Removing a stubborn seat

Deschodt · 12-06-2012, 10:51 AM

I have pulled many seats out of 911, but this one is stubborn.

It's on a 69.
Normally you just slide it forward or back, undo the exposed rail bolts, slide the other way, undo the other bolts, done... I pulled the driver seat out in 5 minutes. Problem is, the passenger seat will slide back, so I can remove the front bolts, but it will not slide forward more than 2 inches, maybe 3... So the rear rail bolts are not exposed at all.. I've poked, prodded, it's jammed, possibly something like a nut of bolt is jamming the rail. I think the blockage is located on the inner rail, near the rear (passenger side seat).

Help ? What are my options here... No room for a saw that i can figure out... I started removing the tab that the rail attaches to near the door sill but that is also useless because even if I can get to that last bolt, the inner mount is welded on the transmission tunnel anyway. This is the worst spot to see anything, too... Detaching anything else from anything else is nigh impossible due to lack of space to see or turn an allen wrench there. I was gonna have the seats redone, but if destruction is the only way, so be it... I await your advice. If destructive, please advise on the easiest way to do the least amount of damage ;-)

Thanks !

wachuko · wachuko's Garage

Have you tried the ball end allen/hex wrench?? Worked for me...

kodioneill · kodioneill's Garage

Maybe the bolts that hold the upper rail to the seat bottom have come loose and fallen down jamming against the bolts on the bottom. If that's the case there's no easy solution.

Deschodt · 12-06-2012, 12:04 PM

Yup, that's what I think happened. No easy solution is what it looked like to me too ;-)
PITA...

kodioneill · kodioneill's Garage

If you can access the top of the hold down bolt grind it off. It's most likely one side you might be able to cut the track off ( top track attached to the seat) with a sawsall. If you can push it far enough forward try to loosen the bolt where the top track attaches to the seat frame.

Deschodt · 12-06-2012, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kodioneill

If you can access the top of the hold down bolt grind it off. It's most likely one side you might be able to cut the track off ( top track attached to the seat) with a sawsall. If you can push it far enough forward try to loosen the bolt where the top track attaches to the seat frame.

The bolts in question are buried under the rail, I cannot rech them, grind them, cut them.. I am afraid some nut backed out in the rail, and without the possibility f pushing the seat forward much, I cannot expose those bolts.. I can tell this is gonna suck big time, no obvious solution but to obliterate the seats.

wachuko · wachuko's Garage

And positive is not an alignment issue? Have you tried putting the front bolts back and trying to slide it again to get to the rear bolts?

Are you able to bend down and look at the rails to see what is in the way? If a bolt loose from the top, can you use a hacksaw blade or a flat metal piece to get it out?

timmy2 · timmy2's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by wachuko

And positive is not an alignment issue? Have you tried putting the front bolts back and trying to slide it again to get to the rear bolts?

Are you able to bend down and look at the rails to see what is in the way? If a bolt loose from the top, can you use a hacksaw blade or a flat metal piece to get it out?

My passenger seat didn't want to slide with front bolts out, worth a shot as posted above.

Deschodt · 12-08-2012, 05:43 AM

Well I got it out but it was ugly. It wasn't rail alignment. It wasn't sliding past the same point even when all bolted up either. I ended up removing the side mount near the door sill. And the seat back for access. Then With the seat bolted only on the tunnel side i went medieval and lifted the free side 45 degrees doing the rail no favors. That gave me access to the 4 seat to rail bolts, barely. Once those were out I jammed a wedge between seat and the back of the stuck rail, that frees a pin in the seat that holds the rail. Then I hammered the stuck rail forward enough to see the last 2 bolts holding rail to car and could finally take them out. Bottom line: one bottom rail is a little bent around the mounting points but i voukd hammer that out. still, I'm not reusing it. I'm still unsure what the hangup was...

kodioneill · kodioneill's Garage

Glad you got it. If you install a different seat I would remove and loctite the bolts from the upper rail to seat.