Factory drivers seat height adjustment/installation

[benherman1]

Hello,
I'm having some trouble adjusting my drivers seat and I assume someone here knows what I'm doing wrong. The seat is currently at its maximum height which looks like it is past the regular teeth on the pawl. I am able to lift the seat out of the pedestal and set it back in if I twist the pin (#7 in the parts diagram) to disengage the pawl. Even with the pawl disengaged and clicked into the spring (part #2) I cannot get the seat into the tube past the larger bottom tooth. Do I need to take something apart to get it back together? Am I missing something else?

[buswarrior]

Yes, you've buggered it.

The big tooth is what keeps it in the tube, there's something you need to fix to get it back in there, and then to keep it in there.

It should not come out of the tube.

It's been too long ago... did you try manipulating the release lever while sneaking the post past the lock?

Needs two people, one to wrangle the chair, one to manipulate the hardware.

Do not fail to get that chair secure in the tube that it does not come out the top, on a big enough pot hole, the chair will come out, strapped to your @$#...

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

[dtcerrato]

Your seat looks very similar to our oem National Bus seat. That's never happened to ours & BW is spot on about the large tooth preventing it from coming all the way out. If all else fails you may have to remove the pedestal from the floor so you can lay the seat assembly on it's side or back and access the internal hardware from the inside. #7 may have to be removed to get past the big tooth or maybe not?

[benherman1]

I figured user error may have been involved... The person who did the conversion on this bus made some seriously questionable decisions in other places as well and apparently leaving the seat like this was one of them. I'll try the two person method and see if we can get it by. As best as I can tell unless I can get the pawl to go farther forward than it currently wants to the only option is to remove the top plate then reinstall after its through. I guess if they managed to get it off I ought to be able to get it back on.

As far as it coming out on the road I sure wouldn't want to be near the car eating pothole big enough to cause that. I figured it wouldn't be particularly safe in an accident though.

[richard5933]

It seems to me that there is supposed to be a way for the seat to be removed and put back in. We pull ours out for service from time to time so that we can access things the seat blocks.

Not sure if it's at all similar to the seat in my GM, but when mine gets pulled out, I have to rotate the pawl past its normal stopping point to get the seat back in. To do this, once I rotate the shaft to move the pawl, I pull the end of the shaft to unlock the end stop on the pawl and then rotate it a bit further. Took me a minute to figure this out, but there has to be a way to get that back in.

Spray some lubricant on the pawl mechanism when the seat is pulled out. It's likely that it hasn't been in the fully unlocked position for many years and may not want to go there now. Check the pawl carefully - there has to be a way to move it to allow the seat post to be reinserted.

[benherman1]

We figured it out eventually. You have to get it in the "latched" position then push the pin towards the passenger side while spinning it farther. eventually it will move just far enough forward to slip the seat by. It's much more comfortable to sit in now which is nice.