Seat mount threads question...help!

[Viper Driver]

I think that I've finally found a sign of the workers in Tochigi being human after all. I believe that the two rearward seat mount threads (the female part in the floor of the car) are installed backwards in the passenger side of the car. I had originally had a lot of problems getting the Taitec rails to fit in the passenger side, and had attributed it to poor Taitec quality control. Now that I'm having the exact same fitment problems with a Comptech harness bar, I'm beginning to think that the factory installed the threaded tabs the wrong way.

For those of you not familiar with these threads, they are on one side of an oval-shaped tab that is either welded to the floor or is held in somehow. Use your imagination, and (looking straight down) they look like this on the floor:

(O ) (O )

-Both sets of threads are outboard on the passenger side of my car.

Based on all my fitment problems, and where the harness bar / seat rails line up to, I think that they SHOULD look like this in a normal NSX:

( O) ( O)

-Both sets of threads inboard.

Now, my question to anyone who can help.....is there a way to remove these tabs and turn them around so they are in the right orientation? It's either this or all of my aftermarket stuff is going to require extensive modification to fit right. After using lots of muscular persuasion to no avail, I have no idea how I'm going to get the harness bar to fit.

ANY help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Chuck

 

[Viper Driver]

Also, I do have a copy of the service manual and I'm not finding the info I'm looking for. If someone knows the page/section where these tabs are specifically listed, then that might help too!

 

[tucsonsx]

The threads in my car are as you describe so either the same guy was on the line making the same mistake ( which is not unheard of ) or the placement of these pieces is correct. I guess the next question would be - how did the OEM seats fit? My guess is that both aftermarket pieces have the same problem - you might try calling the manufacturer and see what they say. I have absolutely zero experience with either of these two manufacturers, but I have had other aftermarket manufacturers say " Yeah that happens - just send them back " when these sorts of problems arise.

 

[Larry Bastanza]

Chuck,

I may be wrong here, but I thought the threaded pieces you are refering to floated inside a slot, so they would purposely move around. I wonder if at some point the seat mounting bolts were overtightened and the slots the threaded parts float in are now crushed. I would remove the seat and have a look.

Let us know what you find.

HTH,
LarryB

 

[Viper Driver]

Larry-

I read your post and immediately jumped up and out into the garage, removed the seat, and.....nope. I couldn't get the threads to slide anywhere. They do move around a MM or two pretty freely, but the metal bar above them does not budge at all.

I took some pictures, just so we can all be on the same page. This is pretty frustrating!

In this picture, it is looking down on the mounting holes toward the back of the car. The female bolt holes are on the left side of the two oval cutouts, ie. toward the outboard side of the car. The Taitec seat rails and the Comptech harness bar would fit perfectly if the holes were on the INBOARD side of these oval cutouts.

 

[Viper Driver]

Another closeup of the outboard passenger side hole. (the flash makes this hole look all screwed up.....it's actually oval-shaped)

 

[Viper Driver]

And finally, this is how the harness bar lines up with the hole. Note that it's right over the top of the inboard side of the "oval." The TAITEC seat rails also line up perfectly in these spots, too.

As for the stock seats and their fitment, I only removed them to put in the Sparco seats. I didn't have to put them back in, so I don't know if they line up or not with the current hole locations.

 

[ncdogdoc]

I have no experience with the Taitec rails, but do have a Comptech bar in the track rat until a cage is built. My Comptech bar can slide over both rear seat openings, but you do have to wiggle, play, cuss, etc to make it happen. My threaded pieces do float as Larry suggests. I wonder if yours have granular, sandy, or just plain dirt material in there that has created a binding action.

For comparison, I have Sparco seat mounts, and the driver's side fits great with the Comptech harness bar, but the passenger side does not. It did not really fit without the bar either. I had to enlarge the hole to connect the bolt through both items. But the Sparco seat specifically says Driver, and there is no part number for a "passenger" mount.

 

[Viper Driver]

Do the threads merely wiggle around underneath the metal plate on top of them, or does the whole assembly slide back and forth inside of that oval-shaped cutout? (ie., d you have the capability to move the threaded hole about 1/2" to the inboard side of the car?)

Thanks!

 

[Larry Bastanza]

WOW,

That is pretty far off. I have installed or seen installed many Dali/Comptech harness bars and never saw anything like this.

I would not think the after market parts would be off unless they were a new design, with a new jig, since most of these parts have been around for years, but go figure?.

tucsonsx,

Did you get a replacement from the vendor and all was well??

Got to sleep on this one.

OK, One more thought. Are you saying that the holes are correct center to center, but if you bolt up one side the entire other side is off?? Is your bar one piece??

LarryB

 

[Viper Driver]

Yes, center to center they seem to line up just fine. If I could move BOTH holes about 1/2" to the inboard side of the car, then both should line up with where the Comptech bar wants to bolt in.

The Comptech bar is four-piece- two upper horizontal b-pillar mounted bars, and two 2-bar vertical floor mounts.

Chuck

 

[tucsonsx]

To Larry Bastanza;

The aftermarket supplier sent me my money back; I think the problem came down to the fact that Porsche did not freeze production for the model year; in other words some components were supplied by different suppliers during the model year and did not necessarily interchange ( and, as was frustratingly common, parts books and VINS had only a fleeting resemblance to reality ). If your car was one of the few using the less common supplier it wasn't worth it to the aftermarket manufacturer to make parts for a very few cars. I have not run into this problem with my Hondas, but I have with my Toyota. BTW your DIY insights are invaluable to those of new to NSXland - keep em coming !!!

At least in my car the passenger seat actually sits closer to the longitudinal on the passenger side than on the driver's side; undoubtedly due to the location of the nut plates ( which I believe are free to float an mm or two to make up for manufacturing tolerences in the seat ).

I think ncdogdoc has solved the problem - the parts are for the driver's side of the car.

 

[Eddy]

for RHD perhaps?

Could there have been a mistake in the seat rail that "driver" means driver side for a Japanese NSX?

If the nut tabs are offset, it would probably be symetrical for both "left" and "right" so if your rail doesn't fit the "left" side (our driver side) perhaps it was made for the "right" side (their driver side)?

After all, Taitec is a Japanese company.

Eddy

 

[ScienceofSpeed]

Re: for RHD perhaps?

The left and right rails work properly on a LHD US market NSX. The only difference is the inner lever is longer to compensate for the high center console. You can identify the left and right by these Japanese characters on the rails (you need Japanese language pack installed to see this):

�¶ = left
‰E = right

Sometimes the floating nuts become stuck. Use a little lubrication to free them to allow them to float. Between the slotted hole on the rails, and the floating nuts, install should be cake.

Let us know if you need any help with install.

Cheers,
-- Chris

 

[Vytas]

I installed a Comptech harness bar in my '91 without any problems. I just positioned the bar and bolts provided by Comptech screwed into the existing holes. The bar was installed about four years ago and having checked it a while ago, it's solidly mounted in place. Hope you get your problem resolved.

 

[Viper Driver]

Just an update on the harness debacle.........

I ended up removing everything again and started over with the install. This time, I wanted to install the harness bar only first and leave the seats out of the equation, so I would have more room to move around.

At first, everything went back in the same, and there still appeared to be something off at the passenger side seat bolts. Then, I started concentrating on the B-pillar area to see if everything up there was lining up. Sure enough, there was some material from the b-pillar panel that was wedging itself between the harness bar and the seat belt mouting bolt. I took the panel off and did some dremel work on the panel to open it up some more, and viola! Everything lined up perfectly and I had the harness bar installed in less than an hour after that.

My issue is still with the passenger side seat rails. They took quite a bit of modification to the rear mounting holes (about 1/2") to get them to fit properly. There was no way in hell they would have lined up right without doing this. So, I'm glad to report that the car is fine, the harness bar is fine, and (with mods) the seats are back in and doing fine as well.

With the harnesses holding me in and the Sparco Roadsters underneath me, I can really feel a lot more of the subtle behavior of the car that I didn't before. I can now tell exactly when the tires are beginning to give way, and react that much quicker. I think these harnesses/seats may end up in the long run being the fastest mod I've done to my NSX for Solo II autocross (besides racing tires.) I can't wait until next season now!

Chuck