Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Hi

I have now removed the front seat of my 22nd Series Touring Sedan. The idea was to just get into all the small areas to clean it and the upholstery, but I've hit a snag.

The mechanism for the seat to slide seems to be jammed and I can't really see how the thing moves on the tracks which are bolted to the floor.

Can anyone enlighten me as to how the mechanism works ?

I have tried the lever at the side and it doesn't do anything, also it is very loose and seems a fragile thing to me to move such a large and heavy seat so I don't want to put too much pressure on it in case I break it.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Best regards Michael

You're right about that little seat adjuster handle on the driver side. I had my tracks all lubricated, everything working (I thought) smoothly, and pulled up on that handle.

SNAP.

The handle is just pot metal and won't stand very much pressure.

Thanks Jay

It's as I thought then - not too much pressure on the lever.

Can you explain the mechanism please ?

Best regards
Michael

What you should do is take off the bottom of the seat (the cushion itself). It's fairly simple, really. All you need to do is lift up the bottom cushion and it should come right out. Lift from the front of the seat, though. After that you should just take the back cushion off to, as to prevent damage. That cushion comes off from the bolts behind where the bottom cushion was. You can now remove the seat from the tracks, and even remove the tracks if you wish. The whole seat casing will come off when it has been removed from the tracks.

Thanks again J.R

Okay - once I do that where will I be ? there seems to be some mechanism that the lever previously discussed operates but I can't tell looking at it what it is supposeds to do ?

I'll post some photos and then we can discuss it further perhaps.

I'll get back to you when the photos are posted.

Michael

Hi Michael

As far as I know the lever disengages a toothed wheel that runs on a rod that is the length of the seat. This then makes it possible to slide the whole seat back and forth. I removed the seat cushion and the bolts keeping the seat bolted to the floor. Then you can remove the whole mechanism for cleaning. Clean off all old grease from the rails and lubricate. This should do the trick. Remember that the lever is only for disengaging the toothed wheel so it should not need any undue force. Make sure the toothed wheels left and right align with each other when reinstalling the mechanism.

Hope this helps.

Barrie

By the way, that lever also feels very loose on my car. Seems to be supposed to be like that as it is spring loaded.

Actually, the toothed wheels are there to ensure that both ends of the seat travel together and aren't involved with the release handle. As Barrie points out it is very important that they be equally aligned in the corresponding slotted tracks.

The handle mechanism attached to the seat pushes against a spring-loaded lever which in turn catches in a series of notches on the driver side slider. This could be out of alignment.

I've included a photo of the driver side slider. Did you remove the entire seat or just the cushions?

Attach file:

---

  (61.59 KB)

There is no large "return" spring on those track like on the 51-54 ones?

Don't know 'bout '51-'54 but if memory serves, the '48-'50 has a large return spring attached between the floor and roughly the middle of the seat frame.