What stops seats from sliding back off rails?

[AndreiC]

When I got my (new to me) Mooney M20E 1970, at the very back of the rails for the front seats were two cotter pins, put there in order to stop the seat from sliding too far back so that it comes off the rail. I took those cotter pins off as part of the effort to refurbish the interior. Now that I plan on putting things back together, I wonder if these cotter pins are how Mooney designed the system. I looked through the parts manual and did not find anything listed that would stop the sliding seats from sliding as far back as possible. 

Does anyone know what is supposed to go in there? I'd like something that can be easily removed and/or replaced, but cotter pins seem inelegant.

Thanks.

[Echo]

Yes.  Cotter pins are your seat travel stops.

[Ragsf15e]

8 minutes ago, Andrei Caldararu said:

When I got my (new to me) Mooney M20E 1970, at the very back of the rails for the front seats were two cotter pins, put there in order to stop the seat from sliding too far back so that it comes off the rail. I took those cotter pins off as part of the effort to refurbish the interior. Now that I plan on putting things back together, I wonder if these cotter pins are how Mooney designed the system. I looked through the parts manual and did not find anything listed that would stop the sliding seats from sliding as far back as possible. 

Does anyone know what is supposed to go in there? I'd like something that can be easily removed and/or replaced, but cotter pins seem inelegant.

Thanks.

My 68F has a small bolt/nut through the front “middle” seat rail to prevent the seat coming off forward.  The aft stop is a small bracket over the top of the same rail and it is indeed held by a cotter pin.  The bolt seems better but both work.  I’m not sure what came from the factory.

[PT20J]

Mooney used AN380-53 cotter pins for all four seat stops at least through the M20J.

I substituted a 6-32 screw, two threaded spacers (one on each side of the rail) and a stop nut at each location. This provides a more positive stop, and is more easily removed and replaced.

Skip

[EricJ]

I don't know if they're original, but this is what my airplane has, and they're really easy to remove/replace and retain the seat pretty securely.

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/appages/cessnaseatstop.php

Instead of cotter pins mine have safety retainers which are reusable.   You can find the same thing at Home Depot/Lowes/Ace/hardware stores.

https://www.univair.com/hardware/pins/view-all-pins/aa55488-2-safety-retaining-pin/

 

[Ragsf15e]

2 hours ago, EricJ said:

I don't know if they're original, but this is what my airplane has, and they're really easy to remove/replace and retain the seat pretty securely.

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/appages/cessnaseatstop.php

Instead of cotter pins mine have safety retainers which are reusable.   You can find the same thing at Home Depot/Lowes/Ace/hardware stores.

https://www.univair.com/hardware/pins/view-all-pins/aa55488-2-safety-retaining-pin/

 

Yep, what eric has are what mine has in the back of the rail.  Front are the bolts similar to what @PT20J described.  The pins eric mentioned are better than the cotter pins holding my stops and pictured below.

[MoonFlyer68]

I have never been a fan of the cotter pin solution. Especially since I have had an incident before where the seat went back past it and I couldn't move it back forward without taking it apart.  This happed on the ground of course while strapping in and not during flight. Was kind of embarrassing in front of my passengers. The McFarlane seat stop kits you guys use, are they an easy fit on our Mooney or do we need to tweak anything? I am thinking of buying a few.  With as much as they cost, are you just doing one rail per seat with them or both rails? Thanks

[Pinecone]

I don't like just a cotter/hitch pin, but the ones with a clevis pin that uses a cotter/hitch pin to keep the clevis pin in place are fine.  :Like the Seat Stop Kit 1 without the u piece.

 

[Andy95W]

If you buy 4 large ones at your local hardware store, you’ll only be out about $3.