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Hi, all...
Been quite a while since I had to ask a question to help fix one of my bricks, but this one has me flummoxed. I use my 89 245 "Bjorn" as a weekend driver and sometime highway cruiser, and it has always served me faithfully with little maijntenance other than fluid changes and tires. However, I also have two little ones in the family, which means car seats. And, unfortunately, it sdeems the engineers did not anticipate the streses placed on restraint systems by modern child safety seats when designing the 245's seat belt system, I havehad no fewer than three rear seat belt buckles fail in my car during my stint as the father of little kids (latches no longer work), and with our new addition just 15 months old, I will be in the car seat routine for some time to come. At least once before, a Brickboarder has come to the rescue with a replacement buckle, so I would always be interested in the replacement option. But I would be even more interested in preventing the failures in the first place. So, my question is....has anyone else ever had to deal with this before? If so, has anyone ever found a solution? I have checked the archives, but I can't seem to dig up any threads on repair or prevention of the problem. So, if anyone has any advice on preventing the problem, or has a new double rear buckle (Volvo p/n 351367-8372) for sale, I would love to hear from you. And while I am at it, I want to thank the Brickboard for helping my family to become a three-Volvo family. Without your collective knowledge, I would have had a hard time convincing my wife that three 20-year-old RWD Volvos were a sound idea for family transport, but now she loves our old Swedes!
Thanks for any help,
Adam
89 245 "Bjorn"
91 944 "Pip"
94 945T "Ingegard"
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What part fails? If it's the button crumbling, then there are new ones available aftermarket (NOT from the dealer). Like here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Volvo-850-240-740-940-seat-belt-buckle-release-button-repair-solution-new-part-/360485971537?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item53eea36651&vxp=mtr
I bought some for my 940 (front and rear use them) and 240 (rear only) and have been very pleased. A lot of $$ for a little piece of plastic, but they are a necessary part.
If they're jamming internally, you need to remove them from the car, flush them out with electrical contact cleaner and use a stiff wire to pick out any big debris (like a coin), then give them a light spritz of TV tuner cleaner (which has lubricant in it) on the inside.
John
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1989 245 241K / 1993 945 127K
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"...spritz of TV tuner cleaner..."
My first thought was to look at the date, since Jarrod now allows posts from around the turn of the century to be revived. I get sucked into them more than I like.
However I confess to yet having a little in the bottom of a can, which is definitely older than any of our Volvos, and probably based on 111-trichloroethane. It would seem ideal for a seat belt latch.
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Art Benstein near Baltimore
Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.
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gotta watch that Trichlor on some plastics. You'll end up with a mushy glob of plastic.
I remember the gallons of Trichlor in the vat with the cold refigerant coils keeping it from evaporating out. Lower the Circuit boards down below the cold coils and clean the boards..
It did clean the heck out of some metal car parts that we used to slip in.
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'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me http://home.lyse.net/brox/TonyPage4.html http://cleanflametrap.com/tony/
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That liquid that you dipped electronic parts was more likely R-11 Refrigerant. It would stay stable or liquid if kept below 74 degrees. Trichlorothane, that is stuff without the "E", we kept in 55 gallon drums, dispensed it from spigots in the barrel. We literally washed down our machine tables and other parts from a coffee can tin. Trichloro-e-thane was ban because it caused liver damage.
If you lifted a lid on the tank and inserted something into the tank above the liquid the vapors would condense onto the part. You could see it just appear and rinse the part. I use to clean my safety glasses that way. It almost looked like it could pull the oils out of the plastic they were so clean.
The Styrofoam, electronics and space industry used so much of in their clean rooms it became over half chlorination of the ozone/depletion problem. Automotive R-12 leakage abuse in turn pointed at the refrigeration industry of which we are still reeling (trying to find another good refrigerant) from since we compressed the stuff in the self-contained cycles. No way should it should gone that far.
I am still mad about the whole affair, can you tell.
Phil
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The electronics industry loved TCE. That's what I think Tony is referring to, more specifically known as 1,1,2-trichloroethylene. My personal recollection of it was using small quantities to wash UV-setting resists from circuit boards in the early 70's. You hear about water supplies in CA contaminated by TCE.
Similar sounding, just drop an H, and you have 1,1,1-trichloroethane. Yes, some brand names left the initial "e" from ethane; "chlorothane" for instance. I used this by the gallon before the Montreal Protocol. Sold in any hardware store; "Carbo-chlor" was a brand. A carbon-tet substitute. It is R-140a. I miss it, of course, but I miss more some folks who left this world early with melanomas.
Freon-TE (and TF) was used to clean flux where I worked in the late 60's. R-113.
Now I have to be content with the hexane in brake cleaner, kerosene for big jobs, and 91% IPA from the drug store, when soap and water doesn't cut it.
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Art Benstein near Baltimore
Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.
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Hi Art, Glad to hear from you.
You are more in tune, as usual, to the exact details of things.
I was lucky enough not to have used anything but 1.1.1 out of those drums.
I remember hearing about the older carbon-tech now and you are correct that was the stuff than cause something worse than the ethane. I forgot that one.
Cancer or liver damage, either way you got sick from it. I think one was by absorption, they said it was through the skin but the vapors go right into the blood stream is what I imagine today is what kicks your butt.
I never saw the 1.1.2 so the "e" must have meant the female "Ethyl" was the bad girl. I was told by our management at the time that ours did not have the "e" so we were safe. I hope they did not lie but I am still alive so I think they were.
Amazing things surface about what ends up in water supplies and you mentioned California. I worked for a company there during the mid seventies and early eighties that were skillful at handling waste. We use tremendous amounts of and now termed a "synthetic" coolant for our machines. I think the name on their barrels was Oaklite or Oakite. That stuff would go rancid in the sumps, more so in the summertime. We would always have fresher coolant mid summer and I came home with less smell on my shoes. The company had a deal with Knapp to furnish safety shoes twice a year. That was nice as that stuff would soften the leather and the neoprene souls until they split!
The company built a very large open top tank, outside in the sun of our large parking lot and put that bad stuff in there to let it evaporate in to the air. After a time it would get thick and they paid a contractor to haul it "away", where ever "away is" the many less gallons! I heard after I left the company there was a raucous with the company and the contractor’s permits! I am sure a nice FINE fixed everything and all is wonderful as it was suppose to be!
I still about 30lbs of R-12 and a yellow medium size spray can of Freon TF left over from those days. Yes, I use Denatured Alcohol but from a paint store as a cleaner as it is safe for most things and elevate up from there to mineral sprits, lacquer thinner, the brake cleaner, acetone and last choice MEK as ethyl is that bad girl on the shelf again. Alcohol is our safest as they will not take that off the market as now they are now putting it into the gasoline.
Yes, Solvent “nose-stalgia” with crossed eyes. :)
Phil
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Hi,
Sorry to hear about your problem.
What broke exactly? The plastic pushbutton? Will it not lock anymore?
Travis
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Actually, the buttons seem fine... It's just that when you put the male part of the buckle into the female portion, it just doesn't catch. I assume that there is a spring inside the female side that has given up the ghost, but I haven't had time to pry apart the buckle to see how it is put together. Tonight's Volvo project was putting a new oil pressure sender into my 94 945T to see if my low oil pressure light would go out (it did). So that makes me happy, but I would love to get Bjorn back on the road and kid seat ready. I live in the Midwest, so the yards rarely have more than one or two redblock Volvos, and all of the 245's I have run into have a different kind of buckle that would not work with my belts
Anyway, would still love some advice. I will shoot the non-fumctioning buckkle with some PB Blaster to see it I can free it up, but I don't hold much hope for it working. If anbyone runs across a functioning buckle at a yard, I would love to buy it from you. Thanks again for your input!
Adam
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As most of the guys indicated, it is not so much the lubrication (although that is key) it is the gummy mess that accumulates in the buckle and/or stuff kids stuff in the hole. If you open up the buckle, it will become infinitely clear.
On the note of stuff things in holes (get your mind out of the gutter). My loser renters' kids stuffed paper so tightly into every ground on every outlet in my rent house that I had to replace all the outlets...it was cheaper and faster than trying to pry out the paper.
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Amazing story about the outlets! I imagine your expression when discovering what was blocking the ground pin, assuming the parents did not clue you in.
The seat belt buckle problem is intriguing to me from the standpoint of having buckled a large number of them over the past 13 years and never once had reason to look inside the buckle part, beyond replacing the light bulbs in the front ones. Retractors -- now that was a learning session. I have to believe this has an external cause.
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Art Benstein near Baltimore
Those of us who spent our allowance at the five and dime think we are getting a bargain at the dollar store.
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Not a representative sample, but my '76 had problems with all but one buckle. 3 where just accumulated funk on what I assume was the original lube. A toothbrush and WD40 got them clean and some sort grease (do not remember) had them working smoothly. The fourth was toothpicks (passenger front)...lots of toothpicks so I am assuming a child was responsible for this act as well.
My '79 drivers buckle was also a victim of accumulated funk.
Of course the parents did not tell me about the outlets and acted shocked when I told them about it...and the writing at 2' high on almost every wall in the house. To make a long story short, I am done with renters. They have turned a house I loved and remodeled every room in to a millstone around my neck.
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