Problem with broken power seat mount - Help Plz

**Thewilldog** · 07-30-2009, 04:36 PM

Hi, I've got a 2001 Camaro Z28 with a problem with the power seat mount. Driving home from work yesterday I went over a typical dip in the road and heard a loud pop beneath my rear end. I then noticed that my driver's seat had turned into a bit of a rocking chair. The front left corner of the seat now has about several inches of play whenever I change velocity

I'd never fooled around the with the seats until yesterday, so this was all new to me. I got the car home and felt around the bottom of the seat to find out what was going on. I found a loose 18mm nut under there and put it aside. I soon figured out that I wasn't going to be able to see where it came from without moving the seat. So I found the four 14mm bolt screws that held the cushion to the power seat mount. Had to remove the little plastic trim around the seat to get a ratchet under there. Even then it was pain in the ass to get those out. Anyway, I finally got the seat loosened and moved it back to see what was wrong. This is what I saw:

Turns out the nut attaches one of the power seat posts to the mount for the seat. It's pretty obvious that nut is supposed to screw onto that post, because I can see the one on the right front functioning properly. But for the life of me I couldn't get the nut back on the post.

The post is a little odd. It's not completely round. I can't tell if it was supposed to be or not. When I tried to re-thread the nut, it wouldn't catch. It acted kind of like the top of a medicine bottle when you tighten it too much. It would tighten just a little, get stuck, and pop right back off. I tried hand tightening and using a socket. No joy. I even tried to hammer it down a little bit and then tighten it, but that didn't work either. The nut doesn't look like it's broken. I can't tell if the post is screwed up or not. Am I missing something here?

**99RTA** · 07-30-2009, 04:59 PM

Looks like the threads at the top of the post are broken off. Yer gonna need to get creative to repair it. Maybe rethread it with a smaller thread etc.....

**bigrondownhiller** · 07-30-2009, 05:04 PM

Just like 99ta said you might have to rethread it for a smaller nut if it is stripped. Another option is mark right where it is tight. Then drill a small hole throught the stud and put a cotter pin to hold it tight.

**Thewilldog** · 07-30-2009, 07:40 PM

Originally Posted by bigrondownhiller

Just like 99ta said you might have to rethread it for a smaller nut if it is stripped. Another option is mark right where it is tight. Then drill a small hole throught the stud and put a cotter pin to hold it tight.

I thought I might have to do something like that. What kind of drill bit do I need to go thru that metal piece?

**0rion** · 07-30-2009, 09:53 PM

it's hard to tell from that pic but do the threads on the stud look messed up? Might be the threads on the nut and not the stud. Try taking the other one off and see if it'll thread onto that stud. If it does just go buy another nut.

**Smittro** · 07-31-2009, 12:26 AM

Those are good pics but I wish I could see underneath where the stud comes through the plate. Maybe drift that goofy stud out and either replace it with a short hardend carriage type bolt, or drill them out so all the holes that bolt goes through are round and use a short hardend carriage type bolt but use a heavier/thicker one. But I dunno can ya get that goofy looking stud out? Just a thought but sometimes it's more about the shitty hardware GM used..For the record I would'nt even piss with trying to rethread that old stud.

Here's the bolts I spoke of:

And here is the site if your interested:

http://www.boltdepot.com/fastener-information/

**Thewilldog** · 07-31-2009, 10:28 PM

Originally Posted by Smittro

Those are good pics but I wish I could see underneath where the stud comes through the plate. Maybe drift that goofy stud out and either replace it with a short hardend carriage type bolt, or drill them out so all the holes that bolt goes through are round and use a short hardend carriage type bolt but use a heavier/thicker one. But I dunno can ya get that goofy looking stud out? Just a thought but sometimes it's more about the shitty hardware GM used..For the record I wouldn't even piss with trying to re-thread that old stud.

Thanks. Since you asked, I decided to post a couple of underneath photos I took as well.

Gonna try to fix it this weekend. I post a follow up once it's solved.

**Smittro** · 07-31-2009, 11:37 PM

Originally Posted by Thewilldog

Thanks. Since you asked, I decided to post a couple of underneath photos I took as well.

Gonna try to fix it this weekend. I post a follow up once it's solved.

Well looks like you may have to replace that little black gear case. Not sure how you'd rethread that goofy end. Maybe see who manufactures that black unit and possibly get a new one, or a new shaft? I dunno if you could even take that black unit (which looks to me like some kind of gear box) apart and rebuild or replace that single piece. Maybe if you could get it apart try filling in the flatened sides with weld. Then grind it round so you could get a die on there and rethread it. Then grind the sides flat again so it goes back though the slot again and debur it and just replace the nut. Good luck man hope this helped in some small way..

**0rion** · 08-02-2009, 08:24 AM

hit your local junk yards too and see if you can dig one up there.

**Thewilldog** · 08-10-2009, 05:53 PM

Well, my friend and I fixed it. Turns out I just need a new nut. I cleaned some of the grease out the original nut and got a good look at the threads. It became readily apparent that they had failed.

As we got started, my friend had the bright idea to actually take the whole seat out of the car to work on it. Turns out its only held down by four 13mm nuts attached to studs jutting up from the floorboard. Had to remove some plastic trim to access the front studs and disconnect the power cord to the seat motors, but it was a piece of cake. That made it much easier to access the nuts and bolts holding everything together.

As you can see the back floor board must have been wet at some point, but I sure don't remember doing it. I did buy the car used, so it might have been the previous owner. We decided to wire brush some of the rust off the metal piece and cover it up with some black spray paint. The carpet is one its own...

Once we cleaned off the problem stud, we saw that the threads on that were just fine. We found a similar sized nut and tightened it without a problem. The only tricky part was getting the stud back to the same height as the other four (I made sure the seat was level when we removed it). Once that was taken care of we put everything back together. Works like new.