Few things.
First, because wheels, these will be going on Maytag first. I'm putting pure summer tires on them (Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2). On @occoupe's recommendation I had them ceramic coated.
Yesterday I started digging into the Sport Seats that came out of the '88 Turbo car I parted out. Recall the seats in Maytag now are Vlad's old seats and they are not ideal. The passenger seat (which was the driver seat) rocks like granny's old chair and the thigh bolster is ripped. The driver's seat is in good cosmetic shape, but also rocks/squeaks pretty badly.
The plan was to see how good/bad the '88 Turbo seats were and how far I could get making one great set out of two. I also bought a set of re-enforcement plates from @bengerman (
http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=142588).
Step one was to start inspecting the seats.
Both show tears. It appears the PO swapped these left to right previously because (a) they are both worn on the left side, and (b) the driver seat is in FAR better shape mechanically than the passenger seat. In fact, I've never felt an E28 sport seat that was so tight! This makes me happy. This seat will be Maytag's new driver's seat for sure!
I rigged up a 12V supply and seat switch to test the mechanisms. Everything but the headrests works, but all could use a cleaning and greasing.
You don't actually have to remove the headrest mechanism to fix this problem, but I was feeling ambitious. Fixing head rests that stop working is actually very easy. What happens is the rubber sheath that houses the cable from the motor to the mechanism gets longer over time. This causes the cable to pull out of the motor/mechanism so it doesn't engage.
The fix is to shorten the rubber sheath.
1) Remove the two screws that hold the bracket to the motor. This will enable the motor-end of the cable to come free.
2) Slide the cable out of the sheath. It should be greasy. It needs to be greasy. Lithium grease is good.
3) Use a torch/lighter/heat gun to heat up the tip you pulled out of the motor. Once the rubber has melted/softened you can easily pull the tip off.
4) Cut the sheath. I find cutting it the length it was inserted into the tip works fine, but you are better off cutting less than more, because you can always cut more if it doesn't work well.
5) Use some sort of cylinrical tool that will fit within the tip and press the little grabby hook things back. I used a tapered chisel like this:
6) Press the rubber sheath into the tip.
7) Slide cable back into sheath and test the mechanism.
8) If it goes in all the way and the mechanism works, use a punch to cause the grabby hook things to bite into the rubber again and final assemble.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BiaEbHDF09p/?taken-by=cekzy
Woot!
If anyone has a black leather left-side lower bolster for an E28 sport seat that is not torn, I will pay good monies for it!! Let me know.