Nylon bushing for seat spindle
#1
Three Wheelin'
Thread Starter
Nylon bushing for seat spindle
Are the nylon (delrin) bushings available as parts?
In the pictures I'm showing the OB style spindle with a trust bearing that is held in place by a nut that screws on the end of the spindle.
The newer style (87 and up)spindles (like the one shown mounted on the seat)have a nylon bushing that just slides on the end of the shaft and is held in place with an "E" clamp.
In the pictures I'm showing the OB style spindle with a trust bearing that is held in place by a nut that screws on the end of the spindle.
The newer style (87 and up)spindles (like the one shown mounted on the seat)have a nylon bushing that just slides on the end of the shaft and is held in place with an "E" clamp.
#2
Rennlist Member
I have five left over that were printed up for me. How many do you need?
#3
Three Wheelin'
Thread Starter
#5
Rennlist Member
Mike Frye printed mine up for $5 each plus shipping.
#6
Rennlist Member
Trending Topics
#8
Rennlist Member
PM Mike Frye.
#9
Rennlist Member
Seat movement bushings
hello RLers,
I recently redid the bushings on the bottom of my late 86's seats. I can't speak to this being universal, and I see some differences in my seats from other posts I've read. Here is what I learned:
- there are four bushings, one at each end of the threaded seat-moving rod (what HermanK calls the Spindle (seems like a good name)).
- even on the seat microfiche/PET, I can not find individual part numbers for these bushings
- mine corroded, fell into the threads, and stopped the whole works up! Then, with no bushings, the seat clunked and rocked back and forth, and adjustment really didn't work
- the bushings MikeF sent me were a little different than what I removed from my seat. His were tombstone shaped. They fit a little, but their inner diameter was a bit too small. This made them not sit deep enough onto the mounting bracket and precluded my threading the nut onto the end.
- I can't tell from the 'fiche if there are different bushings for different years, different seats, or what. There are also two bushings that the seat back pivots around - perhaps these are the tombstone shaped ones?
- I made my own bushings. I purchased some nylon bushings from the local hardware store, and then bored them out a tad AND cut them down a little, too. It wasn't too annoying, and I got satisfaction from making things.
- there is an allen head fastener at each end that gets in the way. this fastener is one of three that holds an electric adjustment motor to the seat frame. You can do the job with the fastener in place, but you will be sad. remove the fastener. Trust me.
- I have a package on my kitchen table to send to MikeF that has two mostly-decent bushings in it, which he will try to replicate and print.
- the drawing below shows my best caliper measurements of the stock bushing, in case someone wants to make their own. this will get you close enough that a little trimming work will make it fit just fine.
- to remove, I held the threaded rod with some grips, and turned the nuts off the ends with a 17mm open end wrench. When re-assembling, do not make it as tight as you think you should. then the whole thing binds up. Do not put a lot of grease on it, either, that just seems to slow it down.
- there are two ball bearings between the upper and lower seat tracks on each track. On my 86, I could not figure out how to seperate the tracks. In HermanK's photos in this thread, you can see the threaded spindle passing through a cadmium colored assembly 1/2 down the seat. In his photos, that part can be removed with screws. On my '86.5 that part is welded to the seat frame, and seemed to keep me from disassembling the tracks. This made it hard to clean the insides of the tracks, and to properly lube them. I was going to replace the ballbearings, bc they feel like they have flat spotted (or created little detents in the tracks from sitting in one place for years on end) but could not seperate the tracks.
- on re-assembly, make sure you put the two-washer-discshaped bearing thingy back together with the grooves on the washers facing the captive faux-ballbearings.
- to synchronize the seat position between the tracks, I reassembled each of them all the way forward, and THEN inserted the cable that goes to the electric motor.
I don't know how to put my captions under the photos, so:
photo 1 is a drawing of the stock bushings' sizes, and shows one very beat up stock bushing, excuse my shaking hands and cheap camera (I blame the drugs)
photo 2 shows my attempt to install the tombstone shaped bushing. bc it didn't slide down into the seat frame hole, it didn't leave enough endroom to replace the holding nut
photo 3 shows the allen headed bolt that you should remove to make life easier.
I recently redid the bushings on the bottom of my late 86's seats. I can't speak to this being universal, and I see some differences in my seats from other posts I've read. Here is what I learned:
- there are four bushings, one at each end of the threaded seat-moving rod (what HermanK calls the Spindle (seems like a good name)).
- even on the seat microfiche/PET, I can not find individual part numbers for these bushings
- mine corroded, fell into the threads, and stopped the whole works up! Then, with no bushings, the seat clunked and rocked back and forth, and adjustment really didn't work
- the bushings MikeF sent me were a little different than what I removed from my seat. His were tombstone shaped. They fit a little, but their inner diameter was a bit too small. This made them not sit deep enough onto the mounting bracket and precluded my threading the nut onto the end.
- I can't tell from the 'fiche if there are different bushings for different years, different seats, or what. There are also two bushings that the seat back pivots around - perhaps these are the tombstone shaped ones?
- I made my own bushings. I purchased some nylon bushings from the local hardware store, and then bored them out a tad AND cut them down a little, too. It wasn't too annoying, and I got satisfaction from making things.
- there is an allen head fastener at each end that gets in the way. this fastener is one of three that holds an electric adjustment motor to the seat frame. You can do the job with the fastener in place, but you will be sad. remove the fastener. Trust me.
- I have a package on my kitchen table to send to MikeF that has two mostly-decent bushings in it, which he will try to replicate and print.
- the drawing below shows my best caliper measurements of the stock bushing, in case someone wants to make their own. this will get you close enough that a little trimming work will make it fit just fine.
- to remove, I held the threaded rod with some grips, and turned the nuts off the ends with a 17mm open end wrench. When re-assembling, do not make it as tight as you think you should. then the whole thing binds up. Do not put a lot of grease on it, either, that just seems to slow it down.
- there are two ball bearings between the upper and lower seat tracks on each track. On my 86, I could not figure out how to seperate the tracks. In HermanK's photos in this thread, you can see the threaded spindle passing through a cadmium colored assembly 1/2 down the seat. In his photos, that part can be removed with screws. On my '86.5 that part is welded to the seat frame, and seemed to keep me from disassembling the tracks. This made it hard to clean the insides of the tracks, and to properly lube them. I was going to replace the ballbearings, bc they feel like they have flat spotted (or created little detents in the tracks from sitting in one place for years on end) but could not seperate the tracks.
- on re-assembly, make sure you put the two-washer-discshaped bearing thingy back together with the grooves on the washers facing the captive faux-ballbearings.
- to synchronize the seat position between the tracks, I reassembled each of them all the way forward, and THEN inserted the cable that goes to the electric motor.
I don't know how to put my captions under the photos, so:
photo 1 is a drawing of the stock bushings' sizes, and shows one very beat up stock bushing, excuse my shaking hands and cheap camera (I blame the drugs)
photo 2 shows my attempt to install the tombstone shaped bushing. bc it didn't slide down into the seat frame hole, it didn't leave enough endroom to replace the holding nut
photo 3 shows the allen headed bolt that you should remove to make life easier.
#10
Rennlist Member
Just a note: I got tired of the seats on my 86 928S doing this so I researched, measured, and 3d printed replacement bushings that work perfectly. I described my process, results, and ways to find the files on openroad (dot) site as I wish to maintain copyright and ownership of my creations.
Works *great* :-)
Works *great* :-)
The following users liked this post:
Hilton (07-04-2021)