C900 Rear seat belt bolt.

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Al - 30 Aug 2006 15:09 GMT

I recently removed the C-pillar trims to re-cover them. A fine job I
did too, even if I do say so myself! (Photos of the whole job will
follow...) However when replacing the seatbelt guide the threads
stripped and I cant torque the bolt up to the required 33ftlb, no-where
near.

Now the bolt screws into a captive nut, which is welded into the
chassis/body, and its this nut which has stripped out. WHY was the
bolt designed with a stronger thread that the captive nut, and has
anyone got any experience/ideas of how to fix this problem. My rear
off-side seatbelt is currently U.S.

Al

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Paul Halliday - 30 Aug 2006 17:38 GMT

> I recently removed the C-pillar trims to re-cover them. A fine job I
> did too, even if I do say so myself! (Photos of the whole job will
> follow...) However when replacing the seatbelt guide the threads
> stripped and I cant torque the bolt up to the required 33ftlb, no-where
> near.

I'd be interested to see a walkthrough - I have mine to do soon. Did you
re-do the speaker mounts and parcel shelf as well? I intend to follow on
from the parcel shelf, through the speaker mounts, C pillars and then
headliner.

> Now the bolt screws into a captive nut, which is welded into the
> chassis/body, and its this nut which has stripped out. WHY was the
> bolt designed with a stronger thread that the captive nut, and has
> anyone got any experience/ideas of how to fix this problem. My rear
> off-side seatbelt is currently U.S.

Sorry ... I've not this far yet :)

I know PDA (on UKSAABs, etc) has undertaken the same job ... Maybe he can
shed a little light if no-one here can help. I'm sure there's someone here
though.

Paul

1989 900 Turbo S
http://saab.go.dyndns.org/

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Al - 30 Aug 2006 20:25 GMT

>> I recently removed the C-pillar trims to re-cover them. A fine job I
>> did too, even if I do say so myself! (Photos of the whole job will
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> shed a little light if no-one here can help. I'm sure there's someone here
> though.

Paul,
it's PDA's sticky that encouraged me to have a go! I thought I'd start with
the C pillars first as it would give me a fair indication as to how
difficult/easy working with the materials is. Turns out to be fairly
simple, but you need to have your wits about you. As for the parcel shelf
and speaker mounts, I'm doing them in carpet again but not right now,
that's a future project with new leather to cover the door cards. Certainly
Woolies seem to have a good selection of trims and the empire grey I'm using
for the c-pillars and headlining is only £6.50 a metre. A local Saab
specialist to us warned me off headlining kits from a certain internet
company who specialise in bits for Swedish autos other than Volvos, as in
their opinion the material wasn't up to much.

There is a guy locally in Clekheaton who will do headliners, but I'm going
to go for it myself, though I have some fairly serious repairs to do to the
shell itself first. hopefully if I can pull it off, it'll make a good
reference project for other C900 owners. Replacement liners aren't made by
SAAB any more and there are quite a few variations, 4 door, 5 door, 3 door,
2 door with/without grab handles, centre roof light or not etc etc(hey I
don't need to tell Paul Halliday about C900 variations eh?!?) so getting a
good matching one from a scrappy is increasingly difficult.

Any road up, my main problem is this stripped captive nut, its more of a
problem than I first thought, as simply using a longer bolt with a loose nut
behind isn't possible due to the C-pillar getting in the way....

Any ideas would be most welcome.

Al

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Paul Halliday - 30 Aug 2006 23:07 GMT

>>> I recently removed the C-pillar trims to re-cover them. A fine job I
>>> did too, even if I do say so myself! (Photos of the whole job will
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
> company who specialise in bits for Swedish autos other than Volvos, as in
> their opinion the material wasn't up to much.

I'm following suit with the black leatherette that I recovered the door card
inners and parcel shelf with. Finishing off the speaker housing and then
moving onto the C pillars and headlining. I know black sounds very dark for
an interior, but it is getting quite popular to have dark interiors in more
model "sports" cars. I got mine from Leeds indoor market, top of the Merrion
at the back of that hardware shop. I'll certainly look in at Woolies,
though.

While the headliner is out, our friends at Aeromotive are going to do some
more work in the inner parts of the sunroof and I'll perhaps get the wiring
and tubing in for a rear wash/wiper ... Something sorely lacking from my
model. I've got nothing to suspect my headlining is at all bad ... Just the
material sagging ... So here's hoping :)

> There is a guy locally in Clekheaton who will do headliners, but I'm going
> to go for it myself, though I have some fairly serious repairs to do to the
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> don't need to tell Paul Halliday about C900 variations eh?!?) so getting a
> good matching one from a scrappy is increasingly difficult.

I grew up in Cleck ... Who's the chap? I'm pretty sure I know what to do,
but it's good to know of someone "just in case". Might turn out to be an old
pal ... Who knows?

I reckon just remove the old lining, scrape off all the old foam and then
sand down to a good finish. Apply the new material onto a good adhesive,
using a small roller to work the new fabric onto the board. When totally
dry, trim and re-fit to the roof. Is that about it?

> Any road up, my main problem is this stripped captive nut, its more of a
> problem than I first thought, as simply using a longer bolt with a loose nut
> behind isn't possible due to the C-pillar getting in the way....

Yeah, good luck. I'm not at all sure what to suggest. Can it be drilled and
re-tapped? What about feeding a new screw up the C pillar on the end of a
magnetic tipped flexible wand and gently feeding a longer screw to it?
Looking at these pictures <http://www.fixmysaab.com/headliner/step1.html> it
would seem you can get access, but not with hands.

Paul

1989 900 Turbo S
http://saab.go.dyndns.org/

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Craig's Saab C900 Site - 31 Aug 2006 13:01 GMT

>I recently removed the C-pillar trims to re-cover them. A fine job I
>did too, even if I do say so myself! (Photos of the whole job will
>follow...) However when replacing the seatbelt guide the threads
>stripped and I cant torque the bolt up to the required 33ftlb, no-where
>near.

>Now the bolt screws into a captive nut, which is welded into the
>chassis/body, and its this nut which has stripped out. WHY was the
>bolt designed with a stronger thread that the captive nut, and has
>anyone got any experience/ideas of how to fix this problem. My rear
>off-side seatbelt is currently U.S.

You could drill out what's left of the thread in the captive nut, tap a new
thread that's a larger diameter, and get a different bolt to suit. I haven't
needed to take out rear seatbelts before so I'm not sure if using a larger
bolt would require a lot of extra drilling, etc. beside re-threading the
captive nut.

Craig.

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Email: c900@lios.apana.org.au | For Saab 99/C900/9000 Enthusiasts World-Wide!
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MH - 31 Aug 2006 21:22 GMT

> ...a captive nut, which is welded into the
> chassis/body, and its this nut which has stripped out.
> ... how to fix this problem.

You can use a helicoil to repair the thread.
http://www.helicoil.com/products/helicoil.asp

Signature

MH
'72 97 '77 96 '78 95 '79 96
'91 900i

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Al - 11 Sep 2006 12:59 GMT

> > ...a captive nut, which is welded into the
> > chassis/body, and its this nut which has stripped out.
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> '72 97 '77 96 '78 95 '79 96
> '91 900i

How would this work?

Al

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MH - 17 Sep 2006 23:32 GMT

>>You can use a helicoil to repair the thread.
>>http://www.helicoil.com/products/helicoil.asp

> How would this work?

Cut new thread with the helicoil thread cutter
Screw in a helicoil with the diam of the original seat belt bolt, knock off the
end of the helicoil with the helicoil tool, as per instructions.
Use the original seat belt bolt in the now new helicoil thread.

Signature

MH
'72 97 '77 96 '78 95 '79 96
'91 900i

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