... $hit$how. Another "better idea from the General"...
One thing I never wanted to do again in my life, is to strip the interior out of a wagon and have to put it back in again, hopefully without it looking too mangled when I git 'er done. Well, that's where I'm at - the '96 RM wagon needs reconstructive surgery, rust holes in the floor won't pass safety, so that's what I was out doing today.
I obviously have to take out the back seat, both because of holes under the carpet and because it's rotted out around the bottoms of the wheelwells and I have to get the whole back out so the carpet is away from the holes - pop-rivets no longer acceptable here, it's gotta' be welded and I don't want the carpet set-fire-to. Got the back seat bottom out no sweat, been doing that job for over 40 years. But you think I could figure-out how to get the seatback out? I spent at least an hour perusing the shop manual; got it PDF, I think it cost me $40, just finding what you're looking for in there is a quasi-miracle, although once I found the part on taking out the rear speakers they were a piece o' cake. Got a whole lot done through the manual - but the manual just says "remove the seatback", it doesn't say HOW. For your info, the back seat is called the "back seat", the 9-passenger seat is called the "2nd seat".
Trying to get at the bolts that the seatpan pivots on - the picture suggests there are two brackets that go downward and bolt to the floor, well, there aren't. The brackets bolt to the side of the door frame and you CAN NOT get at them - you have to take-out the inside mouldings that run around the wheelwell and the doorframe down to the back floor, and you can't get them out with the seatback in the way. So the picture in the shop manual shows that the moulding is mostly held-in with clips, and I unclipped it to the point that I could twist it quite a ways and see behind it all the way to the bracket - and I could see the pin - and it didn't have a screwdriver slot so I figgered that even if I could get a screwdriver in there, I couldn't unscrew the pin from the bracket. Just as well, it's welded to the bracket - try something else.
So on the driver side, there's a collar around the pin where it goes into the seatback, ~1-1/4" in diameter. I wondered, does that collar screw-into the seatpan? And can I unscrew it by turning it with something, say, vise-grips? I pushed the seatback over far enough that I could grab that collar, and I clicked the visegrips on it, and IT TURNED! And it turned REAL EASY! I could turn it with my fingers - piece o' cake! { - the cake is a lie, BTW...
} So I spun it and spun it and spun it, and all the while I'm watching it against a mark on the pin, and it is not screwing out. So this is clearly not how the seatback comes out. BTW, I had already unzipped the seat cover far enough that I could see that there was no possible way I could get-at the other end of the pin inside the seatpan, so it didn't unscrew inward.
But meanwhile, I'd shoved the seatback quite a ways over toward the passenger-side, and there was a good 1/2" of the pin showing - and I started wondering, could I shove the seatback over so far that it would come right off the pin? Well not by hand, no... but I've got a mothering-big prybar, and I was quite sick enough of the game to not really care if I did incidental damage along the way. So I went and got it. I attacked from the passenger-side, 'cause I'm left-handed, and I PRIED... and I PRIED... and the passenger-side pin popped-out, and the seatback came out of the car. Further on the passenger-side pin; it's in the seatback not the bracket, and it's spring-loaded - which does you no good at all because you can't get-at the bracket on the passenger-side either, so you can't shove the pin in far enough to get the seatback to release.
Whoever designed that seatback mechanism needs taken-out-back and taught a few unpleasant facts of life with a clue-by-four. Or as the t-shirt says, "Some people just need a high-five. In the face. With a chair."
One thing I never wanted to do again in my life, is to strip the interior out of a wagon and have to put it back in again, hopefully without it looking too mangled when I git 'er done. Well, that's where I'm at - the '96 RM wagon needs reconstructive surgery, rust holes in the floor won't pass safety, so that's what I was out doing today.
I obviously have to take out the back seat, both because of holes under the carpet and because it's rotted out around the bottoms of the wheelwells and I have to get the whole back out so the carpet is away from the holes - pop-rivets no longer acceptable here, it's gotta' be welded and I don't want the carpet set-fire-to. Got the back seat bottom out no sweat, been doing that job for over 40 years. But you think I could figure-out how to get the seatback out? I spent at least an hour perusing the shop manual; got it PDF, I think it cost me $40, just finding what you're looking for in there is a quasi-miracle, although once I found the part on taking out the rear speakers they were a piece o' cake. Got a whole lot done through the manual - but the manual just says "remove the seatback", it doesn't say HOW. For your info, the back seat is called the "back seat", the 9-passenger seat is called the "2nd seat".
Trying to get at the bolts that the seatpan pivots on - the picture suggests there are two brackets that go downward and bolt to the floor, well, there aren't. The brackets bolt to the side of the door frame and you CAN NOT get at them - you have to take-out the inside mouldings that run around the wheelwell and the doorframe down to the back floor, and you can't get them out with the seatback in the way. So the picture in the shop manual shows that the moulding is mostly held-in with clips, and I unclipped it to the point that I could twist it quite a ways and see behind it all the way to the bracket - and I could see the pin - and it didn't have a screwdriver slot so I figgered that even if I could get a screwdriver in there, I couldn't unscrew the pin from the bracket. Just as well, it's welded to the bracket - try something else.
So on the driver side, there's a collar around the pin where it goes into the seatback, ~1-1/4" in diameter. I wondered, does that collar screw-into the seatpan? And can I unscrew it by turning it with something, say, vise-grips? I pushed the seatback over far enough that I could grab that collar, and I clicked the visegrips on it, and IT TURNED! And it turned REAL EASY! I could turn it with my fingers - piece o' cake! { - the cake is a lie, BTW...
} So I spun it and spun it and spun it, and all the while I'm watching it against a mark on the pin, and it is not screwing out. So this is clearly not how the seatback comes out. BTW, I had already unzipped the seat cover far enough that I could see that there was no possible way I could get-at the other end of the pin inside the seatpan, so it didn't unscrew inward.But meanwhile, I'd shoved the seatback quite a ways over toward the passenger-side, and there was a good 1/2" of the pin showing - and I started wondering, could I shove the seatback over so far that it would come right off the pin? Well not by hand, no... but I've got a mothering-big prybar, and I was quite sick enough of the game to not really care if I did incidental damage along the way. So I went and got it. I attacked from the passenger-side, 'cause I'm left-handed, and I PRIED... and I PRIED... and the passenger-side pin popped-out, and the seatback came out of the car. Further on the passenger-side pin; it's in the seatback not the bracket, and it's spring-loaded - which does you no good at all because you can't get-at the bracket on the passenger-side either, so you can't shove the pin in far enough to get the seatback to release.
Whoever designed that seatback mechanism needs taken-out-back and taught a few unpleasant facts of life with a clue-by-four. Or as the t-shirt says, "Some people just need a high-five. In the face. With a chair."
