1985 - 280 sl passenger front seat - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

mister bill · #1 05-13-2008, 02:26 AM

The passenger seat in the front of my Mercedes Euro 280 sl is unstable. The front of the seat tips back. How do I stabalise it ? Also the rachet adjusters on both sides of the front seats dont really seem to do much. What is their main function. They rachet in 3 positions.
Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks to all in advance... Bill

travellerdogs · #2 05-29-2008, 07:55 AM

I have an 85SL and just had both seats out of the car as they would not adjust due to the lube (white grease) had hardened over time. Sounds like your ratchet things are not locking when you push down on the lever by the side of the seat. The seat rails are connected to a spring loaded rod that rotates when you push down the the side lever thereby allowing the back end of the seat base to lower and raise aided by your body movement. Do not remove the bolts holding that rod to the side rails of the body as they are a ***** to get bolted again as that spring is a big one. You do not have to take the bolts out or remove the rod as it just slides into a bracket on the seat rails when you put the seats back in. It's hard to explain but after removing the seat and looking at how it works it really is quite straight forward. I would suggest you take the time to take the seat out and you will see the problem. Probably the ratcheting mechanism is gummed up as is usually the case probably some McDonald's gunk that slid down there over the years by careless diners. I would also clean out the slide rails and re grease them. Mine now works super slick since I did them just this week. BTW, I am on Van Island.

nobby · #3 05-30-2008, 04:44 AM

I had similar problems. Turns out the ratchet mechanism was missing a spring. There should be two. Check this picture.

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/attachments/r-c107-sl-slc-class/78225-ears-all-23_1832204_3202006100702pm.jpg

JimFreeh · #4 05-30-2008, 06:45 AM

Same with mine, it was locked up.

Disassembly and lube got everything working properly.

And yeah, that spring is a *****.....

Jim

mister bill · #5 06-02-2008, 12:53 AM

Thank you all three gentleman for your valuable input.
As far as I can see all that is needed to remove the front seat is 4 bolts ... 2 in front 2 in back .. Correct???? .

dugald · #6 06-02-2008, 07:20 AM

3 bolts each rail, 1 in front, 2 in back.
It's a bit tricky to manoeuvre the seat in and out as space is tight.
Careful not to lose the nylon sliders in the tracks.

SL Lover · #7 06-07-2008, 10:15 AM

A few months ago, I had to remove the driver side seat because the outer edge was sagging. I placed foam pads to stiffen up the outer seat. It worked wonder!

As for the spring loaded rod, what I did was place a car jack in between the rod and spring. I carefully stretched the spring into the rod positioning by jacking the car jack. Neat trick, eh?

If your springs are missing from your vehicle, it's probably because the previous owner removed the seats and was never able to put the spring back into its places.

donbryce · #8 06-08-2008, 08:35 PM

The big spring is the counterforce to your body weight on the seat. I made a tool similar to the Mercedes manual tool to remove and replace that big spring. It was all of 1/2 hour's work with some scrap bar stock. The S hook made an easy catch for the spring. If anyone wants dimensions, post a reply.

After removing the seat, look carefully at the raising/lowering mechanism. On mine, driver's side, some gorilla had managed to bend the nut welded to the side frame member that receives the bolt that fastens the end of the raising rail opposite the ratcheting mechanism. Picture 2 shows how bent it was, magnified by inserting a longer bolt. Straightening it out was easy, using a deep socket over this bolt and an extension. The bent nut for this bolt throws off the geometry. There was also a dent in the floorpan, which with the bent bolt mount, prevented the rail from going all the way down.

In operation, which you can verify easily once the spring is out, the ratchet gear turns to pull or push the bar, connected to the rod to which the spring is attached. In the picture (on the driver's side), the bar is right on the floorpan, and the rear seat frame pivot is all the way to the right. This should conform to the last notch in the ratchet gear, and is the lowest seat position. When the lever is pumped, the gear moves counterclockwise, pulling the bar to the right and moving the pivot upward.

mister bill · #9 06-11-2008, 01:58 PM

A little spray of 24d on both ratchet units have them working just fine . Solved the problem of my front seat being so tippy.. The nylon slides that go in the seat track in the front seat are missing . Does anybody have a picture of them in place? Would I have to take the front seat out to install them? Where could I purchase a couple of these? Thanks in advance to all for helping be get to the Bottom Of Things so to so speak.