Manual Seat Lever
 

Anyone know what this lever located on the side of my seat is for? Its on my w126 that has manual adjustable seats. Nothing happens when I pull on it.

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...Eseatlever.jpg

Height adjustment- pull it up and slide the seat forward to go up, and backwards to go down.

As in Life...your seat has its ups and downs...
 

The side handle links to some teeth and springs that cause the seat assembly to rise and fall (up and down)...BUT...not vertically. It's more like an angular motion.

Presuming everything under there is OK, sit in the seat, lift up the front handle and then with your legs pull the seat forward a bit. Then pull and hold the side handle up while again push-pulling with your legs. Voila!

Get to know this technique. You will need it should you ever wish to facilitate the removal of the four bolts holding the front seats upon the chassis mounts.

BTW, I have taken the entire seat assembly apart for cleaning, regreasing, etc. It is just tricky, NOT impossible. Third time through, you will be an expert.

Good luck.

I have been trying for the last half hour, different variations of what you have said to do. Nothing seems to work. I see the teeth and springs that are linked to the handle and I got the thing to pop up but the seat will not move at all (other than regular forward and back with the handle in the front) Suggestions?

You may not have lifted the handle up far enough. Please try again. First, sit and move the seat up, release. Then haul up hard on that side handle, hold, and push pull with the legs.

If still no go, first see if you can check out the underside with a flashlight and mirror. See if you can see both sets of teeth, the receptacle plates, the rod, and what happens when the handle gets lifted.

The handle connects over to the other site with an actuator rod at the end of which is a short lever arm. When the handle is lifted, the rod translates this motion over to the other side lever arm. This action should disengage the two receptacle plates, thusly allowing motion along L and R side angular slide rails. The seat, travelling along the angled rails, allows the up/down postitioning.

This the handle-rod-lever linkage MAY be disconnected somewhere or it may not have been reassembled properly by a PO. The lever arm should have been reassembled UNDER the receptacle plate. The handle you see and the lever arm you don't, should be pulling/lifting in unison.

Good luck.

These can be difficult to adjust on a 123, having a helper in the back seat giving you a push while you lift handle, may help, it did with me. As long as you're not already at the highest position. IIRC, there is a strong spring pulling back.

Check to see if you have junk lying around in the rear footwell, or beside the seats that may bind the seat.

It may also be that if you haven't used that in a while, the rails are stuck. Bounce harder in the seat with the handle up.

After 'X' amount of years, what kind of crud do you think might be in the runners? I took the seats out of my 240D. The tracks wouldn't slide very well. I cleaned them out and put some of that spray on Wurth lubricant. They slide very well now. I haven't had them in the car yet though. I remember having the same problem as you when they were in the car.
Tom