RE: Seat fold-forward lever

[Tim Ebling <tim@surreal.com>]

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Hey Toby - this subject comes up every once in a while on the list.  The
following are some list emails on the subject from the long distance
past...

HTH

-tim

-----------------------------


> Does anyone know if you can easily get to the cables that let 
> the seat go
> forward. My drivers seat won't flip forward when you pull up 
> the knob. The
> cable to the opposite side latch is disconnected.

Yeah I did this recently.  It's not a tough job at all.  I got my cable
from
the dealer, and it turned out it was a bit too long.  What I ended up
doing
was tying a loose knot (loop) in the wire, which shortened it enough to
make
it the perfect length.

Here's a message from Mark from WAY back on this subject:

Good luck,

-tim

--------------------------------------------------------------

You have to open up the seat back to repair/replace the cable. 

To open up the back of the seat, fold the seat forward. You can do this
by manually lifting the little levers at the rear of the seat bottom
(the
ones that the cables should be pulling). Then, examine the bottom of the
seat back. You should be able to see a seam where the upholstery from
the
front of the seat back meets the upholstery from the rear of the seat
back. You should then be able to see about four little pointy metal tabs
evenly spaced out along the seam. You must bend these out such that you
will be able to gently disengage the rear upholstery from the tabs. They
slide off the tabs toward the rear (a little metal rod holds the
material
against the "tabs". 

Once the upholstery is freed from the tabs, you should be able to pull
the uphostery back (gently) far enough to inspect the cables, and make
the repairs.

I had to remove the release lever covers on the side to get the cable
onto the lever.

Figure out which cable is busted. There is one that goes to the right
side of the seat, and one to the left.

Although I've left out a bunch of detail, you should be able to figure
any gaps in my explanation.

Check with your dealer before you do this (sometimes they do not have
them in stock, and you will not want to drive the car with the seat back
open and those pointy tabs stabbing the upholstery on the seat bottom).
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-----------------------


As for the seat, I replaced the cables and frame on my 84 recently.
The big thing you should be careful of is stretching the shell-- might
be more of an issue with cloth seats, I'm not sure.
but anyway...
I actually took the entire seat out and worked on it on my kitchen
floor.   I was able to get more elbow room and less frustrated that way.

There are four sharp metal tangs at the base of the back of the seat,
they are bent to hold the seat cover.   Unbend these and be careful not
to get cut.   The metal tangs are attached to the seat frame so you will
have to avoid them throughout the operation.

The seat cover/shell has three cables sewn into it.   These  cables
attach to the seat frame.   Their soul purpose is to keep the cover
taught and looking pretty.   When you remove the cover, if you decide
you have to, be sure not to tear out the stitching holding the cables.
Two of these cables run just inside of the bolsters on the front side of
all of the padding.   they connect to the seat at the top of the
internal frame and to the sharp tangs mentioned earlier.   the cable are
looped at the their ends at the bottom of the seat, take a pliers and
pull them off of the tangs.

Because the covers are tailored, compress the padding bolster material
and move the covers up off of the frame.  This might be a slow process
until you get the hang of it.   you shouldn't have to remove the cover
completely to get at the release cables.

The seat release cables are similar to the brake cables on your old ten
speed.   If you didn't want to hassle with worrying whether or not you
wanted to pay the silly dealer for the "right" part number, I'm sure you
could manufacture a cable less prone to stretch, fray, and breakage.   I
didn't, I just robbed some spare seats.   the cable set up will be self
explanatory.   One shorter one runs from the release lever down the
outside of the seat, to the outside release hook.   All that fastens the
cable to the lever and the hook is a shaped metal, uhh, rod basically.
just tip the rod in one direction and then another and suddenly it's
out.   you'll be able to figure it out once you see it.   The inside
cable, the one that breaks most of the time runs either horizontal the
vertical, or simply diagonally.   the main thing to watch for is how
it's threaded, again, you'll get it when you see it.

FYI, I tried that just tie a knot in the cable thing, it would have
worked fine, except the cable, once bent holds a "memory" of the bend
and can leave your cable acting like a spring rather than a cable, which
will frustrate you further, cause it'll seem to work fine until you put
the seat back in the car.
 Off of seat cable topic, onto seat back angle adjustment topic
Also, in response to my post a few months ago, once the seat back angle
adjustment dial thing is stripped, that's it, you need a new frame, so
go a junk yard and getcherself a new used one and graft all the stuff
you want to keep onto the good frame.

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