Heated electric reclining rear seat exposed.

[ALV148]

To remove my rear struts to replace the gaiters I have to remove my rear seat.

Nobody seems to know how to remove an electric reclining rear seat so here is how I did it.

This is how the seat works.



This is the seat in the vertical position - it is controlled by the front of the two switches in each rear door. The rearmost switch controls the window on that side and the front one controls the seat. The orange switch in it's own housing on the B-pillar is a two position switch for the rear seat heater on that side.



This is the seat back at full recline.



The seat squab is bolted at three places on it's leading edge this picture shows two of those bolt holes



The central runner carries the motor and all three are bolted to the leading edge of the base of the seat squab.



The two outer runners have the bottom of the seat back screwed into their rears with a hinge on the base of the seat back.



This view shows the rear of the seat back with hinges visible on the bottom edge and locating lugs visible on the upper rear below the headrest positions.



This view shows a slightly out of focus view of the brackets on the rear firewall which allow the top of the seat back to both rotate as well as fall vertically as the seat reclines. What is not clear is that there is a restriction at the bottom of the bracket so that the seat back cannot fall vertically past a certain point but must be lifted vertically for it to be disengaged and the seat back removed from the car.



This trim piece normally sits level with the top of the seat back and had to be unscrewed at it's three self tappers to give enough vertical clearance to disengage the seat back from it's bracket. The amount of gap visible in the picture demonstrates the amount of vertical movement allowed by the upper bracket mechanism.

It's a bit of an odyssey but may be interesting to somebody - took me about an hour to work out and get it all out of the car.

Whoever last put it in marked the right rear scuff plate - that will be another job to get that tidied up.

Bill

Hi Bill
I'm trying to take out my electric reseats and follow out description. But I thin the post is so old all the photos have now gone?? My electric motor / seats are not working so they are in the most upright position ( I think)
I've undone the 3 front bolts but the seat base doesn't seam to move. How do I remove please?

[daantjie]

You'll have to start a new thread with pics of your progress if possible.
This was a rare option so info is limited.

[nathan]

Hi Alv,

Unfortunately our friend WGB has since passed away.

Many of his pics were uploaded to external sites and linked and now are not accessible.

[nathan]

I knew I had this stuff somewhere, attached is the service update from 1978 when the electric seat option came out.  I hope the pics are of help to some

[ALV148]

Thanks Nathan
Thanks that a really great piece of info.
Great post

Lee

[nathan]

no worries Alv.  I just saw your car list, you got me trumped I reckon.  Here in Australia we cant get AMG wagens since the 212, and I desperately wanted one for my wife.  That and the SLS, my eyes are open on this one in the local market!