front seat gear swap (Broken Seat/Missing Cap Issue, pt. 2) (10 Viewers)

[nakman]

I've got a "test gear" with the guy who donated the one I copied. I am still waiting for his feedback, mainly because it would be completely unbiased. But I haven't heard from him, will try to send another PM to shake that loose.

But we did a 4-day wheeling trip this past weekend, so I was able to test mine out. It works fine, many adjustments were made to the seat position over the course of the trip. However I noticed more backlash in the seat than I have on my driver's side, like the seat will shift front-back a little bit. It was most noticeable when wheeling, going from uphill to downhill, you'd feel a little shift in the seat. Of course my wife didn't notice at all when I was driving, but I picked up on it.

One thing I didn't do was measure the gear before installing, but it's possible it ran a little small. If so, I can easily scale it up, by whatever factor I want. I still think it's best to err on the small side though just to minimize any binding, but am honestly not sure on that one. If it's too loose then we risk stripping that worm gear, and that would be an even tougher one to draw in CAD, I'd rather not go there. I've got an extra one at work and will measure it tomorrow to see for sure.

But worst case is these should at a minimum restore function to a non-functioning seat, for those of you with stripped gears. Best case is I can tweak it a little to get it a little closer to stock performance. So give me another week or so, hopefully by then I'll have more feedback and if not what the hell let's just run some anyway.. you guys have been super patient and I'm sure if they suck we can work out something fair for a refund.

 

[yarborg]

I noticed the seat shifting thing as well. However, my gear is now out completely and I assumed it was that. Maybe it has something to do with the seat on the tracks or something? Anyhow, we are waiting paitently. Thanks for being willing to do this.

 

[vasellers]

Great, great thread. I need a pair of those myself, driver's side seat just broke!!

 

[nakman]

Success!! special thanks to ScottBx for the design feedback.. I tested out the "2nd gen" seat gear tonight, and it works really well. What changed was an increase in the gear angle, from 10° to 13°, as well as a small leading edge ID to help get the press fit started. My seat is running really smoothly now, much better than it was with the 1st gen gear in there.

Also I realized all the backlash I was experiencing was likely some loose bolts, I must have forgotten to tighten the brackets that ride on the lead screw shafts and connect them to the glides of the seat, because both sides were very loose. blame that one on the installer.

I had the "1st gen" installed for just over a month, and around 800 miles. The seat still functioned well, despite having some loose hardware . Below is a picture of the inside of the 1st gen gear that I removed, where you can see the indentations created by the knurls of the shaft you press into this. Second pic is all three gears compared, and how you can see the difference in gear pitch- note how the 2nd gen gear pitch most closely resembles the stock gear.

 

[nakman]

Cost of these is going to be a little more than those little white caps, so we're looking at 2 for $20 for these, shipped. I'm going to do a run of 10 sets (20 total), and will sell those to basically the first 10 guys who send me paypal, you can get my address from the white cap thread. In fact, no need to post up that you'll take 'em, just send me your money and I'll post up when I run out... or send me a PM if you want to confirm first. After this, we'll take it over to for sale.. but in the interest of tech I'm sure you first few guys will want to post up your feedback. And of course, if they don't work for you I'll give you your money back.

 

[sdnative]

Paypal sent

Thanks Tim!

 

[tbo_cruiser]

Paypal sent. Great job, Tim.

 

[nakman]

thanks guys.. first round is in the works right now, and so far 4 sets are spoken for (so 6 still available). These will all mail out on Monday.

 

[yarborg]

It worked but be careful...

I got 2 from Nakman and they looked great. I popped 1 in the DS and fired it up...but it stripped it again!

Apparently each seat has 2 of these little gears. I didn't think to look before but my other was stripped as well. Somehow that caused my new gear to get stripped again. Anyhow, I grabbed a spare from my PS and put it in the DS along with the other new gear from nakman. Fired it up and it works.

I have noticed that the seat has a little knocking sound when moving back and forth but it seems to be pretty stable. If it last another 3-5 years I will be happy.

Now I have to buy another set but after that I should be working.

Thanks again nakman.

 

[nakman]

Cool, anyone else get theirs installed yet? Yarborg I'll have your new ones out to you shortly..

 

[tbo_cruiser]

Success!!!

I put the DS gear in yesterday and it seems to be working perfectly. It took me a while to get it done mostly because I obsessed a lot over putting the nuts back on the jack screw shafts. I noted the torque that was indicated in the FSM, but I couldn't find a wrench that would register that small of amount of torque. I took that to mean that basically I should go finger tight + a fraction of a turn beyond. I also put some blue loctite on the threads before putting the nuts back on.

I couple of other suggestions--

First, before disconnecting the power when taking the seat out, put the seat all the way up and all the way back. I had to set the seat back in the car and reattach the power and move the seat up so that I could get a screwdriver onto the screws that hold the front trim piece in. This issue might be unique to the LX since Nak didn't mention it with his LC.

With regard to moving the seat back. If your gear has already been stripped then the jack screws are unlikely to be anywhere close to lined up with one another. It looked to me like the best way to deal with that was to run the seat all the way back. Since the side with bad gear probably won't move, you might have to do this after unbolting the seat from the floor. With the jack screw on the side with the motor run all the back, it will stop when the 'stop' (washer welded to the screw) hits the bracket that holds the jack screw to the seat frame. Before you reinstall the jack screw on the side with the gear housing, you simply turn the jack screw until its stop is up against the bracket. Assuming these were aligned properly during manufacturing, this should result in the jack screws being properly aligned. Anyway, it seems to work on mine.

When I took the gear out of the housing there only seemed to be one washer. Then I realized that both washer were on one side and they were stuck to each other. I put it back the same way.

Finally, I never removed the jack screw on the motor side. I just took the two bolts out that held the motor to the frame so that it would rotate up when I pulled the gear housing up to remove its cover. Saves a little bit of effort.

Thanks again Nak. It is great to finally have this taken care of. I will probably do the PS gear next weekend.

 

[LUV24BY]

Question for you NAk - my PS FRT seat doesn't move forward or backward (it's power), but it moves Up & down. Is this the same repair for mine that you did? What was the gear for that you fabbed and replaced? The front to back movement or different?

I just got our 80 like a week ago and I dunno if this would fix the problem I am having.

Thanks!

 

[nakman]

TBO - great info man, thanks for posting all that up, and that's awesome your seat works again. yes I did have difficulty with those screws.. good tip.



and yes Luv, the front & back motion is what we're restoring here. and I ran some extra so if you want some there are details in my for sale thread. But dig into it first to see if you need the little white caps too, what most have found is if the gear is shot your white cap is probably missing.. there's also the chance all you need is the white cap and your gears are fine, depends on how abusive the PO was..



And I've got a couple more sets if anyone else wants some

 

[Clutchee]

Tim you came through again........

Works like a charm....

Easy job.

 

[nakman]

Tim you came through again........

Works like a charm....

Easy job.

awesome, man! and thanks for taking the leap of faith, also thanks to a few others for the PM's. yes I still have some if anyone else needs these, see the for sale thread (linked above) for more details.

 

[PScottBx]

Hey, Just wanted to tell you that my 1st gen gear is still running (although I want the second now... ) w/ no worries.

I was gonna add that Mike Theriot (Tabascoloco) brought up a very good point and theory in another thread. Long before Tim was making the gear, he thought that the cap merely didn't just fall out... it became loose (or something) due to the gear being bad/worn and created wobble.

I've never forced mine or anything the day it stopped working and the cap came out. Tim and I spoke and I replaced the gear... It's a little late but this is the image of my gear out of the DS. Just got tired after all these years.

So...anyone buying the caps should get the gear as well. Save yourself some heartache... and yep there's another on the other side of the seat identical to that one.

Thanks again, Tim.

Scott

 

[yarborg]

I finally replaced all 4 gears in my seats with nakmans. Everything seems to be working well. Sorry it took so long to write back. Now I have some other, non seat related issues so I will be posting a new thread.

Thanks again for making these nak.

 

[Blue Bomber]

Gear replaced. Works like a champ. Thanks Tim. This was a huge saver in time, energy, and cash money.

 

[wearsabrowncoat]

Does this gear work for the seat back? I think mine is wearing out as I have to tilt it forward towards the steering wheel every other day or so.

 

[SpillmanCruiser]

Finally had some time this morning to install two little white gears on my PS seat. Went in easy and seat works for the first time since I've had the rig. Good product and Thanks Tim!