Advice on seat removal

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SV&HOdan

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Front drivers seat wont budge (makes a whimper of a noise) and I cant get to ANY of the bolts/nuts. Not a parts car so I dont want to cut up the floor. Any solution??? thanks, dan
 

mrecoolgar

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Hey Dan.
Sometimes if you sit in the seat and push back it will move.
And sometimes if you raise it up all the way (if it will do that) it will move easier.
Try a combination of raising, tilting and such.
Best of luck.
 

sperold

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The rear nuts are always easier to remove. Put lots of penetrating fluid on the nuts and you can get an open or closed end wrench on them and they come out, but it takes a long time, as each turn only moves the hex a small amount. Take the rear seat out and try to get comfortable.

The fronts are harder. You will need to wire brush the external threads from underneath and oil them up. They are usually much tighter (torqued more) and it is difficult to lay in that front area under the dash. With some luck, you will be able to get a small socket on it , but more likely you will be using an open end wrench with another one as leverage.
 

SV&HOdan

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Sorta tried that already but I'll get someone stronger than me to provide some force and will try
again. would 24 volts make any difference? risky?
 

sperold

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The 12V should do it, but they barely work satisfactorally when they are used everyday.

Some wrenches have a different attack angle, so get all your sets out and try them all. The old mechanics have a few wrenches with discoloured handles where they took the torches to them and changed the angle.

And I hear you about that strength thing, some people can crank the wrenches with ease, but i need the most leverage available, and that is a problem when your are trapped in an impossible position.

But at least it is not winter.
 

rubydist

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normally, it is just the front/back motor that goes out, so you can raise the seat up.

once you raise the seat up, you will see there is a little stub of the shaft with the two pinion gears on it - you can put a vice-grips on that stub and turn that along with moving the seat adjustment switch. sometimes, there is just one part of the motor winding that has open-circuited, and if you move it a little it will start to run. other times, you have to use the vice-grips all the way, but I have successfully moved a "stuck" seat that way more than once.
 

SV&HOdan

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Got the seat to move back enough (by rocking and applying force) to get the fronts; no matter how much force
I apply forward, seat wont budge. I'll try the vice grip method tomorrow and hopefully I'll be able to get to the
18mm and the 13 mm nuts in the back. Thanks for all the tips!!!!
 

sperold

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I would be tempted to put a bottle jack in the interior and a piece of 2 x 4 and put some real pressure on the apparatus (since you were able to get it to move backwards). That is assuming you did it using the seat switch.
The rear nuts are much easier usually, because the bolt part that sticks up is too long for most sockets to fit, so the install was probably done with an open wrench, and people are not so vigorous with a wrench compared to a ratchet handle.
 

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