Removal of passenger seat swivel plate from pedestal

[chrisnythclyd]

Can anyone help with this please? The passenger swivel seat in our van jammed in the backwards position. We managed to turn it so far to face mostly forward for driving home but now is absolutely stuck fast. To investigate the cause we have unscrewed the seat pedestal from the van floor, and have removed the central bolt, but the hub section, which should swivel seems to have siezed up. Our van is a 1993 T4.

 

[Tegen]

Hi!

I have the same year California and the exact same problem. Were you able to sort it out? If so how?

 

[Mattski]

Hi Guys, I have a 94 cali and I replaced my offside swivel base with an underseat base. I will have a look at the original and see If I can get some ideas for you

 

[Thelma and Louise]

Hi, seems to be a problem with the early Cali T4's.
We had the same problem with the passenger seat, and had to drive with it facing backward until we got home and asked bro in law to flex his muscles.
It hadn't seized completely but was really stiff I couldn't move it.
Had a caravan/motorhome service place try and fix it but couldn't.
Put loads of WD40 and dry lubricant around it and tried to swing it back and forth.
Gave up really until one day we tried it and it was free as a bird!!!
It is still fine 8 months on, but now I've noticed the driver swivel is becoming stiff :cry:
Did you guys sort your swivel and if so how?

 

[Tegen]

Hi!

The quick and dirty fix turned out to be sticking an axe handle in between the seat and back rest and using it as a lever to force the seat back to the forward facing position. As this worked pretty well I haven't looked into a permanent solution yet, apart from trying to locate an aftermarket swivel-plate that will fit the early T4.

 

[TwentyOneThirtyFive]

The JK one works, but not as well as the original.

There is not as much fore/aft movement and it is not as slick. If I remember rightly, you need to drill two holes for the seat runners too, the westy ones are quite short.

If the driver's side fails then Gunzl stock that, but it won't work on the passenger side for an early model (although fine for late as the seat belt buckle is on the seat, not the base).

hth,
dan

 

[SebRogers]

I realise this is an old thread, but since I've recently had both seat bases apart (to rub down and respray the base units), I thought I might add my ha'pennorth. I've never had a seat seize on me, but in the process of tearing everything down I identified what I think could be the problem.

While I had everything apart I had a good look at the mechanism. It's pretty simple and I'm fairly sure that bit that gives trouble is where the metal column under the seat slots into the nylon (?) sleeve in the base unit. On my seats both sleeve and column were covered with old, dried up - and very sticky - grease. My seat sliders weren't working too well either, and this turned out to be the same issie.

The second part of the mechanism, which is a two-piece helical insert that allows the seat to drop in height as it swivels to face rearward, is well protected and on mine still well greased and smooth, so I left alone.

Wiping off the dry, sticky residue of old grease and applying a thin film of fresh grease - to both swivel base column and seat runners - has made a lot of difference.

The message, I think, is clear: separate the base from the swivels, give it a good clean and put some grease on BEFORE it seizes. After 20 years it's not really surprising they need a bit of lube and, if it's not had any attention in that time it's not so much a question of whether they seize as when...