SPF Driver's Seat

[Steve Cassani]

I took delivery of SPO 1862 last night (Thanks Rich Lacy!). When I first sat in the driver's seat, I found that I needed to move the seat forward. I found the lever at the right front of the seat, but on trying to raise it the lever would barely turn. Putting more pressure on the lever, forcing it upward, only twists the lever and whatever it attaches too.

The mechanic at Dynamic Motorsports advises removing the bolts that hold the seat and rail to the frame. Once the seat is free, I can turn it over and look to see what is interfering with the operation of the seat adjuster. He's never experienced a similar problem.

Has anyone had a problem with the seat adjustment? Any suspicions as to what I might find, or what I should be looking for? My initial impression was that the leather covering the seat was limiting the upwards motion of the lever. There's minimal clearance but this theory fails to account for the resistance to moving the lever at all.

[terry lee]

Steve,
Removing the seat is not a real big problem, you just need to get under the car to undo the nuts holding the frame in place. Putting it back is another story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lining up the bolts and holes is like a blind man crossing the street, because you can't see a damn thing!
Try standing along side the car and hold the seat lever up with you left hand while pushing forward on the back of the seat to move it forward. Be sure to grease the track before reinstalling. I've had mine out twice - once to install a taller roll bar, and the second time to try and find my damn cell phone. Have fun!
I can't believe Dynamic didn't offer to walk you thru the process - but then, that's why we are here
Good luck,
TL

[Lowell W]

Steve,

The seat adjusters are simple devices. The track has 24 teeth and the lever lever lifts a tab with two square cutouts so the tab engages two teeth at a time. The lever also pulls a wire attached to a similar adjuster on the opposite side. One guess is that the seat is jammed against one adjuster or the other, so lifting up on the adjuster handle while gently trying to rock the seat back and forth may free it. Another possibility is that the wire is disconnected, so lifting up on the handle only disengages one adjuster. A third possibility is that something (not likely the seat material, though) is preventing one or the other of the tabs from lifting away from the teeth on the track.

I've had the seats out of my car a couple of times and it wasn't that bad. To replace the seats, first make sure the adjusters are on the same teeth on both tracks. Starting with the two bolts in back, put a bolt up through the hole in the floor, bring the seat over to it and start each one a couple of threads so you can see where they all go. Then snug 'em up. While you have everything out, you can put some lube on the tracks and adjusters so they work a little easier. Mine are pretty stiff.

I needed all the extra room I could get in my car, so I have the adjusters out of my car and the seat is bolted to the floor. I took a couple of close-up photos of the tracks and adjusters to give you an idea of what this stuff looks like but it would take me too long to fool around trying to figure out how to shrink them to get them into this post. If you want them, please email me so I have your email address and I'll email back and attach the photos.

Whatever you do, if you unbolt the seat, be VERY careful lifting it out of the car. It's awkward and the adjusters can easily scratch stuff up.

Good luck. You're gonna LOVE your car once you can reach the pedals!

Lowell

[Buzzmobile]

I bought mine used and the track/rails had bound up on mismatched teeth and locked. Just popped out the seat with a 1/2" deep socket and manually realigned the teeth after a good bit of lube. After working the rails back and forth while the seat was out and after the lithium grease, they really loosened up. Just one thing I found out going back in. Don't put the seat all the way forward or all the way back on the rails as it binds when you tighten the bolts down. I found that 10 teeth from the back put the seat right in the middle of the "usable" travel for adjustment and the seat went right in.

[Steve Cassani]

I got the seat out with no trouble. Thanks for the advice concerning the risk of dragging the exposed bolts across a painted surface. I had the passenger compartment covered in wool blankets, just in case.

Both sides of the seat rail had failed to engage with the teeth, causing the adjustment mechanism to freeze. After tapping the mechanism a few times, lightly, with a hammer one side came free and then the other took only a jiggle. I sprayed some WD40 on the sliding portions of the seat adjuster along with the mechanism that rotates with the handle, then followed this up with some lithium grease on the rails and the rotating parts.

I positioned the tooth selector in the mid-point of it's range of travel, worked it manually several times and everything was fine.

I carefully put the seat back in position in the car - this took several minutes, being careful not to tear the carpet. I tried to adjust the seat location while stting in the car and found I had accomplished nothing; the seat was again jammed in the position I had set it when it was out of the car. Fortunately this position coincides with my ideal location for depressing the clutch.

I'm not through with this problem and may end up asking Dynamic for a replacement seat track and adjustment mechanism.

[Lowell W]

Steve,

Hmmm, that's interesting. On the bright side: now you know it isn't all that hard to get the seat in and out! There is no reason in the world why you shouldn't be able to move the seat easily all the way forward and all the way back. If it goes through its full range out of the car and only goes part way when it's bolted in, it must be twisting or binding when it's bolted into the car. By all means, call the guys at Dynamic, but you'll need to know what's causing the problem, as a new set of adjusters may not be the solution. Your car should not have left the dealership without this problem having been addressed. If, as you said in your first post, they've never experienced this problem, they may not be much help. If you were near the dealership, the easy solution would be to drive it over and say, "Fix it", but in your case that's not an option. Once you get this figured out, I'd call and talk to Ron or Dean and let them know you had this problem so they can address this with the factory.

OK, let's try this. First, loosen each bolt by a few turns and try sliding the seat back and forth. You may need to not be sitting in the seat. If it works better with the bolts a little loose, it's an indication something between the floor and the adjuster is causing the adjuster to bend or bind; possibly lifting or pulling down on one corner or diagonal corners or by pulling the track down at the ends with a hump in the middle, and it may not be by much. You may be able to shim a corner or two or raise the entire seat by a few washers to straighten things out. Also, it may be that the floor is flat, but the seat isn't. The tracks work OK until they're bolted to the flat floor, then the misalignment between the floor and seat causes the adjuster to bind.

If that doesn't work, take the seat out, set each adjuster on the same teeth, set the whole thing on the garage floor and draw a circle around each of the studs on the bottom of the seat adjusters. Look to see whether one stud is higher than the other three; if so, you can try shimming that corner. Measure hole to hole and corner to corner, then take the same measurements on the mounting holes in the car and compare the two. You may find a slight discrepancy, and again, it won't take much to cause the adjusters to bind. It MAY be possible to gain enough wiggle room by loosening the adjuster-to-seat bolts, moving the track(s) a little bit and retightening. If not, you may need to drill the holes in the seat frame or the floor a little oversize, which wouldn't be a big deal. Just make sure you don't wind up the carpet with the drill bit.

Hang in there. It's an annoying problem, but not a major one. Please let us know what you find.

Lowell