I bought two new Talladega 915 seats for my Volvo 610 and experienced a few problems during installation.
The driver's side seat lined up nicely with the existing holes in the floorboard. On the old seat, two heavy-duty straps, about 8" in length, connected the seatbelt brackets to bolts on the floor. When the new seats were installed, these straps were too short. I guess these straps provide an extra margin of safety by securing the seat belts to the floor of the vehicle while allowing some slack for the up/down motion of the seat. It also seems to limit the upward travel of the seat. Now, I don't have these straps. The only thing securing the seatbelts is the brackets on the seat.
On each seat, there is an adjustment that raises the front edge of the seat by rotating small cams on a shaft. These cams and their shaft were offset from center on both seats so that one cam was between the bottom of the seat and the top of the base. They would not rotate. Took me a while to figure out what the problem was. I had to tap the shaft with a hammer to get it in the correct position. Since this problem was identical on both seats, I am wondering if the shaft was in a shipping position. The instructions did not mention this.
The old passenger seat was really nothing more than a storage compartment with cushions on top. The base was much larger than the driver's side and the holes did not match up with the new seat. I am reluctant to drill new holes in the floorboard sheet metal. I am afraid that the sheet metal screws will eventually work loose or, worse, rip out of the new holes over time. Also, the floorboard of the Volvo is covered with a thick rubber mat (except where the existing holes are located). I am considering an adapter plate (3/8" to 1/2" thick) that would mount to the existing holes and then drill and tap additional holes in the plate to match those in the seat.
Also, on the passenger side, the seat belt and the seat belt latch are mounted directly to the floor. When I install the new seat, I cannot attach the latch to the brackets on the seat because the latch and its cable is about 18" to 24" long. If I leave everything attached to the floor, then, when the passenger puts on their seatbelt, the seatbelts will alternately tighten and loosen as the new air ride seat tries to bounce up and down.
Some of you Volvo guys have replaced your seats. How did you handle these problems?
Warpath, I sure wished your seats were the right color. I could have saved a lot of money. But local shops could not/would not recover or dye your seats at a reasonable price.
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