Seat Runners

[4129R]

When the screens leak, and the cars have been sitting for a long time, the carpets stay wet, and the seat runners rust badly, stopping the seat sliding, and if the seat doesn't slide, you cannot get at the bolts holding the runners from the floor, so the only option is to drill the 4 bolts per seat from underneath, which is tiring, often damages the oval threaded bobbins mounded into the shell, and breaks many drill bits.

Having got the bolts drilled out of 4483R, the seats were repairable, but the seat runners were so badly rusted, that they cannot move, even after overnight soaking in acid.

So I went in search of replacements, and this is what I found:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/371062257359

I have ordered two and will report on their suitability. They will probably need stretching apart to get the right spacing, but I am hopeful they can be made to work with new holes drilled and large penny washers to spread the loads.

Alex in Norfolk.

[4129R]

Those seat runners can easily be made to work very well.

They originals are further apart, so the U bar used to slide the runners has to be bent apart, and the straight bits made parallel again, and they go straight on the floor with no drilling of extra holes required.

They even come with round spacer washers to clear the carpet.

But you will need to buy Allen headed 5/16" x 1.25" long bolts to fit them to the floor, as the channel they go into is very narrow, and prevents turning a hexagonal bolt head.

Now I have to find those bolts, and how easy it is to bolt the runners to the bottom of the seats. That should be the easy bit.

Alex in Norfolk
 

[BDA]

Very interesting, Alex! Could you post a few pictures of them in your car and with the seat?

[4129R]

I think the photo of the whole assembly bolted to the floor will be too large a file size until I can re-size on Monday.

Here is why you need allen headed bolts. I have just ordered loads in S/S. They will work for the exhaust manifold too. They are not easy to remove, so S/S allen bolts in the difficult to reach bits should be an improvement. 

Well...... I put the photo on the screen of my laptop, took a photo from afar with my iPhone, used M/S snipping tool, and downsized it so it fitted.

I think you can see the general idea. They slide beautifully just by lifting the bar slightly. Success.

[BDA]

Very neat! That big handle looks like it will make adjusting the seat a lot easier than the standard seat adjustment if it gets stuck.

[4129R]

I think I have put that one in upside down.

If so, the standard hexagonal bolts will work, with a bit of filing on the holes on the bottom runner.

I will try fitting the runners to a seat soon.

But the runners are good, and can be made to fit quite easily. 

[Cheguava]

Hope it's OK to resurrect this thread, but the link to the seat runners has expired (no, really!). I see Alex is still around on here, so just wondered if he could confirm what type the runners were, and if they worked oK once back in the car. Looks like they would improve on the disintegrated originals I have

Was it similar to these? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144623272999?epid=28047138709&itmmeta=01HXAGRZ5YWEYMQQWCX595JAWW&hash=item21ac380427:g:Tc8AAOSwJgxhg424&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8BhwJTAkcwcU8xG3XozyuUtsKR0zo5vbolFODBrrSuqSqJa%2FJQUd0KBznCIDv5r4pbpjJfdkd3xDIBaGIZ%2B4qwdnpan6f3gnDJDcjeulkyvr%2B1S4yBsrf1XQvY%2FnzujtJh9yq%2FZ8eaZy5JLoOi%2B5wRJm4Vsbvs2%2Bso%2BOPdWWiiyHdIrz3hy2i%2BGBDsz%2Fmn7hM2EJbNnSOagVXNDZPBqCaphk%2FEBXmbjdTdxpxj5hxmefZcs43VfL0z4k23IrTtqi6TN3mODAZrWj9BPqAGE8FJQET%2FfWwRUb%2FzUrsX9mwC%2B4ACQL9BOXT2lBH37ZEGkEOA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBMjPPj0Opj

[4129R]

Mine worked very well, and they look very similar if not identical to those on your eBay link.

At that price, it is certainly worth getting them and making them fit. The original ones are very cheap and rust easily.

As it happens, the left seat is out of the car.

This is what it looks like attached to the seat. I used 5/16" UNF bolts to attach the frames to the floor, and over drilled the holes in the oval bobbins so the bolts slide through and are attached with Nyloc nuts and washers under the car.

The runners slide on ball bearings, so when you lift the central bar, the seat slides very easily, unlike the originals.

Note the new webbing on the seats.

[Cheguava]

Mine worked very well, and they look very similar if not identical to those on your eBay link.

At that price, it is certainly worth getting them and making them fit. The original ones are very cheap and rust easily.

That's great - thanks for confirming, will order a pair. One passenger side runner has disintegrated completely, and the other is not salvageable, and I know it will be similar on the drivers side.

[TurboFource]

Where did you get the webbing?

[4129R]

My coach trimmer who does special work for Lotus themselves, used it when he re-trimmed the seats. He is about 5 miles away from Hethel.

His father used to make the steering wheels and gear knobs etc for all the great F1 drivers including Senna.