Play In Power Seat Track

[tracetrimble]

ran a few searches, found nothing...

the power seat in my 99 NBS has about 1/4" of play in it, and clunks forward & back while driving. pretty irritating. i'm sure i've seen it discussed on here, but can't find anything now. how can i fix this? where is the play? i'd assume it's on the ball screw... any good fixes? thanks!

[drman929]

I have that problem too and it sure would be nice to fix it...gets really old

[tracetrimble]

anyone know the fix?

should this be posted elsewhere?

[MIZ71]

I don't know the solution, but I have the same problem!

[96_bowtie]

I had this problem on my 96, it gets really anoying after a while, all i did for a quick fix was take a bolt and push down the seat and slip the bolt into the track. No more anoying noise

[dabflyboy]

i dont know if you are talking about the track, or the seat frame itself. my 2000 sometimes has the nuts and bolts come loose that hold the seat to the truck floor and i have to tighten them back down, but not often. if you mean the track is sliding back and forth a little bit, then i have no clue. if it is rocking back and forth, then just tighten down the nuts and bolts.

[Toolman]

i dont know if you are talking about the track, or the seat frame itself.

I think that it is the seat on teh track. I have the same issue on the C5 seats that I have. I am going to look into it one of these days.

[scottmoyer]

My 06 has the same problem. It doesn't appear to be the track though. With mine, it seems to be the seat back. I called the dealer and scheduled an appt. to get it fixed. I never heard this on the 40-20-40 front that I used to have. Is this only an issue on the club seats?

[LBSigMan]

My 06 has the same problem. It doesn't appear to be the track though. With mine, it seems to be the seat back. I called the dealer and scheduled an appt. to get it fixed. I never heard this on the 40-20-40 front that I used to have. Is this only an issue on the club seats?

Sorry to bring a post back from the dead, but if you happen to read this ScottMoyer, did the dealer fix your seat? I have been having this pop sound/feeling from the lumbar section of my seat on my '04 ECSB 2500HD with the 40-20-40 seats.

[scottmoyer]

No the dealer didn't fix it yet. That's the same thing I'm getting. I thought it was the plastic cover on the side of the track because I could sometimes feel it thru the plastic. However, I took the plastic cover off the other day and drove to work and it still "popped" when I would accelerate, slow down, go over train tracks, bumps in the road or turned!

[tracetrimble]

Another thread revival on this one... I'm in the middle of finally trying to fix this, and wanted to see if anyone has found the solution yet.

I pulled my driver seat out last weekend to have a look, and made the mistake of having the seat moved all the way to the back when I unplugged it, so I can't see where the play is. I checked all the obvious hardware, and it's all tight - not good. I am afraid the play is in this cast aluminum piece between the upper & lower tracks, which is essentially the "nut" that works with the threaded rod to move the seat fore & aft. It is a ball screw design, if you know what that is. This "nut" looks expensive, as well as one of those things that GM doesn't sell separately. :(

AFAIK the "popping" in the seat back is a different problem. I don't have it, but in researching my problem have read a few posts on here and www.thedieselplace.com, some of which mentioned a broken weld.

[scottmoyer]

The problem was resolved on my truck by the dealer adjusting the seat belt retractor assembly. It's much tighter now and I haven't had the popping sound since it was fixed months ago.

[paynl8]

i did a little write up when i fixed mine....might have been on gmfs. didnt have any pics so its pretty much worthless but i used a bunch of rubber o rings to fix the prob. that little "nut" thats inside a little sqare shaped thing has play because the oem plastic or whatever they used to insulate the "nut" is gone. tell me if that makes any sense at all....

[navihawk]

I have play in my 05.I feel it on acceleration, but not braking. Only seems to do it once in a while.

[82ndCowboy]

I had this same problem on my 99 Z71 with power seats. Payinl8 is correct.
Between the tracks there is a worm screw that has a square nut on it. The braket that strattles the nut is supposed to have some kind of bushing surrounding the nut but it was totally gone on my passenger seat. Good luck, in finding a bushing or seat track. Alls I could find was everyone telling me to buy a new seat. I couldn't find the bushing, the track or just the seat frame. Every one told me to go to a junk yard.
One Sunday I was bored, so I decided to takle it myself. It was a chore to get the tracks apart. But I ground off the rear track stops and seperated the tracks. Took the worm screw out with the nut and bracket. Then I took 4 washers that fit over the worm screw and squared them off and wedged them into the braket on both sides of the nut. Then put it all back together.
Some tips if you guys want to try this yourselves.
Be careful when you take the tracks apart, there are ball bearings in the tracks that will fall out when you take them apart. If you do it carefully you can catch them as they roll out. They can be put back in as you slide the track back together. There are 3in front and 3 in back on both sides of the tracks.
It is a lil difficult to get the worm screw nut and bracket out of the tracks. I found the trick was to turn the seat over in the door of the truck so I could connect the wiring to the seat with it upside down and that way I could move the braket with the controls on the seat. Make sure when you put it back together the brakets are lined up on both tracks, I did it by manually screwing the nuts down to the stops on each side.
And if you use washers make sure they are not protruding outside the aluminum braket that surrounds the nut.Otherwise when you try to get it back together the washers will get hung up inside the tracks, as there is very little clearance inside the tracks.

[tracetrimble]

Well, I fixed my driver side seat the other night. 82ndcowboy is right about everything and saved me a lot of time, but I was able to get the screw drive mechanism out of the tracks without separating the tracks. Move the tracks all the way forward on the seat, and on each side you'll see a ~11mm male Torx head at the rear of the track that holds the threaded rod rear bracket (this bracket also has a couple brass bushings). Remove that and the two smaller male Torx head bolts on the bottom of the track assembly near the middle, and the whole screw drive assembly will slide out the rear of the track.

One more thing, one of the screw drives is lefthand thread, and one is righthand. Pay attention to which one goes on which side, or the seat will move the wrong direction with the switch. IIRC, the LH thread goes on the RH side of the seat.

I believe what causes the problem in the first place is that GM put a rubber isolator around the square nut to quiet or make it run smoother, but the grease they put on the mechanism eats up the rubber.

[82ndCowboy]

Yeah... there was no rubber in my passenger seat at all. It was just a grimmy goo.
Wish I had been a little more patient on mine. I just went straight for the juggler and seperated the tracks.
But all is well it's working fine now

[blubberbutt]

I just bought a '97 GMC Sierra a couple of days ago & not only does it have the awful play in the track (which results in an annoying pop/click) but the actual power seat is shot ... it won't move in any direction. I too have been unsuccessful in locating any parts ... new or used. Is there anyway to just completely get rid of this power crap & go back to an old school manual setup (just like the passenger side on my truck)?

[82ndCowboy]

Junk yard or Ebay for seat tracks and sub frame is probably going to your best bet.