Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Seat runners etc

The seat runners on my 2011 Plus 4 were very stiff on the passenger side so I took the seat out to have a look. I found that the long plates that go between the the seat runners and the carpet were noticeably bent - about 6mm over the length of the plate, as if the plates have sagged under the weight of the passenger. And the lady is not that heavy! Should the plates be bent? Should I try to straighten them? Or perhap refit them upside down so the weight of the seat and passenger straightens them for me?

Tightening the mounting bolts down too tightly can distort the runners and lead to a stiff seat action. Try slackening them off slightly until the runners are straight.
If you then feel some are too slack, use penny washers under the rails to take up the slack.

Tell your wife that it is not her fault!

The plates should be straight but often are not, the set up has a bolt head or nut sticking proud (depends which way they assembled the runners) which used to sit in a recess drilled in the wooden plinths, since they started bolting the runner carriage direct to the floor they failed to relieve the floorboard!!! If you look for a 'witness' mark in the carpet you will see what's bent the frame, if you have wooden plinths (but I think they were deleted before your build year except 4 seaters)make sure the drilled holes align with the nut/bolt. wherever you have the mark you need to ensure clearance and a simple flat blade drill and 10 seconds a side cures the problem. When you refit the seats ensure they are snug but do not over tighten or you will bow the mechanism, use nylock nuts to hold the seats in place and just nip then until tight, I have seen a few where the washers are buried into the floor board they have been done up so tight. Finally before refitting check the seat frame slides to make sure they move freely and add a little grease as the factory put them in bone dry!

So much for British handcrafted precision!

Spot on! seat out drill the holes and re fit! good job done seat will work smoothly then.

Or fit some wooden spacers if you don't want your bum scraping on the floor.

??? How much seat membrane to floor clearance do you have? The later cars such as yours have nearly 3" as standard? Raising the seat without supporting the runner frame will cause it to bow and your back to square one and if you fit full length plinths you need to drill them to clear the bolt heads so why not just drill the floor board, it's hardly water tight is it, have a look at the hole around the spring shackle.

I had this problem with Aldermog and fitted thin wooden spacers, just enough to relieve the bolt heads.
Problem solved...

Tarka has an alloy floor and the seats slide as they do on any modern car.

Just noticed this thread. I too have very stiff seat runners. Has anyone made any photos of what neeeds to be done?

Sorry Peter, no photos and the last one I did was someone elses car. Simple to do, first question is do you have any kind of wooded packing piece under the lowest part of the seats metal frame and runners? If you do you need to check if the bolts that hold the frame to the strip of steel (flat black bar) used to bolt the whole shooting match to the car have a clearance hole in the wood. Many are misaligned, if there is no wood lift the seats and look for marks where the bolt has been hitting the carpet under the seat in line with the mounting holes (so the fix cant be seen when done as its covered by the runners). If there is a mark then pressure is being put on the runners that will slightly bow them and cause the tightness so using a flat wood drill relieve the floor to give a pocket or hole for the bolt/nut. Don't worry if you break through there is a massive hole a few inches away where the front shackle pin is anyway, one more will not hurt (plus read on), this will take the bow load off the runners, grease the mechanism and work a few times over full travel to spread the grease and refit the seats. If you have gone all the way through (I always do) you can if you wish pop under the car and fill the hole with instant gasket, silicon or even a dab of underseal, it will make no difference to the car but I know some owners like to seal everything up.....I was raised on Allegros in the workshop where holes in the floor to let water out were seen as highly desirable