Front seat swivels

pabloalfa76 · May 12, 2014

Hi All,

Out camping last weekend and getting the beds ready, the passenger seat was noticeably stiffer to turn!
A couple of people on the forum have had issues with these seizing up, so tonight decided to pull it apart and re-grease.
On splitting the base in two, the first thing I noticed but have never realised is that as you turn the seats to face the rear, the seat drop about 50mm! cleaver old Germans.

Anyway, the cab base has a plastic / nylon sleeve inside and the seat base is steel. So what kind of lube should I be re-greasing with ? light like Vaseline? or heavy like CV Grease?
Just to note. This seat base came apart very easily, it may have been operator error when under the influence of alcohol! and not stiff at all!

GuyB · May 13, 2014

I would personally use a silicon grease as it shouldn't react with anything - others may think differently...

t4_generation · May 26, 2014

How did you get on putting it all back together?

Is there any adjustment / tightening to stop them rocking fore/aft at the swivel? Mine feel a bit sloppy...

:smile

pabloalfa76 · May 26, 2014

Hi All,

An update for you all with these Westy Seat swivels.

We've just had a weekend away camping, and what a difference! The seat almost turns by it's self.

When you lift the grey lever up, you can now turn the seat with the same hand. So it has defiantly improved it and made it an easier operation.

I'm going to do the same to the drivers seat next weekend.

I used Silicon grease as advised, I will have another look at the drivers side to see if you can tighten up any rocking movement you may have.

Cheers, Paul.
Wild camped at St Margaret's at cliffe, (Dover) on Saturday night. A great spot, a quite night and a free view!

TwentyOneThirtyFive · May 28, 2014

Mine has never freed up. As new ones aren't available for the passenger side, I replaced it with one from JK because it was the only one that would work with early seats (where the seat belt buckle is on the base) but while it works, it's not as nice, doesn't have the fore/aft range of movement and as you've pointed out, doesn't lower when you turn it.

After a year of keeping an eye open, a couple of NOS passenger side bases came up for sale on the T4 forum last week. Since I haven't spent enough on my van this month, I now have a shiny new base. Going to give it a service before I put it in though!

Nice camping spot

Dorset Drifter · Mar 25, 2016

pabloalfa76 said:
This seat base came apart very easily, it may have been operator error when under the influence of alcohol! and not stiff at all!

Help please! I have the problem of the passenger seat having seized up. I have taken the seat swab off and then removed the central bolt, should the base now split apart or is there something else I need to release?
I don't want to force anything and I've also got a dodgy back so I want to be sure I'm not missing anything, thanks

pabloalfa76 · Mar 25, 2016

Hi Dorset drifter,

If I remember right, you need to undo the centre bolt and also the 13mm bolt in the end of the (Seat Rotating) locking bar.
you can see it in the top picture ( the large washer under the bolt will stop the two sections separating, as it can't come past the locating plate on the side of the base ).
I hope that helps?

Dorset Drifter · Mar 25, 2016

pabloalfa76 said:
Hi Dorset drifter,

If I remember right, you need to undo the centre bolt and also the 13mm bolt in the end of the (Seat Rotating) locking bar.
you can see it in the top picture ( the large washer under the bolt will stop the two sections separating, as it can't come past the locating plate on the side of the base ).
I hope that helps?

Thanks, I'd missed that, will give it a go tomorrow.