Seat Rails

[Beard]

I have a 1984 J. I need to replace the pilot's seat rails as there are some seat positions that cause the seat to move. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge with this please?

Specific questions are 1) Can I just change the only pilot's right hand side rail as that is the one that is worn?   2) Is it better to use sold rivets or Cherry Max. LASAR told me they recommend solid because the Cherry will eventually corrode, but when looking under the belly it appears that Cherry Max would be far less work.

Any tips or recommendations please?

 

[Fly Boomer]

3 minutes ago, Beard said:

I have a 1984 J. I need to replace the pilot's seat rails as there are some seat positions that cause the seat to move. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge with this please?

Specific questions are 1) Can I just change the only pilot's right hand side rail as that is the one that is worn?   2) Is it better to use sold rivets or Cherry Max. LASAR told me they recommend solid because the Cherry will eventually corrode, but when looking under the belly it appears that Cherry Max would be far less work.

Any tips or recommendations please?

 

All I know is nobody likes to do this.  Stay close.  Someone will be along shortly with a real answer.

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Beard said:

I have a 1984 J. I need to replace the pilot's seat rails as there are some seat positions that cause the seat to move. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge with this please?

Specific questions are 1) Can I just change the only pilot's right hand side rail as that is the one that is worn?   2) Is it better to use sold rivets or Cherry Max. LASAR told me they recommend solid because the Cherry will eventually corrode, but when looking under the belly it appears that Cherry Max would be far less work.

Any tips or recommendations please?

 

There is no reason to replace the opposite seat track of its not worn.  The original rivets were solid and that’s what needs to go back in, the odd really difficult one you can install a Cherry, but not all of them.

[Guy M20J]

To Beard

Did you end up replacing the rails? how much did it cost?

G

[PT20J]

Make sure the holes are clean. Sometimes carpet fibers get impacted and prevent the pins from setting all the way down. 

[0TreeLemur]

Stale thread, but I'll pitch in anyway:  In my J there was a broken weld in the seat height adjustment mechanism that caused the pins to lift as the seat raised...  Got that fixed at last annual.   The point is you can't assume that the rails need replaced, several things can cause the pins to not function properly.

[47U]

15 hours ago, PT20J said:

Make sure the holes are clean. Sometimes carpet fibers get impacted and prevent the pins from setting all the way down. 

If the seat rail holes have never been cleaned out, you may likely find the debris in the shape and consistency best described as wood stove pellets.  I used a thin awl to loosen that stuff up so the vacuum grab it. 

[Beard]

I thought I had to replace my rails, but it ended up being the seat. Someone on this forum showed a picture where his seat cracked and mine had cracked in the exact same spot. I posted a picture of my seat crack too. Try searching the archives for seat cracks.

What made it evident that it was my seat that was the problem was when I swapped the pilot's and passenger seats around and and the problem went away for my seat.

I am building an RV10 with a few friends and one of them was the sales representative for Cherry Max rivets in Canada and he raved about these rivets. I had decided that if I had to change my rails I would definitely use Cherry Max.