Seat Slider overhaul

[dhbfaster]

I have the front bench seat sliders out to paint them "while I'm at it" (I have the seats out anyway...). After I blew out all the trash that was inside the rails, they do work "ok," but they do get stuck every now and then and there is a bit of rust in there on the slider and on the ball bearings or maybe just on the little metal piece that holds them in which is now spread around. It would be great to clean all that up and refurbish the whole thing. Problem is...it doesn't look like these were ever made to come apart again. Does anyone know a trick to getting these apart without destroying them?

[Luva65wagon]

Nope. But if you clean it all up as good as you can, and then spray lithium grease (get it in spray form) in the bearings and track, once you reinstall and add body weight to the sliders - they will slide far easier than by hand.

Some WIAI things become WWIT things (as in What was I thinking?). You gotta know when to stop. I admire your efforts at keeping the disease going though.

[ew1usnr]

Also check and see if your bench seat has a return spring that connects from the seat frame to a hole in the floor beneath the seat. It makes it more difficult to move the seat back and forth if the spring is missing or disconnected.

Lithium grease sprays on as a liquid and then turns to a grease. It is way better for lubricating the slider tracks than WD-40.

[redfalken]

I was thinking you could try spraying something like aerosol brake cleaner in the hard to reach spots to flush out any old grease or dirt before the lithium goes on. And before painting of course. It should flash dry pretty quick.

[dhbfaster]

Sounds like good advice everyone...it all makes sense. I'll let you know how it goes.