Rocking Seat Fix – Homemade Remedy
Submitted by TurboPhil (Overland Park, KS) on CorvetteForum.com.
Well, I did it. I'm sure it’s been done before, but I haven't seen it.
It takes a lot of guts and is not for the faint of heart but here is what I did:
Remove the seats and lay one down on your workbench on top of a towel.
Use an air chisel to remove the rivets on the sliding track on the FRONT of the seat.
Note, it’s the two rivets that attach the FRONT seat mounting bracket (the one that bolts down to the floor of the car).
Once removed, use an angle grinder to grind off the small nubs that keep the ball bearings from sliding out of the track. These nubs are located near the bracket you just removed and on the same track. Note: there are nubs on both sides of the track.
Using a T-25, remove the two retaining bolts that attach the track you have been working on to the seat adjustment shuttle (that's what I'm calling it anyway).
Place a rag over the front end of the track. This will help you catch the 4 ball bearings that will come flying out. Pull the track back to expose the shuttle being careful to grab those ball bearings. DO NOT remove the track all the way as there are six more ball bearings toward the back of the seat that you don't want to have to deal with.
This is where you'll see how the GM engineers messed up. There are rubber cushions on either side of the shuttle nut that is inside the shuttle that go bad real quick, thus creating the slop in all our seats!
Remove the shuttle--This is where it gets messy. You need to remove the shuttle from the adjusting all-thread. The shuttle is made of cast aluminum so it’s easy to break.
You'll want to take a sharp screwdriver and bust out the top of the shuttle that seems to serve no real purpose. The bit I'm talking about is a little thin aluminum bridge on both sides of the shuttle that will keep you from popping the shuttle off the all-thread.
One these bridges are broken, you'll be able to remove the shuttle.
Now remove all the old rubber cushioning material. I used 3/16 aluminum strap to replace the rubber cushion material. I simply made a squared off C-shaped spacer that would fit around the all-thread and make the shuttle nut fit snuggly into the shuttle once I put everything back together.
Be careful not to relocate the shuttle nut on the all-thread as it has to move in respect to the other track.
Re-assembly is basically the opposite. When you slide the track back together, use a long thin screwdriver to shove the ball bearings back into place. Don't worry about replacing the nub you ground off as the bearings will stay in place just fine with out it. Replace the rivets with bolts and lock washers with the thread point downward
(this is important). Paint everything flat black and put the seat back in the car. I only did one side on each seat and there is NO seat movement what so ever!
You may need to cycle the seat back and forth in the car a few times without your weight to let things settle in place. Be sure you apply a thick coat of grease everywhere. I don't have pictures, but the project kind of takes care of itself after you get things apart.