GMT400 armrest adjustment

[1997chevydriver]

Hey everybody,

I have a 97 k1500 with leather seats. How do you adjust the armrest so its level not pointing at the gas pedal. Its rubbing on the ;atch for the seat belt and is actually wearing away the plastic around the buckle. thanks. Pics if needed


thanks


1997chevydriver

 

[sewlow]

Post or send me some pix. Bucket seats? Probably, if they are leather. IIRC they have spring loaded pins, on a shaft, that fit into a larger shaft with slotted holes inside the seat. Easy to assemble, but a pain to get out. The pins get a groove worn into them from where they sit against the bottom of the slots. Made worse from being leaned on. Or the pins get bent, or the slots in the seat frame gets elongated just from use. Or the shaft on the arrmrest that fits into the seat, with the spring loaded pins, gets bent. Or one of the pins gets stuck inside so it's not fitting into it's slot. Without seeing it, I'm just taking an edumacated guess. Whatever is wrong can be fixed, though.
Post back here, with some pix, so others can see the prob & the repair process & I'll try to walk you through it.

 

[1997chevydriver]

Now that I look at it from the side it dont look like its pointing down at all........

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natural resting position

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zoomed natural resting

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top of armrest twisted towards driver door

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top of armrest twisted towards pass door

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45* pushed towards p door

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45* pushed towards d door

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armrest down pulled toward d door

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armrest down pushed towards p door

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[sewlow]

Is the arm kinda loose and floppy in there? It shouldn't be able to move side to side that much. From the looks of it, I would say that the shaft coming out of the armrest may have a broken weld. Push the cover of the seat in towards the middle of the seat where the armrest shaft goes into it. A PITA to do, but once you do, you'll be able to see the spring loaded pin(s) that fit into the slots in the recieving shaft. You will probably need a flashlight to see 'em. Push it in while rotating the arm so that the pin goes past the slotted hole. A small flat screwdriver works the best for that. Once you get it to that point, pull it the armrest straight out. If you rotate the arm back & forth to get it out, more than likely the pin while end up back in the slot, & you're starting over again.
Once the arm is off, you should be able to see inside the seat where the arm was, & find out if it's the weld inside the seat that is broken or anything else that may be wrong in there. Stick your finger in there & feel around a bit.
If you can't get the armreast off this way, next thing to do is remove the cover so that you can get to the mechanism from the inside.
If it's the actual armrest internals that are bent, (the shaft should be at a right angle to the rest) put the shaft into a vice, not too tight, a give it a bend back to where you figure it should be. You may have to do a couple of test fittings, but try not to push the arm rest in all the way, otherwise your doing the removal procedure at the beginning again.
Check the spring loaded pins too, to see if the are operating properly. Sometimes they will screw up.
I don't think you should have too hard a time getting to spring loaded pins, judging by pic #2. Looks like you should have plenty of room, but it's still not a fun job the first time. Once you get it out, & see how things work in there, it makes things a little easier.
Let me know how this works out. If you have to remove the cover, that's actually easier than the armrest removal. I'll help you with that, if need be.

AL.

 

[1997chevydriver]

Yes the armrest just kinda flops around on the seat...... now these spring loaded pins your talking about..... they are not going to come flying at me are they?

 

[sewlow]

No. They are held in by a plate on the inside of the armrest shaft. The plate is only attached on one side. This is what give the pin it's spring. If it's flopping around, it could be that the pin has either fallen out of the slot, or that the plate that holds it in may have let go. If that's happened, hopefully the parts are inside the shaft on the armrest. If not, they could be inside the seat. Or under it.

 

[1997chevydriver]

Ok, thanks for your help I'll probably start working on it later this week or next week....... I'll keep ya updated

 

[sewlow]

No problem. Once you get the armrest off, you be able to get a better idea of what's going on inside there.

 

[1997chevydriver]

OK I know its been way too long since I started this thread.....

Anyways, I got the armrest off today and the pin thats attached to the armrest itself I can spin it and wobble it so I'm guessing the weld inside is busted.

The pin thats on the seat itself that sits in the groove of the armrest ( the one that stops the armrest in the down or up position) I can spin that one and wiggle it a little too.

 

[sewlow]

Seems to me that the pins should just be able to move in & out, so that they can be compressed to fit inside the tubing inside the seat. The wobbling in the little holes that they stick out of, in the armrest, could be the problem. Excessive play in there could cause the arm rest to wobble around & to sit lower than it should. those pins should be fairly snug in there. You may have to weld up & re-drill the holes. Check the reciever tubing in the seat. If, along with the loose pins, the slots that the pins fit into may have gotten stretched over the years. A little weld on the end of where the stop is for the pins could help too. That will probably involve removing the back rest cover. If you need to do that, I'll help walk you through that. Not so hard to do, as you've already done the hard part getting that armreast off!
Now that you have taken it apart, you've seen how that mechanism works. Try looking at the couple of things I've suggested, & test fit the arm rest after each try at a cure. You're gonna get good at taking it apart & putting it back together!
If you get frustrated, just think about how much you're saving by fixing it yourself. In my shop a repair such as this is done at straight time. $60.00/hr. plus materials.
Keep updating your progress, or if you have more Q's.
AL.