Slipping recliners on SWB seats. What to do?

[swcarroll]

I have a couple of seats with the not-uncommon problem of slipping recliner mechanisms. I found a thread on the 912 Registry BBs that discusses possible fixes, but it didn't discuss the disassembly of the recliners and I'm not confident that the suggested fix (simply cleaning the conical gears) is going to help me. Here is the thread that I found...

http://www.912bbs.org/index.php?a=thread&t=10782

...and here are my questions:

I can see the conical gears without disassembling the mechanism. They appear to be very clean, so I don't think that dirt is preventing them from meshing completely. However, the inner gear (the one that moves in and out with the release handle) appears to have slightly rounded teeth, and I suspect this is the root of the problem. Is that the likely culprit? Are these gears available as replacement parts?

The recliner seems to always have some spring tension on it. If I pull the recliner from the seat as a single unit and withdraw the rod that connects the two sides, will I create an ugly situation where I've released the tension and am unable to rematch the tension on both sides when I try to rejoin them?

Any recommendations are welcome.

[304065]

The seat hinge is actually still in the catalog, numbers like 90152107322, depending on which side (the four are unique, there's a right with handle, left without handle, right without handle and left with handle).

If the gears are buggered there's no practical way to fix it, the inner gear is fixed to the bottom part of the recliner. The gear itself can probably be salvaged from a donor recliner, which are easy to come by, as there are hundreds of these that aren't nice enough to rechrome.

[swcarroll]

Thanks, John. I did get the courage to separate the recliner halves and found no drama, and I did have a (slightly better looking) gear from a donor recliner that I popped in there. I put the seat back in, sat down, and bounced on it pretty hard with my back...it held up better than with the old gear but finally broke loose. It's on the passenger side; I'll just have to find a guinea pig and see what happens on a typical drive.

[cmcfaul]

I have the same problem since re-covering my seats. I lubed everything up in there and now it slips...passenger side. Would love to know as well how to fix.

Chris
73 911 E

[NTW]

Popper Stoppers from Precision Matters...
http://www.precisionmatters.biz/seat...r-stoppers.php

Now if someone would do a run of the plastic covers for the inside of the hinges.

[oscillon]

I just posted this to the 912 registry, but I figured it might help people here too.

I think I may have "cured" the auto-recline feature...

After thinking and futzing for some time with my '66 seats, I realized that the auto-recline problem is linked to maintaining a constant geometry of the seat hinges when your weight shifts on the seat back. I have looked very closely at a number of hinges only to realize that the problems that we all have are not due to the wear on the conical spline that keeps the seat in a set location, but is directly linked to the ability of the hinge to keep that simple sprung lever system in the prescribed location.

The cure, for recliners that have the no slip pins installed (post-356 seats), was directly related to the tightness of the hinge nut that sits below the return spring. When I took the controlling hinge apart by removing the return spring (the big one), the keeper plate and the large nut, I found that the plastic washer that separates the outer part of the hinge (the part that connects to the seat back) from the inter part (connected to the lower), was completely disintegrated. The lack of a proper spacer coupled with a nut that is locked in a particular spot to enforce a prescribed tightness of the hinge, leads to a wobbly seat. This is bad.

To solve the problem I cut a piece of gasket material (maybe not the best choice, so this part may change) to replace the destroyed spacer between the halves of the hinge, retightened the large nut, replaced the "keeper-plate" and reinstalled the large spring (not for the faint of heart). The result seems to be a transformation of the seat. Chances are good that the same procedure should be done to the inner hinge as well as the system is exactly the same, just without the recline mechanism.


Hope that is helpful.

Dan

[Bobs 67S]

Dan, that is a new approach I'll have to try. Good stuff guy.

____________________________
Previous fixes I've tried have been:

The release rod (that someone it making a clamp for) is a easy fix - to hold the lever in contact with the gear release - drill a hole thru the shaft at the correct spot and slide in a slotted spring pin.

The gear has rounded edges: use a smaller diameter cut off disk in your dremel tool; run it into the valleys of both the fixed gear (on the outside of the hinge) and the movable gear to clear any hold out of the gear meshing.

If you have fought with this for a while (my race seat bumped the car to an untenable autocross class - stock seat was a must) my last resort was to find the right seat back angle - press the gears into max mesh - drilled thru the movable gear into the fixed gear, tapped the hole and put in a set screw. This will last about two years, it will then stretch and shear the small bolt, faster if you allow other drivers to raise up in the seat (to pull out their wallet at toll booths) putting full weight just on the hinge gear. (I used a SAE thread and carry extras for roadside fixes when traveling).

Pinning the gears does not allow the seat back angle to be adjusted, but it will not release at the worst possible time...ie: timed runs..

Dans blueprinting the spacing may be the better fix.

[MTemp]

To solve the problem I cut a piece of gasket material (maybe not the best choice, so this part may change) to replace the destroyed spacer
Dan

I found that the plastic cut from margarine tubs (Flora, Benecol, Pro-Activ and the like in the UK) was the perfect match for the remnants of the original material. I should be reasonably robust to wear when covered in some grease

[304065]

I found that the plastic cut from margarine tubs (Flora, Benecol, Pro-Activ and the like in the UK) was the perfect match for the remnants of the original material. I should be reasonably robust to wear when covered in some grease

And one can lower one's cholesterol besides!

[356hunter]

For recliner inner covers, see Stoddard http://www.stoddard.com/shop/shopexd.asp?id=60632