Seat Gear Assembly - Mysterious Rubber Washer (1 Viewer)

[Clemson TLC]

I had repaired my passenger seat a few years ago with a Gamiviti gear and the driver side seat failed recently.

When I opened the gear assembly there was reddish gunk one end of the gear assembly that eventually got so thick the seat stopped moving.

After a deep dive on all the previous Mud threads on the subject, some described a rubber washer that I did not see.

It appears that the rubber washer reacted with the grease and dissolved into a muck. (There was a metal washer between the gear and the cover that was covered in the gunk also.) This was the case on both the gears.

After I reassembled without a rubber washer, there appeared to be about 3mm of play in the gear/shaft. I had a 3mm thick rubber sheet so I cut a new rubber washer and everything fit with no play. I used the red Toyota Rubber Grease to lube everything in the gear assembly.

I recall seeing some gunk when I did the passenger seat but I thought it was just the grease deteriorating. So it is operating without the rubber washer.

Lastly, I noticed on the other Mud seat gear threads that older assemblies have a plastic thrust washer with small metal bearings.

Just FYI on my experience that may be helpful to others.

 

[jonheld]

The 30 year old grease that turns into glue is the primary reason for seat gear failure. On the 4 sets of seat gears that I have rebuilt, all of them had that rubber washer dissolve into the grease and turn into glue. It takes more time to clean that crap out of the gear housing than anything else.
I found the exact size washers in the plumbing department of my local home store. I use light weight white lithium grease after cleaning and replacing the gears and caps, and the seats move easily in any temperature.

 

[CharlieS]

There are definitely threads on this here on 'mud, I was reading one the other day. I seem to recall people using a hose gasket. Maybe try google to search 'mud to get better results?

 

[Clemson TLC]

There are definitely threads on this here on 'mud, I was reading one the other day. I seem to recall people using a hose gasket. Maybe try google to search 'mud to get better results?

Charlie, I noticed the same thing about getting additional Mud search results on Google.

Here is a related post I missed earlier where others made the same conclusion about the rubber washer.

Seat gear sludge

So I finally got around to addressing the seat gears as they haven't moved in quite some time. The driver's was all the way back so there was no urgency. Ordered the Gamiviti gears and tore into it. It wasn't the gears at all rather the grease on the seat side of the plastic gears had turned...

forum.ih8mud.com

Now I need to do a deep dive on those slow windows...again.