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Vitesse seats


iana

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The drivers seat in my car doesn’t sit square in the car as in the seat back is lower on the handbrake side than the door side, it’s bugging me and I was trying to work out what’s wrong, I’ve removed the rubber blocks and it’s worse, it’s as if the frame runner on the transmission side is too low or the cill side too high. Any ideas what I can check? Should there be any spacers under the runners or any other ideas what to check

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and to add the pivots at the front do not use symmetric holes they are off set to pitch the seat away from the A posts when tilted

if you have it wrong it will tip the seat and tend to have the tubes miss the centre of the slide 

cant remember which but one side uses fwd holes and tother uses rearward holes  then there height  to play with as well two more holes    

Pete

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35 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said:

There should be spacers under the rear of the runners to hold the slides up off the carpet; if you're missing one it will drop that side by quite an amount.

I don't think I've got those spacers and would like the rear a bit higher as well.  Is there none on the front then to allow for the carpet also?.

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55 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said:

There should be spacers under the rear of the runners to hold the slides up off the carpet; if you're missing one it will drop that side by quite an amount.

DSCF8129.jpg.42a23506dee97517b62c706469690f11.jpg.acd91e2e1a403c65cf21017f99237559.jpg

Colin should there be a spacer on both sides? If so that’s the reason. Any chance you could measure the thickness of the on on the gearbox side.

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22 hours ago, Pete Lewis said:

and to add the pivots at the front do not use symmetric holes they are off set to pitch the seat away from the A posts when tilted

if you have it wrong it will tip the seat and tend to have the tubes miss the centre of the slide 

cant remember which but one side uses fwd holes and tother uses rearward holes  then there height  to play with as well two more holes    

Pete

Well taking Colin’s advice the seat runners are now ‘level’ the lack of a spacer certainly didn’t help, just need to work out which fixing holes to use. The manuals are very vague!

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On 20/05/2020 at 18:35, daverclasper said:

I don't think I've got those spacers and would like the rear a bit higher as well.  Is there none on the front then to allow for the carpet also?.

I originally believed it was two per seat, rear only, to level the runners, and I've been searching for clarity on that; the Workshop Manual and the Parts Manual don't list them at all. I managed to read on a forum that Dolomites had 4 per seat, and thought I'd found them on Rimmer's website as two per rear of the runners, per side, so four in total, but when I checked it's just a large washer WP48. Anyone know for certain?

I managed to have these made earlier in the week for my own Heralds, but it's used up all of my Brownie points for years to come... :)

DSCF8816.jpg.8e64e0d6785b264c7b94c34190b60617.jpg

 

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The manuals are very vague!

One more time:

Components and terminology:

Seat runners - fitted to the floor, have holes for the adjuster to register in. 

 Subframe - runs on runners, includes adjuster lever on one side only.  Has two brackets on the front, each with two holes arranged one ABOVE the other.  On one side the bracket is square and straight, and on the other side the holes are set forward, so the bracket is shaped like a B.

Seat frame - on which seat is built.  Brackets at the front have two holes arranged one BEHIND the other. 

Fitting:

Seat runners should be fitted with holes to the rear,  fixed with 5/16" UNF bolts, and with 1/2" spacers (thick washers) under each (?rear) bolt.  Captive nut on turret at the rear is FQ3406 (should be available from the usual suspects).

 The sub-frames are handed: you should have a pair.  They should be fitted so that the adjuster lever and catch is nearest the transmission tunnel.  This adjuster should mate with the holes in the seat runner (but won't if the seat runner has been fitted back to front).  This ensures that the holes on the bracket on the door side are a smidgen further forward than the transmission tunnel side, i.e. the B shaped bracket is nearest the door.

 Choose between the high and the low holes on the seat sub-frame.  These adjust rake and/or height (with blocks).  Use the foremost hole on the seat frame bracket for the door side (ie the side where the sub-frame holes are further forward) and the rearmost hole on the seat frame bracket on the tunnel side.  This means that the seat sits square on the sub-frame.  The fact that the pivot point is slightly angled, means that when the seat is tipped forward, the top moves inwards and does not hit the A post/windscreen surround. 

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One more point to add to this thread which might be of interest to taller Vitesse drivers..........you can achieve a greater rearward adjustment of the seats by removing the springs that sit in the 'U' section of the runners (they are sandwiched by raised pressings in the runners and the sub-frame to limit the movement front and back), then drill a hole in the inboard runner to engage with the adjuster on the sub-frame at the desired rearmost position. Provide a backstop by drilling holes in the inboard runner at the back and inserting a cotter or clevis pin. One word of caution.......this allows the seat to move back enough to foul on the 'B' post if the seat is not suitably located on the seat frame using the instructions posted by Casper. I've attached some pictures to illustrate these and previous comments on this thread.

Ian 

Front pivot driver seat inboard.JPG

Front pivot driver seat outboard.JPG

Rear of driver seat inboard cotter pin.JPG

Rear of driver seat inboard runner.JPG

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14 hours ago, Casper said:

Seat runners should be fitted with holes to the rear,  fixed with 5/16" UNF bolts, and with 1/2" spacers (thick washers) under each (?rear) bolt.  Captive nut on turret at the rear is FQ3406 (should be available from the usual suspects).

 

Casper thanks for your post, can you clarify the spacer location - is it all 4 bolts or just the rear bolts?

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Casper thanks for your post, can you clarify the spacer location - is it all 4 bolts or just the rear bolts?

My understanding is rear only but following Colin's comments I showed it as uncertain.

C.

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45 minutes ago, Casper said:

My understanding is rear only but following Colin's comments I showed it as uncertain.

C.

I can't find clarity anywhere, Casper, but always believed it was rear only, which was to level the runners given the slope of the floor and hold them up off the carpets.

I'll keep looking and maybe find a definitive guide. (Probably once this thread is long closed and forgotten!)

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  • 1 month later...

Just found the answer to the seat problem in the original workshop manual. I've been having problems with the driver's seat hitting both the A post and the B post and decided to check out the original Standard Triumph W/S manual and as shown in the photos from the manual below, there should be 3, 1/2"thick spacers fitted per seat. 2 at the front and 1 at the rear outboard on the door side. My car has none so as a temporary fix I have ordered a few extra thick washers from e bay, which I hope will do the trick until I can find someone with a lathe!

I hope this helps

Pat

IMG_1313.jpg

IMG_1314.jpg

IMG_1315.jpg

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Thats what the manual says Colin, check the photos, and by having only one outboard at the rear it would appear to help tilt the seat slightly inwards and help clear the windscreen and the B post.

My seat had none so you can see why I struggled, also having 2 at the front would also help with seat rake, which again I was having problems with.

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