Slippy Sliders

This is another Restoration Hint on keeping your Early Falcon working smoothly. The chances are you don't have to move the front seat back and forth very much if you're the only driver but when the time comes to move it will you be able to?

The seat movement is one of those areas that when it's working we tent to forget all about it until the time you want to impress the latest friend, apply your own sexual orientation, or may be your activities require a little more room in the front. Either way if the seat won't move that's almost certainly going to be a disappointment.

The seat rails are the two track the attaches the front seat to the floor of the car and provides the adjustment back and forth. Quit often these will be jammed with any amount of strange objects or just plain old rust.

The rails are very robust and in most cases it's just a matter of pulling them out and given a bit of a clean and light grease.

Start by undoing the four nuts under the car that hold the seat and rails to the car. Hint: a quick scrape with the wire brush and a spray of CRC will make life a little easier. The seat will now be loose but there still could be the helper springs attached so the seat may not come out just yet.

The two helper springs are attached to the floor and the Upper Carriage See Fig 1.under the seat on either side and are used for helping to move the seat forward. Quite often these springs are missing.

Dismantling the rails requires the removal of the front, floor retaining-bolt. As this bolt is captive to the Lower Carriage it is necessary to place something on the end of the bolt to protect the thread before driving it out with a hammer. The front bolt can also be determined by looking at the Roller Bed, the front has a captive indent at each end of the Roller Bed See Figs 2 & 3. the rear only has a single indent. See Fig 7.

Once the front bolt is removed See Fig 2. the Upper Carriage can be withdrawn from the Lower Carriage by pulling it away from the bolt that was removed. If the unit is badly seized it may be necessary to apply some force in that direction.

Check all parts for wear and clean thoroughly paying particular attention the areas of the Upper Carriage where the Nylon Sliders run. See Fig 4.

Hint: Roll a tight small tube of emery paper and rub it along the inner edges of the Upper Carriage where the Sliders run. See Fig 4.

When all the parts are clean and pained if required, smear some light grease onto the area where the Nylon Slides travel in the Upper Carriage plus the Rollers and the Roller Beds.

Reassemble by first placing the four Nylon Sliders in the spigots slots in the Lower Carriage making sure they are the correct way around, the spigot is not central on the slider. See Figs 5 & 6.

This is best done with the Lower Carriage upside-down and using some grease as glue to hold the Sliders to the side of the rail. Fig 5.

When the second pair of Nylon Slider have just entered the Upper Carriage turn the unit over so it's right side up and drop in the second roller. Push the Lower Carriage all the way in so the bolthole is exposed at the other end of the unit and replace the bolt.

Use a centre punch the swell the area around the base of the bolt to make it captive once again. Fit the units back to the seat but before fitting the seat back to the car make sure the extension wire from the driver's seat latch operates the passenger side latch, adjust the bottle screw in the middle of the extension wire if necessary.

Then fit the seat back to the car and replace the helper springs.