Jim Cathey wrote:
Pulled the driver's seat (what a PITA!) to find that yes, indeed,
there is a broken spring. Fortunately it hadn't poked too far into
the pad yet. The break was out in the middle where access would be
easy once the motorized frame was removed. While I do have extra
springs from the boneyard heated seats I laid in, installing them
would not be a quick job. I decided that I could weld this break in
place much easier.
To get the motorized frame off you have to be able to run it back and
forth to gain access to the various screw heads. If you pull the
plugs to the motors from the controller module you can see that two of
the five contacts are much larger than the others. These are the
motor connections, and it was an easy matter to hook a battery to them
to move them, reversing the polarity as necessary. The fun part is in
guessing which motor and plug is the one you need.
With the frame removed I laid down old carpeting over the stump I use
as a welding prop and the ground, so that the seat wouldn't be
scuffed, and placed the seat for easy access to the bottom. Then I
soaked a bunch of old towels in water and laid them over everything so
that only the spring break (!) was exposed. That protects everything
from flying bits of molten metal. The ground clamp was secured to one
of the noninsulated crimps that hold the (coated) springs together.
(I theorized that the coating was penetrated by the crimped metal. In
fact it was.) Then I wedged the two broken ends together and hit them
with the MIG. Zap! The ends were secured. This, however, is an
insufficient fix as welding springs ruins their temper, I don't
believe that this kind of fix would hold long. What I did next was
wrap the break in a bandage of mild sheet steel, a 1/4" strip that had
been cut out of another project. I then welded the wraps together so
that it is semi-solid. This, I hope, will hold it all together. (I
have done similar fixes before and none have broken to my knowledge,
but none have been subjected to she-who-must-drop-from-a-height for
any length of time.)
I put the seat on the ground and sat on it, and it felt better to me.
Reinstallation promises to be just as much of a pain as removal was.
But it's time for breakfast.
I have dozens of reports of "repaired" springs. Virtually all failed,
most within weeks or months. A few that had the "repair" supplemented
with lots of foam packed around/under the spring to provide additional
support lasted longer or much longer.
Marshall
--
Marshall Booth (who doesn't respond to unsigned questions)
"der Dieseling Doktor" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
'87 300TD 182Kmi, '85 190D 2.0 161Kmi, '87 190D 2.5 turbo 237kmi, '84
190D 2.2 229Kmi (retired)
