Repairing Common Seat Rail Problems in C5 Corvettes
To Those About to Rock
C5 Corvette seats are great. They offer first-class lateral support, tilt forward and backward with plenty range to make almost any driver comfortable and take all the dissimilar inflatable back up areas to keep the car comfy for long-range road trips—like the 1,000-mile weekend we just did in our Sebring Silverish 1998 coupe, La Bala. Unfortunately, and you knew this was coming, they also have 2 mutual mechanical problems, not counting routine habiliment-and-tear of the leather and foam. The fashion to figure out which of the problems you have is to ask yourself if your seat slides or rocks.
The first problem, sliding, results from the chintzy bushings in the bulldoze gear that moves your seat forward and backward. They tend to pummel themselves into shards and mix with the drive gear grease to create a peanut-butter like slurry, leaving a quarter-inch or so of fore-and-aft play in the seat that you notice every fourth dimension you stop. More accurately, every time the automobile stops considering you normally terminate moving frontwards nearly a second after the car does.
The fix consists of replacing those bushings within their housing, which is bolted to the floor side of the seat track and through which the bulldoze gear passes. The repair kits normally come with four new bushings, enough to exercise i seat. While it'southward not a job for a careless person, information technology'southward non too complicated and can exist done in about an 60 minutes or so.
The second, rocking, trouble is considerably more involved. The seat mechanism that raises and lowers the seat does so by rotating a pair of cantankerous-shafts mounted to the seat track (one in front, 1 in the rear). Each cross-shaft has a pair of brackets on it that bolt to the seat frame and are mounted on an eccentric to the shaft, then that rotating the cross-shafts raises or lowers the brackets and therefore the seats. Needless to say, the cantankerous-shafts themselves are discipline to an inordinate amount of strain, and the cast-aluminum flanges into which the cantankerous-shafts mount are a known weak spot. When they interruption, repairing the damage involves removing the entire seat track assembly from the seat frame, so it's major surgery.
Because the simpler (and likely more common) chore is the sliding i, we'll start with that, and then movement on to the more complex one. Corvette Central provided two kits for this commodity: 1 that volition set up the sliding problem for one complete seat and another that volition replace one broken flange to gear up the rocking problem. If both flanges are broken on a given seat, you lot'll need two kits. If merely one side is broken you'll need to know which side to order for since at that place a left and a correct side kit.
The first gild of business is seat removal. Move the seat backward, exposing the forepart seat track cover, and raise the seat as high as it will become, forepart and rear. Remove the seat track cover by first prying its small head forrard, which will and so let you lot pull the whole thing out of the seat track encompass. If information technology's too stubborn for your fingers, (gently) use a screwdriver. With the servant out, slide the seat track comprehend forward off its mounting tab on the seat base, exposing the 15mm nuts that concur the seats to its four studs. Once those are off, moving the seat frontwards will expose the rear mounting studs. With all four nuts removed, disconnect the electrical connector mounted to the side of the seat track just inside the door sill. The multi-pin connector is fastened to the track on the same small-scale gray plastic bracket we're used to seeing everywhere else on the C5, and then slide information technology off to remove it. The seat can at present be lifted advisedly out of the car, something you'll find easier if you remove the Targa or convertible pinnacle kickoff.
In one case the seats are out, start the track disassembly by putting the seat upside down on your work bench, making sure yous showtime pad the work surface and then it won't damage the seat.
Information technology's important to know that the drive gears (the two long threaded rods that motility the seat forwards and backward on its tracks) are threaded in opposite directions from one another, so in that location is a definite right and left. The caged nut housings on both must be located in exactly the same place on the bulldoze gear prior to reassembly, for obvious reasons. You tin use tape to mark where the housings were on each shaft and advisedly screw them back in the same place. Instead, we screwed ane of the drive gear retaining bolts through both drive gear mount brackets, connecting both gears together so nosotros could make sure the housings were perfectly aligned. We besides kept the two T25 Torx bolts screwed into the correct side housing and so we always knew which side was which. Vette
This deceptively simple repair kit was supplied by Corvette Key and will set up the sliding problem. It comes with four new shims (plenty to exercise i seat) also as the ii Torx wrenches to disassemble the seat rail.
This is the seat side of the electric connection y'all'll need to undo to go the seat out. Notice the light grey mounting subclass located simply backside the plug: the connector on the motorcar side of the harness mounts to it. The wire servant (the sparse steel piece to which this plug is connected) needs to come off the seat track past gently prying 1 finish out of the hole into which its tab fits, then lifting it off.
Removing the wire servant will expose these two T25 Torx bolts that hold the caged nut housing in place on the floor side of the seat track. The drive gear (a long threaded rod mounted on the seat side of the track assembly) passes through the nut captured by the housing: when the gear turns, information technology moves the seat either forward or backward against the resistance of the housing.
This T40 Torx bolt passes through the flange we'll exist replacing to ready the rocking problem and into the bracket that secures the rear end of the drive gear. Removing it while the seat is still installed on the rails can be difficult, and we resorted to slipping a pipe over the end of the wrench for leverage.
With the rear mounting bolt removed, the drive gear associates can be removed from the rear of the seat runway assembly. Annotation the caged nut housing on the left side of the drive gear and the drive gear mounting subclass on the right, at the stop of the drive gear. The housing attaches to the floor side track, while the bracket bolts to the seat side.
This transmission cablevision connects the bulldoze gear (into which it is all the same seated) with the transmission that turns it (from which information technology has been removed), which is on the left at the front of the seat rail. It slips into matching square recesses on both the manual and the drive gear and it can fall out easily. During reassembly brand sure it is fully seated on both ends prior to screwing in the drive gear mounting bolt. If you lot can see the square role on either end of the manual cablevision information technology's probably not in far enough.
The source of the problem: note the black caged nut in its greyness housing also every bit the empty infinite on either side of the nut. That'due south where the bushings should be. Pulverized fragments of the bushings are a small role of the gunk all over the associates.
Afterward removing the caged nut from the drive gear, carefully make clean out all of its recesses before pressing in the new bushings, using a screwdriver to pry them into identify, if necessary. Note that the nut has a "peak," which must be kept toward the open side of the housing. The left- and right-side bulldoze gears (and their matching caged basics) are threaded in opposite directions from one some other, so keep each on its correct side. Make clean and lightly grease the gears before reassembly and make sure the housings are threaded to the same signal on each drive gear so the seat tracks will line up.
Now for the rocking problem. On the rear underside of the seat, locate the drawstring that pulls the seat cover tight and untie it, and then piece of work the seat encompass loose all around the base of the seat. One time it's loose, either set the seat in its usual upright position or lay information technology on its side, so long equally y'all tin access the seat adjuster handle.
Remove the seat adjuster handle by using a pocket-sized screwdriver to push button in the metallic clip visible in this slot while pulling the handle outward to free it from its splined shaft. Once the handle is off, remove the seat adjuster switch panel by unscrewing the screw located directly nearly the handle and the longer one at the front of the panel. Be cautious; these are 20-yr-old plastic and may exist fragile. Ask us how we know.
Unplug and remove the switch. We constitute it was easier to unplug the switch if we commencement took it out of the switch panel, which requires only gently prying back a couple of retainers. From the looks of the broken retainer and screw mountain, someone's already been inside this one. At present, gear up the seat upright and gently pull the seat cover and foam upward, exposing the aluminum seat structure that's bolted to the runway associates.
The two front bolts (this is the passenger side) are easy; simply remove them. While we're heard some seats accept nuts here instead of bolts, ours had bolts. They screw direct into the brackets located on the forepart cross-shaft. Make a note of how the brackets are oriented so you lot'll know how to reassemble them.
The rear ii bolts are well dorsum under the seat encompass near the hinge. We pulled the foam and seat embrace up plenty to skid a hand underneath and put a socket onto the caput of the commodities, so advisedly slipped a 3/8-inch extension down through the hinge area of the seat cover until nosotros could snap it into the socket and remove the bolt.
The body of the seat volition now lay astern abroad from the seatback associates, giving y'all access to the wiring and aggrandizement components that need to be removed to finally free the seat from its bracket. This relay is held loosely in place on the wires supporting the seat foam and can exist carefully lifted out of place without unplugging anything.
Disconnect the hoses that go from the inflator pump to the various bladders. We've already unplugged the lite colored one in the lower left of the photo: the black one on the right remains in place. Release the latch and pull the plug directly downwardly off its long mounts.
This is the rear commuter-side office of the assembly that lifts the seat. Notice the bracket to which the seat bolts, the cantankerous-shaft that rotates the bracket up and downwardly, and the flange into which the end of the cross-shaft is mounted. There's a roll pin in the flange that retains the grooved cease of the cross-shaft. Advisedly drive it out, preferably with a roll pivot punch that volition keep from mushrooming the pin out and sticking it in its hole. We used i from gunsmithing supply house Brownell's.
The flange is held on the seat track by a substantial rivet and the large T40 Torx bolt that holds the rear of the drive gear in place. Note this flange one isn't broken even so, merely information technology's mostly a affair of time. If y'all haven't already removed the drive gear as described above, do it now and replace the shims in the housing if needed. Grind the head off the rivet and bulldoze it out with a punch. Nosotros suggest an air-powered manus grinder. You can do it with a Dremel, but we went through three abrasive wheels doing information technology.
The kit supplied past Corvette Cardinal includes this stronger billet aluminum flange and a new roll pin, as well equally the hardware to mount information technology to the seat track and iv of the seat shims we covered before. Annotation that while the flanges are like, in that location is a left and a right and y'all take to know which you demand to society the right kit. Grease the cease of the cross-shaft prior to inserting it in the new flange, then drive in the roll pin in to lock the flange and cross-shaft together. We laid the flange on top of the head of a sledgehammer, using it as an ersatz anvil against which to hammer in the coil pin.
The new flange is mounted in place with this tower, bolt and washer. With the housing on the drive gear already inserted into the seat rails and the drive gear partially in, set the belfry over the drive gear as shown and slide the drive gear and tower into the track. Bolt the tower into place with the supplied screw through the hole one time occupied by the rivet you footing out. Cease inserting the drive gear, but place the washer as shown between the drive gear mount bracket and the seat side of the rails before inserting and tightening the T40 bolt that holds the bracket in place.
The new flange mounted in place. Reinstall the seat on the track, existence careful to route all wiring and hoses the aforementioned manner they were oriented before the seat came autonomously. You may find it's easier to kickoff the rear 2 bolts loosely by hand, then rotate the seat forward and tighten them once everything else is in place. Everything else is reinstalled in reverse lodge.
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