1963-66 Seat Track Roller Springs (Bushings)

[Joe C.]

Does anyone know where to buy proper diameter springs. These are inserted between the upper and lower seat track sections and act as rollers. The replacements that I used 10 years ago are of slightly smaller diameter than the originals were, and are beginning to grate on me because the seat tracks are not tight. They have a decent amount of slop in them, so the seats move around somewhat in their tracks.
Thank you.

[Gary B.]

Re: 1963-66 Seat Track Roller Springs (Bushings)

Joe,

I looked into this exact issue a few years ago for the seats in my '66 and after much searching and buying some repro sets (e.g., from LIC) that no one makes springs that have the same OD and ID specs or the unusual wire shape as the GM originals. At the time I looked into all of the usual Corvette catalog companies and numerous major and minor spring vendors on the internet, all to no avail.

Gary

[Gene M.]

Re: 1963-66 Seat Track Roller Springs (Bushings)

Joe,
I suggest get in touch with Fairway Spring, Lee Spring, or Associated Spring. They sell standard coil winds and do custom work too. When I was working in engineering design I dealt with all three of them for stock items and custom pieces too. Cost was reasonable. Lee Spring, and Associated Spring have catalogs of standard winds. You may find what you need there. Keep in mind you can cut to length from coil lengths which they also sell. I repaired my 65 seats from samples I got from one of them years ago. Spring does not need to be exact. The OD is the most important, wire diamer to a lesser extent.

[Gary B.]

Re: 1963-66 Seat Track Roller Springs (Bushings)

Joe,

Let us know how it works out. I'm curious to see what you find. I'm sure you can find something that works, such as the springs from LIC. But I still contend it will not be all that close to what GM used. The non-round wire shape of the original GM spring is very different that what is available in any standard spring. When I looked into this several years ago I also looked into custom springs, but I bet you will find that option prohibitively expensive, as I did.

Gary

[Gary B.]

Re: 1963-66 Seat Track Roller Springs (Bushings)

Joe,

PS. If you want to see what the LIC spring looks like or compare with your GM spring I can send you a new LIC spring. I wound up not using the LIC springs when I restored my '66 seat tracks.

Gary

[Joe C.]

Re: 1963-66 Seat Track Roller Springs (Bushings)

Joe,

PS. If you want to see what the LIC spring looks like or compare with your GM spring I can send you a new LIC spring. I wound up not using the LIC springs when I restored my '66 seat tracks.

Gary

Gary,
I don't know whether or not I kept the original springs, but they would be nice to have at this point, so I could mike them and get the original O.D. I called Keane Parts yesterday, and they were nice enough to measure their spring for me. They measure .208" O.D. I have a feeling that the springs sold by all of the vendors are the same as these. Here's something very interesting, and I may follow up on this "tip" if I don't get a satisfactory substitute from Fairway Spring, Lee Spring, or Associated Spring per Gene Manno:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c1-a...-new-post.html

[Gary B.]

Re: 1963-66 Seat Track Roller Springs (Bushings)

Joe,

The spring that Keen Parts sells sounds exactly the same as the LIC part. I measure the OD of the LIC spring to be 0.207". The OD of the original GM spring is 0.212". The ID of the original GM spring is 0.111", so the wire thickness in the radial direction of the GM spring is 0.051". The GM wire is very non-round in cross section. The wire for the LIC spring and presumably for the Keen spring is round and the wire diameter is 0.030", substantially smaller and whimpier than the GM spring.

The trick I resorted to in the end is I switched to loose ball bearings, 7/32" in diameter, which is 0.219". These ball bearings fit into the spring slot easily and can be held in place with some chassis grease. But I did have to open up the mating tube ever so slightly to get everything to slide without undue interference. The result is a pretty sweet motion, real ball bearings as opposed to some stupid spring that tries to act like a bearing. I think '67 seats used ball bearings, so I believe GM finally decided to do it right starting in '67. I gave a presentation on this ball bearing change to my NCRS chapter a few years ago, but I never got around to writing it up for my chapter newsletter nor for the Restorer, but I think the idea works well and others might like to try it.

Gary

[Vinnie P.]

Re: 1963-66 Seat Track Roller Springs (Bushings)

Gary...you're on a roll...I think it deserves a write up!!!

[Gary B.]

Re: 1963-66 Seat Track Roller Springs (Bushings)

Vinnie,

It's been on my to-do list for a long time. But so is putting my '66 back together. And one of these years I have to start on the latter; before I run out of years.

Gary

[Vinnie P.]

Re: 1963-66 Seat Track Roller Springs (Bushings)

I'm sure you know I'm just being a buster...and appreciate all your submissions...and look forward to each and every one of them

[Joe C.]

Re: 1963-66 Seat Track Roller Springs (Bushings)

I went the same route taken by Gary Beaupre and bought 100 - 7/32" (0.21875") chrome steel ball bearings for about 4 bucks plus 5 bucks S&H. I substituted them for the 0.207" diameter replacement roller springs sold by some of the familiar Corvette parts houses. What a difference those 0.01175" make! Absolutely no slop in the tracks. The seats slide back and forth easily and no longer "rock" when locked in position.

Very simple installation, and should not require any stretching or reforming of the outer track tubes. In my case the inner tubes needed some "persuasion" to get the bearing loaded guides past the mouth of the outer tube, but once inside they roll/slide freely.

[Gary B.]

Re: 1963-66 Seat Track Roller Springs (Bushings)

Joe,

Excellent!! I've been dying for someone else to try the ball bearings idea and report back. I just hope I never hear about some PV judge questioning why the seats tracks work so smoothly.

Gary

[Joe C.]

Re: 1963-66 Seat Track Roller Springs (Bushings)

Joe,

Excellent!! I've been dying for someone else to try the ball bearings idea and report back. I just hope I never hear about some PV judge questioning why the seats tracks work so smoothly.

Gary

They worked smoothly before the change. In fact, I can't discern any real difference in the way they slide. Of course, a PV judge's opinion can always become jaded if he or she knows that the guts of the seat tracks have been "reconfigured".

[Gary B.]

Re: 1963-66 Seat Track Roller Springs (Bushings)

Joe,

The smoothness of my seat tracks definitely improved after changing to the ball bearings and adding new grease. But several of the original springs in my seat tracks were broken into smaller pieces and the 40+ year old grease has turned to something resembling pitch from a pine tree. I initially tried using new springs from one of the repro companies, but the slop perpendicular to the track direction when using those new springs was simply unacceptable to me.

Gary

[Joe C.]

Re: 1963-66 Seat Track Roller Springs (Bushings)

Joe,

The smoothness of my seat tracks definitely improved after changing to the ball bearings and adding new grease. But several of the original springs in my seat tracks were broken into smaller pieces and the 40+ year old grease has turned to something resembling pitch from a pine tree. I initially tried using new springs from one of the repro companies, but the slop perpendicular to the track direction when using those new springs was simply unacceptable to me.

Gary

I rebuilt my seat tracks less than 10 years ago when I restored the vehicle. Today, when I changed to the bearings, I found the grease almost like new and the repop springs were intact. My comparison pits as-new spring setup versus as-new ball bearing setup..............a valid comparison, don'cha think. You can't compare a gummed up, seat track with broken roller springs to a renewed one of different config. Not valid. Savvy?