Seat movement

bpimm

bpimm

Brian Pimm
The driver seat in our 80 X didn't seem to go back all the way, at 6' 1 it's a bit tight. I pulled out the seat today to see if I could find the problem. After disconnecting the helper spring (bent up mess) the seat came out pretty easy. What I found is the seat rail on the seat was digging into the carpet and hanging up the seat.

IMG_5261.jpg


Has any one else seen this and what did you do to fix it, other than replacing the carpet. I was thinking I could cut the carpet out where the interference is, but I don't really want to do that. The other thought I had was to cover it with a thin piece of aluminum but it looks like the seat track is to close to the floor to make that work well. I will radius the backs of the rails to prevent this in the future but with the carpet already torn is there an easy fix?

Does anyone actually put that helper spring back in?

Are the earlier seats a different back profile? I'm fairly broad shouldered and the seats feel like I'm resting against 2 vertical rails, the indent in the seat is not wide enough for my shoulders. Looking at some of the pictures on here it looks like some of the other cars have a wider seat back, or at least not as pronounced bolsters.

Thanks
Brian
 
Brian... toss the springs...

... and as for the carpet... you can cut it away as you will usually have the seat back as far as it will go anyway. But cutting it away will usually NOT give you any further travel.

Also... if the seat BOTTOM goes back much further it tilts the seat BACK forward... kinda nullifying the effort.

You '80 should have fixed rails welded to the pan and usually the simplest solution is to install some 1978 or earlier seats.

As for the seat rails on the bottom of the seat, I usually OPEN UP the slots a bit so they slide back on easier... pressing the seat against the console to get them started. I never thought of "radius-ing" them but that may be a good idea also.

The only other thing I know of is to find a thinner seat to install and there are all sorts of possibilities out there, including Miata and Honda seats... and all will require custom fabrication. Usually well worth the effort though!

HTH...
 
Seat Rail Tabs

You can also get a little more rearward movement by bending down (or cutting off) the small "tabs" on the rear of the seat rails that limit rearward movement.
Dave
 
Thanks Tony,

I couldn't come up with a reason to keep the spring.

I like your idea of flaring the rail to get it to start, I'll use that.

We'll have to look around for other seat ideas, I'll see if the cut carpet will show with the seat forward, driver heights are 6'1" 5'2" and 3'10" but she is still in a booster but she can shift from the booster seat.

Dave, I was looking at that limiting tab as a possibility for gaining a bit more movement, I'll knock it down as well.
 
Seat rails,,

When I had mine out, I checked how flat the rails were sitting. I put a piece of plywood on them to see if there was any wobble. It should not have any. On mine the back left was low and bent down. This will also cause the top seat rail to dig into the rug. I adjusted mine by jacking it back up from the bottom of the car.I also cleaned the rails with high speed brush and grinder, and lubed. It moves fine now. :)
 
I agree...

You may also want to pull off the carpet and check for any stress cracks in the floor that allowed track angle changes. Fiat's weren't exactly known for there high quality steel, and the floor is no exception....

Good luck.

Arman
 
Good call Jim, I was looking at that this morning. the rails looked to be out of alignment, Thought it was an optical illusion but it wasn't. I'll have to jack it back up. this may also be related to the rear end impact that has the door opening closed at the top.

Arman, the steel all looks good. this car almost never saw rain and lived in the garage. I can't imagine stress fractures with only 50K miles, unless it's really bad steel.

Brian
 
major stress cracks

I just replaced the drivers seat in my 1980 iron oxide toy. Major stress cracks on door side rail seat pan. I drilled out the old rails at spot welds, filled holes with bolts. new seat and rails (from Summit Racing) bolt in on forward seat pan vertical wall using clip nuts 8mm and aft end bolts in 2 inches aft of old rail. Tight fit but looks sharp.
I have new none retracting seat belt on order to get more room. I have to get pics posted. (any help out there?)
Deane
 
interested in seeing the seat...

Not many seats will fit into the pan on an x. It's really tight.

Regards,

Arman
 
I also found my floor pan had dropped - on the pass seat - I 'popped' it back by placing a wooden block on a jack & lifted the area in question until it looked right.

My seats are the later style, with rails bolted to the floor. To get a small amount of extra rearward movement, I added washers under the rear of the rail

IMG_7347.jpg


and ground those little stop tabs off...

IMG_7344.jpg


After that, I went to Miata seats, which are much nicer than my old '87 seats

IMG_7342.jpg
 
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