Bench Seat track disassembly...?

[trapdoor2]

Hi gang,

The '69 has the bench seat adjuster arm broken off and Miz Diane would prefer to not have a pair of vice grips sliding around under the seats.

I found a set of tracks for $50 and am in the process of cleaning them up. Of course, now that I have them, I discovered that they're year specific (did a search here...after the fact of course). The driver's side is off of a '72 and the passenger side is off of a '69...figures. However, all I really need is the arm and it is pretty simple to drill out the rivet, replace with a bolt, etc.

What I would like to know is: how do you get the two sliding halves of the mechanism apart?

There is an internal stop both directions...but I can't see past the crud inside to tell how to get the top half off of the bottom so I can clean out the tracks, etc.

[Grumpy old man]

They are made to NOT come apart , and if you decide to heat them to be able to bend the "tabs" to let it come apart when you slide them all the steel bearings and bearing cages will hit the floor ...these are one of those items when it's just better to place a "want to buy ad" and find the correct one you need .

[trapdoor2]

Ok...thanks!

Since I'm just going to strip off the adjusting arm from the driver's side, I think I'll cut the rest of it up just to see what I can see. Pretty easy to drill out or cut off the rivets, etc. It wasn't expensive...and I'm simply that curious.

I've worked on tracks that had spring clip stops which required a long, skinny screwdriver (or special tool) to be shoved in 'just the right spot' to disassemble. I think some of the GM cars of this vintage have a carrier bearing cage (and balls) which can be pulled to disassemble, clean, etc. Thought these might have something similar...but there's just too much grease/crud in there to see.