Hi everyone,

I purchased a 1994 850 turbo recently 100k. I was wondering if anybody had any insight about the following.....

It has the normal problem that the drivers side (power) cable is bound and the seat back barely moves, so I set out to fix it.

I get the cable from a local shop that fixes a lot of volvos. It is a factory volvo cable (from the dealer). I pull the seat apart according the the bay13 volvospeed site (kudos to whomever run that site, it's awesome).

1) I think "something" was done to the seat before because there are some plier marks on the spring by the gear mechanism (and no plier marks on any other springs). I noticed this on the way in before any of the following (so it rather prominent). I should say that if anyone was in there, it happened before 60k when the previous owner acquired it (they know nothing of it).

2) I go to put the new cable on. I try a dozen different times and nothing works. It is as if the cable is the right length and the sheath is too short. It won't mount into the motor housing because it is so short.

3) I get fed up and measure the cables. As it turns out the new one is 10mm SHORTER than the one that is in there.


4) I try moving the motors and things, but it never fits right.

5) So I look at the archives and see that some people report that the OEM stock cable SHEATH is too short (and was failing becuse it pulled out). They say 3/8 inch too short, which corresponds to roughly 10mm. There was some fix about melting the sheath end and pulling off the housing and letting 1/4 inch out. I'm not going to do that with a new cable.

6) So I wonder if somebody replaced the stock cable on my 850 with a cable with the correct sheath (at some point in this car's history) and that cable current cable is the correct length. Meanwhile I wonder if the factory cable I have is in fact 3/8 inch (10mm) too short (in the sheath). The cable (the inner drive wire) is 700mm on both the new (shorter sheath) and old (longer sheath).

Can anybody confirm this. And most importantly CAN ANYBODY GIVE ME THE CORRECT SUPPLIER OR PART NUMBER FOR THE LONGER SHEATHED CABLE?

The (old) longer cable has only the following inscribed on it "A=700mm." The volvo replacement has the following: "60 888 a=700mm". The packaging says the part number is 3539655.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
jon