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We had the same problem on my daughter's first 900SE, namely the well documented front seat release. After reading here, I was convinced that the problem was the cable and gave up on the idea of doing all that work to get more motion out of the release lever. After all, it was only a high school car and half the fun of your first car is getting around its idiosyncrasies.
But now she has a "new" 1997 900 convertible and my wife redid the seat upholstery for her so I decided to get to the bottom of the cable / release mechanism. What I found was interesting!
Of course, the cable seemed to be the fault because half of the effort in lifting the lever was wasted. But before ordering a new cable or going through the methods I found on this board, I decided to remake the latch bushings, as the plastic had deteriorated and the aluminum was mashed and corroded to the point where they didn't turn.
I removed the large shoulder bolt that the bushing mounts on (I needed vise grips for one of them, as the #50 star wrench wasn't doing it) and removed the bushing. I put the shoulder bolt back on until it met the welded nut on the frame and measured the total length between the head and the base of the nut. It came to about .540". I say "about" because the shoulder bolt has a radius and the inside of the head is tapered out. What I wanted to know was the length to make the bushing so that it would spin freely when the bolt was tightened.
Then I measured the outside diameter of the shoulder bolt and nut flange. That turned out to be .545" (which is .006" below 14mm). So I knew that the inside diameter of the bushing should be greater than .551" and that the length should be less than .540". That only left the outside diameter of the bushing. I measured the gap in the latching mechanism and decided that it was a nominal 18mm (.709"). So I made the first bushing out of some black 3/4" delrin I had, measuring .704" OD X .562" (9/16") ID X .535" long. IT WORKED!!!!
It not only worked, the lift lever grabbed right away, no wasted motion, no straining against the top of the lever stroke, just a smooth (and I mean SMOOTH) easy motion. Then I noticed that the seat latch wasn't going all the way back, so I shaved the bushing down to .688" (11/16") and shortened it so it had more free play. What a DREAM!
So the final dimensions for all four bushings were .688" OD X .562" ID X .520" L and I have to tell you it's unbelievably easy to open the seats. The passenger side opens with just one of the levers (either one, the way it's supposed to) and the driver's side is just as simple. Oh, one of the really great tips I found here was to spray some grease up into the ends (top and bottom) of the cables. That also helped, so thank you whoever posted that one.
I'll post some pics and provide a link when my daughter gets back next week. Let me know what your results were, what material you used and any improvements you can think of.
posted by 69.37.20...
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