Removing armrest from seat

[Rileysowner]

Yeah, well I have a funny feeling that after yiou've "fixed" the wife's brakes, you'll be able to afford having someone else wrench on your truck...
I have my eye on you, Riley

I'm rooting for you. I hope you don't give up like I was inclined to many times, and pay someone else to wrench on your truck.

And Peter that funny feeling you have probably has something to do with " that gang of gay vampire boys that spanked you with wet poodles!!"

Thanks Trybe. This brake job is the biggest thing I have attempted, and while I was pretty daunted at the start, once I started taking things apart I realized it isn't much more complicated than taking apart and rebuilding a computer. The one stuck slider on the caliper is a challenge though. I have gotten it to move, but all that ever shows up is more rusty slider. I will keep trying to get it out for a while, but I am thinking that with that much rust on the slider, I will probably not be able to get it out without taking the caliper off the car. Even then I may not be able to get it out. Priced out a rebuild caliper and they run around $100 up here in Canada, so that might be the route I go. The other side looks much better than the one I am working on, so when I do it, I will make sure I grease up the caliper sliders with a good quality caliper grease. I might even make it an annual thing to check and re-grease them just to avoid this.

To Peter:

[Merlin]

I found that if you take the cover off of the seat you can get to the inner part of the arm rest and pop it out. Only way I could do it. It pops right back in but getting it out is a trick. Once you have the arm rest off and the seat cover off you can pop the arm rest back in and cover the seat with out the arm rest showing, just secure the arm rest on the seat, that way the seat looks like it doesn't have the arm rest. I saw this in one of my Hot rod magazines and it worked for me. I have a set of Astro van seats in my 30 Chevy and I cut the top of the seat down and did the arm rest trick and it looks good, ok in my opinion anyway. LOL Good Luck.

[Rileysowner]

Thanks Merlin. I tried to find the plastic things the Blazer mentioned, but although I can get my fingers into the channel, and even see into it, I don't see or feel anything there. It looks like a channel cut out by a router or something to guide the arm rest, but it is solid wood at both ends of the channel. I may try getting into the seat, but since my wife leaves tomorrow for the weekend with the van, I will be without it and cannot try it out until she gets back next week.

[lockdoc]

Sorry I'm late but all you have to do is bang the armrest in and push it back at the same time. Then wiggle it off. It's very easy once you do it. It will go back past it's normal up position about and inch or two.

It's funny, when I was with Witman40 at the junkyard I decided to show him how to take them off for no apparent reason while we were there. Just to show one of the secrets I had uncovered.

[Rileysowner]

I will try that again Bill, but it doesn't seem to work at all. I may not be the strongest person out there, but I have thrown all of my considerable weight into pushing it in and back, and it doesn't move. Looking at what I can see of how it is set up, the arm-rest has its pivot point, and a chanel in the arm that has a peg in it that keeps the arm rest from going too far up or too far down. The wife has the van for the weekend, so until she gets back I can't try again.

[lockdoc]

Don't push, BANG! I take my left hand and hold the armrest pulling it back slightly. Then I take my right fist or palm and bang it in. Pushing didn't work well for me either.

[Rileysowner]

Ok, I will try hitting it (I was going to say banging it, but Peter is here now) to see what happens.

So exactly what does the banging do? I am just curious what exactly is happening when the armrest is banged to get it past that little peg that keeps it from going further back. Does the peg get pushed into the seat like some sort of button or what? Sorry, I am just curious since I don't have the van here

[lockdoc]

Ok, I was WRONG. Just tried my 97 seats they are different. According to the GM manuals:

1.Disconnect the J-hook at the bottom of the seat back as follows:
a) Fully recline the seat back.
b) Disconnect the hook-and-loop fasteners at the bottom edges of the side bolsters.

2. Reach inside the seat. Remove the clip retaining the armrest to the seat frame.

3. Slide the armrest assembly out of the seat frame.

According to the pics the clip is a larger version of the kind of clip that holds the older GM door\window handles.

[trybe13]

[Rileysowner]

I'm glad you caught that before I started beating up the seats in my van

They have to make things difficult don't they. That sounds like a wonderfully inconvenient way to remove armrests. It especially sounds uncomfortable to put them back in.

[lockdoc]

I added a pic to my above post for ya.

[Rileysowner]

Thanks. That makes much more sense

[peter]

So much for age-old limey addage "When in doubt, give it a clout"

[v8famvan]

Next time, I will take the time to read ALL the posts & pay more attention to the year, because I could have told you this when you started this.
One of the areas that I specialize in at work is interior trim, which includes seats. Sorry I was not there for you.

[Rileysowner]

Hey James, it happens. Since I can't get at the seats right now anyway, it isn't like have been able to get to them anyway.