tvurt

The only bad advice I have ever gotten on Rennlist, was the "rodeo".
This might work for some, but the risk of damage to the drive cables is far too great. At $70 per cable, it is easy to run up a $140 bill if you strip both cables. Or in my case . . . $210 . .

I ruined three drive cables last night before discovering the easy and cheap alternative.

I had a stuck 8 way power passenger seat. The seat was frozen at the fullest travel to the rear. Searched Rennlist . .

Tried the "rodeo" method, checked fuses ect. Nothing! So I pulled the cable covers off of drive cables, and discovered that one of them was unwound and separated. I took a known good one off of the driver’s seat, installed it, and repeated the rodeo.
After the second rodeo, surprise!! I now had two more stripped and unwound drive cables. Wow, I felt smart!

Then my realization: the worm drive screw on one side was too far advanced, making the seat crooked on the rails . . so crooked that the drive cables would just strip instead of moving the seat. I removed both rails drive cables and discovered: The best way to fix stuck seat:

1) If the seat does not respond to front / back motion upon using the button . . . STOP. Do not do what I did. . keep pressing the button and violently convulse in the seat in an attempt to free it.
2) Get two Sears 1/8x4 screwdrivers and slot them into the worm drive shaft tubes – this is easy, quick, free – and with let you manually adjust the seat by turning the shafts of the screwdrivers.
3) Sit in the seat with the screwdrivers protruding from the front, and manually move the seat to an even position on both rails, in the middle of the seats travel.
4) Re-install the drive shafts. Be careful with the ends of the drive shafts, if the wire separates, it is ruined!

It is amazing how little torque that the screwdrivers need to move the seat – even with a person sitting in it!

It takes a just a few minutes to pull off the drive shafts, and insert the screwdrivers; to have a safe effect fix.

Joe S.

Could you post a couple pictures of where you are putting the screwdrivers if you get a chance? Not looking at it right now so I guess I really can't visulize where you are putting them and the rodeo method didn't work this time on my passenger seat.

Thanks!

tvurt

I will take one tonight, when I get home. One screwdriver inserts into each drive tube - under the seat, up front. Just follow the shafts of the drive cables, before you remove them.

Joe S.

Cool. It will probably make more sense when I am looking at it.

Thanks!

CAHRERA

Now I know why I went to the Manual Recaro Sportlines!
Besides they're lighter

Joe S.

This seems like such a frequent issue that there should be a recall for it.

jkuniverse

Joe, other rennlisters fabricated the tool and inserted it in the track drive (arrow) to get the seat released from the stuck position. Here is a thread from a while back. https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...ighlight=rodeo

Joe S.

Thanks Jason!

97Targa

I wish that was the case. But if PCNA won't do anything about the known SAI issue....

tvurt

No special tools needed, nor do you need to take the seats out.

I had to move the seat forward to remove it. My mint pair of hard back sport seats arrived, and the old seats had to go!

Tom

Joe S.

Thanks for the pictures Tom! I will have to give that a try.

Arrwin

I know...old post...but I used the search function!

Joe...i'm assuming this worked for you??

brucec59

Before you even go thru the trouble of disconnecting the cables, try what worked for me: grasp the top portion of the seatback and simply wiggle the seat gently in a side-to-side motion, while holding the "move seat forward" button.

That's all it took for mine to free itself. Now, I keep the seat about 1/2" from the rear-most position.

Arrwin

Doesn't look like disconnecting of any cables are involved. Looks like a turn of a screwdriver will do it. No?

dcdude

Wanted to resurrect this thread as a thanks to jkuniverse and tvert for posting such a helpful solution (with pics!!!) to what seems to be a very common problem. Sometimes I forget what a great place this is and that we will depend on it more and more as these cars get older. I hope you guys are still around!

My passenger seat was stuck in the rear most position, which made it impossible to remove the seat in order to install my Rennline fire extinguisher bracket. Removing the flexible drive shaft cables was a 2 minute affair. Robin's p-car.com site was also very helpful in this regard. The inboard cable was missing its sharp, square drive head. The cable strands had slightly frayed and crept up to the end.

I inserted a #1 Philips screwdriver in each socket under the seat. Outboard turned fine. Inboard was truly stuck. I clamped a vice grip on the screwdriver handle and twisted "out" (from the top). It broke free and I continued manually twisting the outboard screwdriver "out" (opposite direction) as well. Within 5 minutes, I had manually moved the seat forward enough to remove the rear bolts.

Once the seat was out, I proceeded to clean up the threads on the seat track bolts with WD40 and a small nylon brush. The area around the rear stops seemed to be filled up with dried out grease, which at this point probably serves to hinder seat movement rather than help. At this point, I'm considering going with no grease or a squirt of white lithium near the middle of the range only. Trust me, I don't think the ends, especially the rear, need it. Then, I never plan to leave either seat at the end of the range. That seems to be a huge preventative measure.

Tomorrow I call Sunset for one new drive cable. When the seat goes back in, I think I'm going to go for the "rear" set of mounting holes. My passenger seat always seemed to have less space than the driver's side anyway.