steve meltzer

While I've got the driver's seat out of my '66 coupe to have the gauges re-faced, I thought I might fix the seat track on that seat. The seat moves to and fro', not so much side-to-side. I saw an article from a guy who did this (NCRS publication, a few years back) and it looked pretty complicated for my small brain. Are there other articles, or someone who's adept at this? thanx steve

Revfan

Which year midyear? The 67s are a little different

Oooops. Just noticed you said 66.

steve meltzer

Right, they are. as noted, I think, it's a '66. thanx. steve

Jackfit

Hi. I did a post on doing both my 66 seat frames. Will post later (at work)

It is not hard, and if never done before , they may need it

Jack

steve meltzer

Jack, thanx so much. I appreciate your efforts. steve

rayvaflav

Here's what I'm currently using, it's even for a '66.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...cing-info.html

Ray

steve meltzer

Great blog and highly useful. thanx. steve

steve meltzer

thanx for all of the info. Jackfit, can you post yours as well? Much appreciated. steve

Jackfit

Hi , my post is not as complete, but the key is replacing the spring bushings, and fixing the bad welds or notched levers.

On my iPhone

Jack

steve meltzer

thanx so much. s

steve meltzer

This blog has been just excellent in the repair of the seat track from my '66 'Vette. So far so good, but an article on this repair appeared in the NCRS Restorer sometime ago, and it has confused me...the writer states that there are slotted plastic bushings on the adustment/T-bar rod, yet neither LIC nor CC show sucha part. Anybody know anything about this/these plastic bushing(s)? thanx steve

BB767

Good to hear you're finding that thread helpful Steve, that's why I created it. I'm not quite sure what "adjustment/T-bar rod" you're referring to. Is it the rod the chrome seat adjustment handle is attached to?



As I recall the only plastic bushings used anywhere on the seat track mechanism are the white ones circled in yellow (front) and red (rear) above. That is the rod the chrome seat adjustment handle attaches to at the front of the seat.



A little better picture of the rear rod white plastic bushing. When I was repairing my seats I took literately hundreds of pictures. I just reviewed them and those are the only plastic bushings I could see and they are the only ones I remember. Mine were in good condition so I didn't replace them so I don't know about replacements. Just lubricated them with same dry, graphite spray I used elsewhere on the seat.

BTW Steve I sent you a PM regarding welding your seat frames, did you get it?



There are several welds on the frame...



...that need to be inspected...



...and in all likelihood will need repair. Any competent welding shop can do it but for best results they really ought to be TIG welded.





Those frames are thin metal and TIG gives you so much better control when welding. As long as I was at it I re-welded just about every weld on my seat frame. That's a pretty important part of refurbishing those seats.

Good luck with it and let me know if you need anything else.

Thomas

steve meltzer

Thomas, your photos are just the BEST! So helpful and well desribed. Yes, those are the plastic bushings, I'm sure, tho' my seat is at the welder now. I told them TIG might be best and it needed many welds repaired, as you suggested. Great garage, too! Didn't get your PM, but here's mine, so feel free to use it. thanx again, steve <scheherazde@swbell.net>

Gary's '66

I just did mine and it was quite easy. That said my frames, thank God, were in excellent condition structurally (no broken welds or rusted out areas) so all I had to do was rebuild and lube them.

Gary

steve meltzer

OK, I must have just overlooked the slip-on plastic bushings that go on the seat adjustment handle. In the CC catalogue, they're part #482014 which includes the small adjuster springs and the funky retaining clips. All set. For now. thanx again. steve

BB767

Are those new bushings slotted so they can be replaced without removing the adjusting rod? If not, when you get your seat frames back from the welders, take a good long look at what will be necessary to replace those bushings.



As I recall you'll need to grind this weld off the end of the seat adjustment rod, (Yellow Arrow) which is welded to the lever highlighted by the Red Arrow. To make it even more interesting, that adjustment rod is indexed to that lever so the chrome handle on the front of the rod is horizontal when installed.



To successfully remove the seat adjustment rod and then re-weld it correctly indexed can be done mind you, but is it worth the effort?



The rod needs to come out of both the back support (Red Circle) and the front support (Yellow Circle) to replace those bushings if the new ones can't be slipped over the rod with it in place.
When grinding the weld, care has to be taken to not damage the lever it's welded to, and the rod needs to be marked so it can be indexed correctly when reinstalling it.
All in all not for the faint of heart.
That rod only rotates 90º at most so those bushings don't get much wear. Are you sure yours need replacement?
Just something to consider.
Again, good luck with it.

Thomas

steve meltzer

Yes, the bushings are slotted, and no, I'm not sure mine need be replaced, as the seat bottom is at the welder. I'll post the list when I can get this worked out. If the slotted ones don't work, i'll blow it off. Ain't grindin' no stupid welds! thanx again. s

Mr D.

So here is a seat question, in post #16, 2nd picture, you will see the wire that runs from RH adjuster to LH adjuster. Mine is broken/gone and I'm not seeing this item in any of the Corvette vendor catalogs.

I’m thinking of using bailing wire and a couple wire swages to make one, any thoughts on that?

BB767

Steve, as I mentioned my rod bushings were fine so I didn't do much research on replacing them or how to remove that rod. Since I've been looking for answers for you I had another thought. That seat adjustment rod is welded to a lever as you can see.



That lever is held in place by a pin. If the pin the yellow arrow is pointing to is somehow removed, then the lever can remain attached to the rod and the whole rod assembly can slide out and be removed toward the rear. That's the good news, however....



Here's the other side of that pin. Notice the large head on it which means the small end (the first picture) is the end you want to remove.
I'm afraid I can't remember how the pin is attached to the lever but I bet it'll take some effort and care to remove it and then be able to re-install it correctly.
Either way to replace those rod bushings would be a most unpleasant task to say the least.
It might turn into a very long, tedious, unsatisfying, unwanted, expensive, time consuming, project you wished you had never started, if you know what I mean!
Those bushing get minimal use so it's highly likely yours would be just fine.
Lubricate them and then sit back and enjoy your newly repaired seats.
I hope all of this has been helpful.

Thomas

BB767

The seat frame is shown upside down. The wire the goes from the RH master adjuster to the LH slave adjuster is seen circled here if you look closely in the middle. The arrows point to each end of the wire. Note the jog in the middle of the wire. That jog in the middle acts as a kind of spring that helps keep the wire taunt when its installed.



Here's a better look at one end of the wire. Both ends are identical. The arrow is pointing to a sleeve that slides over the end of the wire to keep it from pulling out of the seat adjusters.



Here's the wire in place on the adjuster with the sleeve installed over the end. All that wire does is tie the two seat adjusters together so they move the same amount at the same time.

Just as a guess I'd perhaps recommend piano wire as a replacement. The wire needs to be pretty stiff so it won't pull out of the adjusters and will hold its shape.

Mr D, when you say bailing wire, to me that's kind of generic that could mean many different types of wire. Perhaps John Z could tell us what was used from the factory.

Hope that helps some.

Thomas