New Tub/Old Seat

[PeterL]

Good evening all!

After purchasing a few items from Ryan_M on Friday, he fueled my "itch" by letting me drive his M38 (again, sorry about grinding the gears).  Ryan was also kind enough to let me crawl under and over his 3A and I took a bunch of mental notes. Being fresh in my mind and not being able to get jeeps OFF my mind since. I decided to visit my storage locker in this weekend�s snow storm because I just had to visit/tinker.

Anyway, I have an original driver�s seat that I had been trying to mock up last fall.  I couldn't quite figure it out.   It does not seem to want to sit correctly.  I positioned the seat in the same fashion as I had seen on Friday but the wheel well perch doesn�t want to catch.  The only way I can get the seat to catch the perch is if I turn the seat so that it is off parallel- twisted towards the passenger side by about 20 degrees.  The perch itself seems to be only about � of an inch of real estate on which the seat cross member sits and it just doesn�t seem to be enough.  So, first question, has anyone else had a similar problem?  Second question, is there a chance that the perch isn�t big enough?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Peter

[garage gnome]

Hard to follow what you are saying without some pictures. Could you post some?

[athawk11]

Peter,
When you position the seat, how far away is the seat from the perch?  I had this issue, but I have a 3A tub with 2A seat frames.  I had to make a larger perch...

[Ryan_M]

Great to meet you last week! Come back up in a month or so and we can venture beyond the confines of my yard. Any trails on that mountain of yours? Might be a good central location for a Maine flat fender meet.  [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

From Tim's pic it sounds like either you have a 2A seat or the perch size/placement on the MD Juan tub is off. Pics and measurements of what you have would no doubt allow the resident experts here to figure out just what the problem is.
 

As for downshifting to first without grinding - ask Jeff_M how it's done. I believe he can pull it off without using a clutch too when he really wants to put on a show. I'd love figure out how to do it but there's no real clean way to practice. You either grind the gears or you don't. So far I'm at a 100% grind rate...

[PeterL]

Ok, I would love to get some pic�s however, I will not be able to get them until Friday.  I work 4 tens and my jeep sits in a storage locker (AKA my offsite garage).  I will get some on Friday and post them.  In the meantime if you look at the picture athawk11 posted it actually has an example of what I am dealing with.  The smaller perch on the passenger side of his tub just up and left of the larger perch (again passenger side) is exactly what I am frustrated with on the driver�s side.  Both sides of my tub have those small perches.   Are the smaller perches OEM to Willy�s or just an MD Juan blooper?

[athawk11]

Peter,
I'm sorry to say that the small perch is OEM.  A 3A seat in a 3A tub will actually sit on that little tiny ledge.

Tim

[PeterL]

Thanks for the clarification Tim.  I will head over on Friday and get a few pics.

I appreciate all of your help.

Peter

[macrisel]

On my repro tub, my seat perches were a little off also.  I didn't end up moving mine, but they sit about 1/2" below where the seat contacts the tub.  I just took a piece of rubber tubing, split it down the middle and snapped it onto my seat frame.  This keeps the seat from rubbing/vibrating against the wheel well.

[PeterL]

Well, Macrisel was correct.  The perch sits about 3/4 of an inch too low.  I could go the rubber bushing route as suggested or I could you my tax money and get a welder.... . 

Thanks for the input everyone.  I have to say I am surprised that the perch from the OEM was that small. 

Cheers!

[Mike S]

Had the same problem on my new tub. Moved the seat perch to line everything up properly...