preliminary question about power plugs being the only one I've concerned myself with so far. I think that 900 seats with bolt/plug right into the 760 and operate fine, based on the plug check I did with my mechanic/junkyard proprietor.

From your posting, it seems that you are asking if the nitrogen sensor with the 960 seats should come into play when the airbag deploys, spewing nitrogen when it deflates. I would have to guess that the sensor plays no role in the restricting action of the belt, but perhaps relaxes the belt after sensing nitrogen and some pre-determined time passes (10 sec?) to allow occupants of the now-staionary vehichle to exit. JUST A GUESS, of course, and maybe a real stretcher, at that.

That being said, I would still estimate that the sensor does nothing until after the bag deflates, and thus would expect the 960 belts to be as effective as the originals. Only my opinion, but still, I'm glad to hear there is just the one retractor, as I find the double system on the 760 to be a pain...

Let us know how the swap turns out; I'll be looking for the post. -Boozer

1988 765 w/ Ford 5.0 and AOD - a work in progress...