power seat track repair
 

Has anyone ever tried to dissasemble and repair a power seat track? The tilt function on mine doesn't work - it sounds like a stripped gear, which I understand is made of plastic. Is it even possible to find plastic or metal replacement gears? I know you can get rebuilt tracks, but thought the question is worth asking.

nobody makes replacement parts for the seat track. you have to swap out the entire unit.

Most of the catalog vendors offer rebuilt tracks (or a rebuild service). They're about $220 with a $150 core charge. You won't be able to find the gear unit alone - at least not one that is guaranteed to work. :)

:iagree: I had a positive excperience with Corvette Central. They would also rebuild the seat track out of my car if I wanted to leave it with them for a few weeks. Good luck!

I am getting ready to tear one down. I got 2 tracks with play on the front riser that makes my seat tilt forward or backward with accel or decel. I see the mesh between the bar and outside gear is fine but it does rotate ever so slightly causing this.Anoying it is. I just got a used one and it has a little less play in it so I am using it and going to tear down my old one just for grins and see if there is a way to fix my newer one with a gear out of it. There must be a way to do this if they keep selling rebuilts someone has the gears. Just wish I knew where to get them. Buying a rebuilt is just another corvette tax. They want your core and probably spend 1 hr to rebuild it. Wish I was making $200 an hour.

I got a rebuilt seat frame from Ecklers. The frame was painted black which was ok, but they painted over the crumbs and spilled milkshake that were all over it. I took off the new parts I needed to rebuild my broken part and then sent their crappy frame and my broken pieces back as the core.


it still works

My sentiments exactly. Let us know how you make out after the tear-down. You never know, it might be less $$ to have a machinist friend make a gear from scratch.

My thoghts exactly:thumbs:

I will be doing it in a week or two and will post back.

Mine does everything but move forward and backward on the track. I'd rather swap in a manual seat track than pay $200 to fix it. :toetap:

Power Seat Track Repair
 

I'm The Guy Whose Taken The Seat Track Transmission Apart. Pretty Easy To Get Apart, Too. What You Probably Discover Inside Is A Really Crappy Design. Good Chance It's Not Gears, Based On My Observation. Gear System Looks Good Enough- It's The Worm Retainers That Suck. There Are 3 Nylon (or Maybe Polypropylene) Retainers, One At Each End Of The Main Worm Drive, And A Large, Complex Piece That Situates The Drive Gear Shafts.

Mine Is A 92, Owned Since New, With 21k Miles. Lots Of Stuff Going Wrong By Now, Mostly Victims Of Age. Anyway, The Nylon Retainers Fracture, Causing Inadequate Meshing Of The Gears. Probably Impossible To Buy Components, So I'm Going To Try Something Experimental And Cheap. 2 Of The 3 Retainers On Mine Are Broken, But Only The Forward/reverse Has Completely Failed. I'm Going To Make A Steel Stiffener To Sandwich The Primary Retainer In Place When I Rivet The Housing Back Together.

The Idea Is To Force The Broken Retainer Pieces Into Position By The Addition Of The Stiffener. Hoping This Works, Since The Alternative Is Rediculous.

Anyone Else Have Thoughts?

Would it be possible for you to provide some pics of the dissassembled unit, showing where the parts are and what they look like?

:lurk:

Same here I wanna see some pics and a step by step disassmebly guide. I doesn't look too hard but I would like to compare notes.

I tore my 93 rack apart. The gears were really not stripped. The housing was broken in two places. I fabricated the pieces that would mend the breaks. I then spaced the worm gears out as much as possible to use the part of the gear that had not been damaged. Anyway, it works just fine. It is for the passenger seat so it does not get much use.
93cruiser

I have done extensive work on the seat tracks. The gears don’t go bad, the end caps and supports do. Glue will not hold up. I did some plastic welding for the passenger side. I did replace the drivers side. :)

Check out this link and the info on post 16 and my pictures and write up on post 19. Its to much to bring over to this page. :ack:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...ighlight=sport

OK so I see the broken end cap I assume that may be my proble with the excess movement in the front up and down. With the broken end cap it allows the gear to move forward and back correct? I have another track that does not move forward and back but both forward and rear up/down are tight. I did not see the rear on you pics. Question is do you think it would be possible to take the good end caps/gears ( I assume they do not come apart) out and swap them? Will the rear end cap/gear transfer to the front? I have two working tracks that both have the play in the front up /down

If the plastic can be ID'ed I know where the proper glue can be had there is a company called Weld On that makes all sorts of plastic glues. I used thier #4 on a broken Targa and it was solid as a rock.Problem is we will need to know the plastic composition to select the right glue.

http://www.eplastics.com/Plastic/Adh...FQEGxwodxydm_w

I am wondering if it is ABS plastic I know the quality of what they sell and it is superior.

WOW I found this link and thought I would add it mabey we CAN figure out what plastic it is.

http://www.texloc.com/closet/cl_plasticsid.html

Yes

To take apart, you do have to drill out the aluminum rivets (1/8) and replace them with screw and nut.
Been a while so take my info with a grain of salt. I do believe the end caps do transfer. The biggest problem was the housing that cracked in multiple spots. I epoxyed at first and that did not hold up. Did the job again and welded the pieces together. It works but take it real easy and not much activity in the passenger side. I think it would break again if I got to ambitious.


Man, plastics are not my field, but the idea sounds great. The plastic was very slick and the main structure does take a lot of stress. Bonding needs to be stronger than plastic itself. Kinda like doing PVC.

Thanks for the pics and the detailed explaination. That pretty much settles it for me - I'm going to save the aggravation and just go for a rebuilt unit. Comment though: It seems that the rebuilders would have to replace the plastic housing, which means that they'd have to source them from somewhere. If someone had the means to cast and machine these out of aluminum, it sounds like there would be a fairly big market for them.

BTW, this forum is great, and well moderated! Kudos.

:iagree: Your walking in my shoes from 2 years ago. I am not the first or leader in this effort. But they got to be getting the parts from some where. We all can repair these things if there were parts. To make one out of aluminum is costly start up costs, need lots of volume. I think you would need a computer controlled cutter to make it worth while. Labor and a machinist is to costly (only government work). :)

post a pic of you need made i will let u know if i can make these. i'm a toolroom machinest with 30 yrs.exp. have not found anything i couldn't make for a vette yet.

If you look at the links above you will see the parts in question. You will need the parts in hand. After I take apart the extra one I have and swap a couple of parts out of it I will be more than glad to send the bad stuff to you. I will PM you.