Yes, I did that about 2 years ago to mine (although at the time it was my Mom's car). Its holding up just fine, in fact, its holding up well enough to where I had completely forgotten about doing that until this post jogged my memory a little.

 

How much was the manuel rack? My power seat went off it's track or something and I don't care for power seats anyways.

 

Yes, I did that about 2 years ago to mine (although at the time it was my Mom's car). Its holding up just fine, in fact, its holding up well enough to where I had completely forgotten about doing that until this post jogged my memory a little.

Where it snapped is right at the dogleg bend stamped into the link. Suspect that bending/stamping operation caused a stress riser, and the bulk (no pun intended) of your weight is on the rear two links.

Oh yeah, if anyone is wondering, the link is right next to the aluminum rails, so welding will be tricky beyond the single side weld issue. Figure I will grind a bevel on the two halves to allow some penetration.

I3oostedCubes - Price was $35 for driver side rack, suposedly in stock.

 

Where it snapped is right at the dogleg bend stamped into the link. Suspect that bending/stamping operation caused a stress riser, and the bulk (no pun intended) of your weight is on the rear two links.

Thats exactly where it broke in mine as well.

 

just note that if you are a tall guy, you will want to do what you can to position the seat on the manual track as far back as you can. You can use two extra holes (and need to tap two more) to gain an inch or so over the stock bolt position, or drill and tap 4 holes to try and get it as far back as you can. I swapped from power to manual and am 6' and I am not real comfy. the power seat went WAY further back.

good luck.

 

I just had mine welded, it takes like 5 minutes to remove the seat from the car. Just put the seat on it's side and get someone to hold everything in place and tack it. Then run a small bead in the top side. I wouldn't recommed you bevel it and weld it all the way through like that, you may end up with too much material on the bottom and the seat won't go up and down.

I drove my car with the seat like that for a while and my back started hurting after long drives, sure does make a big difference in comfort when you fix it!

 

just note that if you are a tall guy, you will want to do what you can to position the seat on the manual track as far back as you can. You can use two extra holes (and need to tap two more) to gain an inch or so over the stock bolt position, or drill and tap 4 holes to try and get it as far back as you can. I swapped from power to manual and am 6' and I am not real comfy. the power seat went WAY further back.

I had to move the seat back with the *power* rack 10 years ago. Could not stand banging my knees on the steering wheel and driving bowlegged. Was ready to dump the car for something with legroom. Occurred to me there might be a solution under the seat and there was. My original fix was extra holes in the aluminum rails to pick up available holes. This move it back about 3/4" which was like night and day. A few years ago went ahead and did the tapping of the normally spaced mounts and got the full 1 1/2". Now I have to move the seat up a bit from full rearward.

Odd that the manual rack is worse than the power...........

 

Just put the seat on it's side and get someone to hold everything in place and tack it. Then run a small bead in the top side. I wouldn't recommed you bevel it and weld it all the way through like that, you may end up with too much material on the bottom and the seat won't go up and down.

I'm not a welder, but understand the process. Thought there might not be sufficient penetration of the weld through the cracked joint and just leave weld material on the outside, not very strong for lateral movement, which I think caused the break.

 

You'll still get good penetration if the welder is set correctly. You won't just have weld material sitting on top, it will get down into the crack and fuse the pieces together. All I'm saying is that if you bevel the pieces, you may be too low with your weld and might cause a problem.

I actually had to fix mine twice. The first time it was welded, it was like you said, material "On Top". Worked for like a month then a nice "Smooth" railroad track broke the weld. Then I had a friend grind it down and weld it the right way and you could see that it was fused together nicely.

 

Well, got the rack welded up. We could see the problem once the rack was off the seat: when fully lowered, the rear link is just about horizontal, so the stress on it is a bending force, and it ripped in half. It was evident that the tearing had been going on for some time as the edges did not match up at all. It's welded, but I will not put it back in the car until I sell it. Got the manual rack bolted in now, never needed the whizbang power crap anyway.

The seat with manual rack does sit a bit lower, so even though it does not go back as far as the modified power rack, my knees don't hit the steering wheel going from gas to brake, or to the clutch. Moving it back more will require a different technique than the power rack, but it could be done if needed. I'll leave it alone for now and see how it feels.

You 200lb+ guys with the power seat lowered all the way really ought to take a look at that rear link(s). Hard to believe only two of us have run into this.

Edit: Three have run into this, still not many, suspect others are nearing the breaking point............