Seat Slide Bearings

[cmac0703]

1960 3000. The ball bearings on the driver side seat slide have come out and the seat is now very loose. We need assistance on how to properly get them back in place.

The car was being detailed and when we got it back yesterday the driver seat was wobbly. When we removed the bottom driver seat we found 4 ball bearings loose on the carpet. We assume someone tried to adjust the seat a bit too much, but we are not entirely sure.

Can anyone assist us with how to properly get the ball bearings back in place?

 

[Bob_Spidell]

I did a full 'restoration' of my BJ8's driver's seat rail (actually, I just wanted to replace the studs that hold the seat frame down, but I had to completely disassemble). It may be possible to do this repair 'in seatu' (heh) but it will certainly be easier, with a greater chance of success on the bench. Under the car, there are, IIRC 6 'T-nuts' that have to be taken out to get the rails out, after you remove the seat bottom and frame from the top (6 studs and nuts; the studs are often stripped, bigger job to replace them).

On the bench, you should see what needs to be done. The ball bearings are restrained between the two rails--one 'inside' the other--with pins at each end to keep the bearings in place and limit travel. I can't tell you what happened without seeing the rail, but it would take a lot of force to break those pins. To replace the ball bearings, you'll need to drift out at least one pin, if it isn't gone already, replace the balls, then replace the pin with a suitable roll pin. The bearings, IIRC, are 5/16" dia.

 

[pkmh]

Hi Cmac,

Bob beat me to the punch in answering your question.

Maybe to provide an aid in the form of a visual, I did a record sketch when I had my first Healey. I too, was in need of refurbishing both seat slider mechanisms. The ball bearings were complete and fine on mine. And one of my, what I call a, "Tack Weld Threaded Stud," on the driver side had sheared away from the floor pan from perhaps, over tightening at the factory, resulting from having inadequate structural stability of the seat secured to the floor, making it unsafe (Oh, like that really matters in a Healey?).

Anyway, from the sketch enclosed, you can see there is this 1/8" diameter rod (Bob referred to as a pin and I came up with my own concoction term as a, "Bearing Stop"), that was in the way of conveniently removing the one defective stud. Again and as a "ditto" to Bob's answer, that 1/8" diameter rod does help in preventing the bearings from rolling out found in between the top and bottom rail. It was necessary for me to completely cut away the pin/stop to gain convenient access and begin completely removing the defective stud from the bottom rail.

From my notes, you can see I had to purchase a new piece of 1/8" diameter steel rod (stock). Then place bearings back in between the rails, then cut to slide new piece of rod through the existing side holes of the lower slide rail, then solder/weld.

As a word of advice, one should make sure to extend the rod just enough outside the inner rail to prevent the bearings having any opportunity of slipping out. But by the same token, make sure the rod overall length does not come in contact with the outer rail's motion, thus preventing potential binding (overall length of rod as my sketch begins to suggests).

Hope the above helps in some way,

Paul

 

[Bob_Spidell]

The Moss catalog gives an idea what you're up against; for $150, it's worth trying the repair yourself (you'll have to remove the slide either way):

SEAT SLIDE SET, left

SEAT SLIDE SET, left

mossmotors.com

SEAT SLIDE SET, right

SEAT SLIDE SET, right

mossmotors.com