1956 Power sear cushion removal

[DeanS]

Does anyone know how to remove the power seat cushions from a 1956 T-Bird, without removing the whole frame or track from under car? Thanks

 

[biddle]

When you post to the forums, your subject needs to be a summary of your post, as prompted, otherwise nobody is going to know what your post is about when your title is "1956 Thunderbird'

Subject revised.

 

[DeanS]

1956 T-Bird trying to remove the power seats with removing the frame from under car?

 

[Grumpy Rick]

I just did it recently on my '55, and it might be possible for a contortionist to find and remove the seat bolts if he had flat arms and long wrenches, but I cannot imagine anyone getting them back on. Besides, you have to unhook the motor UNDER the seat to remove it.

Take the seat out, it's only four bolts.

I redid the tracks on mine, and they were full of old grease, paint and rust, and the ball bearings in the tracks were square. Measured the old ones at 5/8" and got new ones, but they would not roll in the track after it was cleaned up, so I bought 1/2" and 7/16" bearings, and used the ones that worked best.

I had paid a 'mechanic' to fix the power seat, and he really messed it up. The seat wouldn't even move when I got it back, and the seat was stuck in the foremost position when I needed it in the rearmost. Turns out he freed up the motor at the rear, and never touched the one underneath. The lithium grease was so hard I couldn't move the screw with a wrench. Took it apart (just the screw mechanism, motor was fine), cleaned it up and put a bit of new grease on the threads, and the mechanism worked fine. The big problem was the tracks with layers of poured on paint and old hard grease. I had to drill out the rivets holding the tracks together and do a lot of cleaning, then new bearings to replace the square ones. I also had to take a dremel with a small barrel sanding drum and tried to renew up where the tracks had ruts worn in them by the bad bearings. I used a nut and bolt to hold the tracks back together where I had drilled out the rivets. Works fine now.

 

[DeanS]

Grumpy Rick, sorry I just saw your reply. I am affair to try to loosen bolts under the car that haven't been touch in almost 70 years ( rust, corrosion), are you saying they stay in relative good shape? Thanks

 

[Grumpy Rick]

That 'mechanic' that previously worked on it removed the originals, and put others back in. No rust problems there, the rust was in the tracks.

The bolts are not that hard to get to, but it took me a while to find them, hidden behind frame stiffeners, in the rear, but not difficult to get wrenches on. The front ones are easily found inside the car at the front of the tracks. There is no way to get to the tracks and second motor, without removing the seat. You can hardly get a finger under the seat in mine, much less do anything.

Get it up on jack stands and just do it, the removal is the easiest part of working on the seat.


Tip: If you can separate the back from the bottom before removal it would help a lot. I couldn't. I didn't have the nerve to get a pry bar in there to spread it until I had the seat out.

Putting the seat back in was much easier, as we knew what needed to be hooked up (wiring and the motor screw). My son in law and I didn't even need to lift the car for that part. We just lined up the seat and did it by feel. That really surprised me, after fighting it for so long to get to that point.

 

[DeanS]

Grumpy Rick, Thanks for all the information, I got the seat out from under car, was not hard, motor doesn't seem to work, it is getting juice. I cut the four wires and removed the whole seat assemble, will have motor checked for power, what did you use to lube tracks. Thanks

 

[Grumpy Rick]

White lithium grease. The four wires unplug near the back of the seat.