Bolt at right rear track for driver seat won't come out

V

VanguardLH

92 Subaru Legacy AWD sw

I was at the junkyard where they had a 93 Subaru where I took out the
driver seat. There was one bolt that refused to remove from the right
rear of the track. There are 4 bolts all the same size, 2 on each end
of the left and right tracks under the seat. At the rear rightside
track, there are 2 bolts: one is the same size as the others and a
much larger one. The larger one could be removed. The standard sized
bolt wouldn't budge. Actually I got it to unscrew about 2 turns and
then it was tougher than I am strong and wouldn't budge after that. I
had to use a hack saw to cut halfway through the bolt and then use the
socket wrench to torque off the head so I could pop off the track from
the protruding bit of the bolt.

I was thinking the bolt was rusted and why I couldn't get it out.
However, I had exactly the same problem with the same bolt on the
passenger seat. I gave up on the getting the passenger seat out since
I was running out of time before the junkyard closed
(http://www.upullrparts.com). If I go back to get the passenger seat,
and since I know that rear inside bolt for the track on the hump is
frozen, I'll be taking my sawsall with a metal cutting blade. I've
dealt with rusted bolts before but this one acted more like there was
a nut on the other side of the hump that got bound up tight. These
are some pretty damn tough bolts considering I was torquing on them
with good leverage but they wouldn't bust off and why I had to spend a
long time using a hacksaw blade to cut through part of the shaft to
weaken it so I could snap off the head of the bolt.

Next would be to put the salvaged driver seat into my car. I got the
seat from a 93 Subaru and mine is a year older. If it was rust, I
suspect mine could be just as rusted. However, I'm wondering if there
is a nut on the other side that I need to secure with, say, visegrips.
I don't want to snap off the bolt head in my car to put in the new
seat. The larger bolt is probably sufficient to hold the seat in
place but I suspect they used both a standard sized and an oversized
bolt on that particular end of rear of the track since that is the
side where the seat belts fasten (so maybe it is considering the
weaker side of the seat for mounting in case of an accident).

Anyone know if there is something special that I need to do to remove
the rear track bolt (the one on the inside that screws into the hump)?
I didn't care about snapping off the bolt when striping the junked car
but I don't want to do that with my car.
 
Probably, the bolts go all the way through the floor and are exposed
on the other side of the belly pan. They likely just rusted on the far
side and the rust is jamming the threads.

Best bet is to find where they come through on the bottom, dowse 'em
with PB blaster or such (save WD40 for cleaning things), loosen the
bolt until it binds a little, run it back in, relube it, and repeat.
Each time it should come out more.

Running some of the penetrating oil down the threads from the top
while the bolt is unthreaded as far as it'll go will help, as well.

If you have a dremel, you can go under and cut the bolts flush, then
they should come right out.



Dave
 
brp wrote ...
Probably, the bolts go all the way through the floor and are exposed
on the other side of the belly pan. They likely just rusted on the
far
side and the rust is jamming the threads.

Best bet is to find where they come through on the bottom, dowse 'em
with PB blaster or such (save WD40 for cleaning things), loosen the
bolt until it binds a little, run it back in, relube it, and repeat.
Each time it should come out more.

Running some of the penetrating oil down the threads from the top
while the bolt is unthreaded as far as it'll go will help, as well.

If you have a dremel, you can go under and cut the bolts flush, then
they should come right out.

When I got under the car at the salvage yard (because it was up higher
than I could get with my ramps and jacks on my car back home to take a
peek), I couldn't see where the bolts protruded through the hump.
Couldn't use a dremel at the salvage yard (no electricity). I brought
a battery-powered sawsall but they don't allow any cutting tools in
the yard except for hacksaws. At home and in my own car, and because
I didn't want to break off the bolt, I used the back-n-forth method to
get out the bolt. I'd unscrew it a bit then rescrew it, then unscrew
it out a bit more, then back in, then a bit more out. This was to
grind off the rusted end which was larger in diameter than the
threaded hole (basically I used the threaded hole as a die to slowly
rethread the rusted end of the bolt). Damn, this was hard rust to get
off. I couldn't get enough leverage with the 3/8" wrench or breaker
bar or with the 1/2" wrench, so I used a 1/2" breaker bar but I didn't
have a 14mm socket in 1/2" drive at the time so I used a 1/2"-to-3/8"
adapter. Got the bolt out but ended up spliting the socket in 2
places. Off to the hardware store tomorrow for more sockets.

Alas, the salvaged seat comes back out tomorrow and I put back in my
old faded seat (after washing it). The salvaged seat looks nicer
(less faded than my old one because my car is ALWAYS outside) but the
left outside seat bolster has been squashed so badly and repeatedly
that the wire support is sagged way out of position and could be
broken or disconnected. The first thing I noticed when I got in was
the sag on the left side of the seat. ARGH! Well, I only lost $16 on
the salvaged seat.

It's been a learning experience, like smacking your thumb with a
hammer.
 
brp wrote ...










When I got under the car at the salvage yard (because it was up higher
than I could get with my ramps and jacks on my car back home to take a
peek), I couldn't see where the bolts protruded through the hump.
Couldn't use a dremel at the salvage yard (no electricity). I brought
a battery-powered sawsall but they don't allow any cutting tools in
the yard except for hacksaws. At home and in my own car, and because
I didn't want to break off the bolt, I used the back-n-forth method to
get out the bolt. I'd unscrew it a bit then rescrew it, then unscrew
it out a bit more, then back in, then a bit more out. This was to
grind off the rusted end which was larger in diameter than the
threaded hole (basically I used the threaded hole as a die to slowly
rethread the rusted end of the bolt). Damn, this was hard rust to get
off. I couldn't get enough leverage with the 3/8" wrench or breaker
bar or with the 1/2" wrench, so I used a 1/2" breaker bar but I didn't
have a 14mm socket in 1/2" drive at the time so I used a 1/2"-to-3/8"
adapter. Got the bolt out but ended up spliting the socket in 2
places. Off to the hardware store tomorrow for more sockets.

Alas, the salvaged seat comes back out tomorrow and I put back in my
old faded seat (after washing it). The salvaged seat looks nicer
(less faded than my old one because my car is ALWAYS outside) but the
left outside seat bolster has been squashed so badly and repeatedly
that the wire support is sagged way out of position and could be
broken or disconnected. The first thing I noticed when I got in was
the sag on the left side of the seat. ARGH! Well, I only lost $16 on
the salvaged seat.

It's been a learning experience, like smacking your thumb with a
hammer.


The in-n-out method is a lot easier with some penetrating oil.

Dave
 
brp wrote ...










When I got under the car at the salvage yard (because it was up higher
than I could get with my ramps and jacks on my car back home to take a
peek), I couldn't see where the bolts protruded through the hump.
Couldn't use a dremel at the salvage yard (no electricity). I brought
a battery-powered sawsall but they don't allow any cutting tools in
the yard except for hacksaws. At home and in my own car, and because
I didn't want to break off the bolt, I used the back-n-forth method to
get out the bolt. I'd unscrew it a bit then rescrew it, then unscrew
it out a bit more, then back in, then a bit more out. This was to
grind off the rusted end which was larger in diameter than the
threaded hole (basically I used the threaded hole as a die to slowly
rethread the rusted end of the bolt). Damn, this was hard rust to get
off. I couldn't get enough leverage with the 3/8" wrench or breaker
bar or with the 1/2" wrench, so I used a 1/2" breaker bar but I didn't
have a 14mm socket in 1/2" drive at the time so I used a 1/2"-to-3/8"
adapter. Got the bolt out but ended up spliting the socket in 2
places. Off to the hardware store tomorrow for more sockets.

Alas, the salvaged seat comes back out tomorrow and I put back in my
old faded seat (after washing it). The salvaged seat looks nicer
(less faded than my old one because my car is ALWAYS outside) but the
left outside seat bolster has been squashed so badly and repeatedly
that the wire support is sagged way out of position and could be
broken or disconnected. The first thing I noticed when I got in was
the sag on the left side of the seat. ARGH! Well, I only lost $16 on
the salvaged seat.

It's been a learning experience, like smacking your thumb with a
hammer.



I'm not following you, as to which seat is sagging. If the salvage
seat is sagging, but the upholstery good, you can swap the upholstery.
If a seat you want to use is sagging, you can probably fix that. I
doubt a wire support is broken. More likely the foam is chewed up
from flexing against the wire, or seperated from it. I have seats I
am rebuilding where the foam seperated from the imbedded wire.

VF
 
I'm not following you, as to which seat is sagging. If the salvage
seat is sagging, but the upholstery good, you can swap the upholstery.
If a seat you want to use is sagging, you can probably fix that. I
doubt a wire support is broken. More likely the foam is chewed up
from flexing against the wire, or seperated from it. I have seats I
am rebuilding where the foam seperated from the imbedded wire.

VF

Since the salvaged seat is already out of the car, why not take it to an
upholstery shop. The major part of the labor is already done by
removing the seat. Actually, take both seats, they nay be able to
combine the two to make one good one.
 
houndman wrote ...
I'm not following you, as to which seat is sagging. If the salvage
seat is sagging, but the upholstery good, you can swap the
upholstery.
If a seat you want to use is sagging, you can probably fix that. I
doubt a wire support is broken. More likely the foam is chewed up
from flexing against the wire, or seperated from it. I have seats I
am rebuilding where the foam seperated from the imbedded wire.

I didn't look that carefully but I didn't think the cloth cover could
be easily removed and reinstalled. I'll take a look at the seats for
swapping the upholstery.

On the outside left of the salvaged driver seat, the support wire that
is normally up at the seam is about midway down the side of the seat.
There is almost no support from the foam on that bolster so I suspect
it is a chewed up.

My old seat is still very good for support. The car is always outside
so the cloth got faded and the salvaged seat looked better. However,
I'd rather have good support than good looks. Like my aunt mentioned,
just put a seat cover over it. Although the faded cloth doesn't look
that bad, I might just do that so my butt is wearing away at the seat
cover rather than the upholstery.
 
Since the salvaged seat is already out of the car, why not take it
to an upholstery shop. The major part of the labor is already done
by removing the seat. Actually, take both seats, they nay be able to
combine the two to make one good one.


Could they match the cloth (color & pattern)? Rather than move the
cloth from the salvaged '93 seat to my faded '92 seat, and with the
expense of doing the job, I'd want them to put on new cloth, not
recycle the old cloth.

Any idea what would that cost? I can call around to check, too.

I pretty much took everything off one seat to make the best one that
went into the car except when I found the salvaged one was sagging.
So I'll put all the best hardware back on my old seat and put that
back in the car.
 
I just called a couple automotive reupholstery shops. They would have
a very hard time matching the Subaru cloth so I'd have to get
something that was a close match which means that I'd have to get both
front seats done. Excluding the variable cost for the cloth
selection, they would charge $150 for labor, parts, and whatnot to do
the cushion (seat) and another $150 to do the upper (back). That's
$300 times 2. Ouch. I've got a timing belt change due so I need to
allocate that $600 to that job first.
 
houndman wrote ...







I didn't look that carefully but I didn't think the cloth cover could
be easily removed and reinstalled. I'll take a look at the seats for
swapping the upholstery.

On the outside left of the salvaged driver seat, the support wire that
is normally up at the seam is about midway down the side of the seat.
There is almost no support from the foam on that bolster so I suspect
it is a chewed up.

My old seat is still very good for support. The car is always outside
so the cloth got faded and the salvaged seat looked better. However,
I'd rather have good support than good looks. Like my aunt mentioned,
just put a seat cover over it. Although the faded cloth doesn't look
that bad, I might just do that so my butt is wearing away at the seat
cover rather than the upholstery.


the upholstery should be attached with "C" shaped hog rings. Might be
hard to get them off and on, but you don't sound like you are affraid
of a bit of work, and the upholstery sounds worth the effort, I'd try
taking a few rings off, and see how it goes. I always tell friends who
say that something can't be done, when they say something can't be
fixed, like something won't come apart. I tell them, it went together,
so has to, even if it has to be cut and epoxied.

Probably better to cut the old rings off, and install new ones with
the special pliars, but I like to getting a workout from most things I
do. then I Don't have to go to a gym to get exercise.))

I have a pair of Recaro seats from an 85' Mustang SVO I am going to
try to put in a 07' Imp wagon I just got. The seats have some similar
issues I am going to work on. They are also More extreme shape than
the Sube seats, so the foam gets chewed up, Plus they have adjustable
thigh side bolsters, worked by metal plates connected to a threaded
rod, so more metal to rub against. I glued where the foam was just
split, and plan to fill the chewed areas with expandable foam. The
seats have every adjustment I could want and need, and got them for
175$. New they would be about 3K$, so worth a little investing in,
like upholstery if I decide. I have the rear seats also, so have a lot
of options, and haven't decided. Have to make sure they will fit, and
I can repair them to my liking.. Might just throw sheepskin covers on
them.

If your old ones faded, expect the new ones to also, and cover them
at least when not using the car, or they have car covers that just
cover the windows and roof.

VF
 

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