Lumbar Bladder Leaks

I have a slow leak in the bladder for the lower lumbar driver's side in my TC. I have a spare set of seats that have good bladders and poor upholstery. I also saw the post where they are still available from Ford.

Has anyone done the bladder replacement? If so, what is involved, how hard is it, are any special tools required, how long should it take, and is it likely that there is a leak somewhere besides the bladder itself?

Thanks.

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Mike Walsted - NATO member
1986 5-speed TurboCoupe and 1985 5-speed XR7

I removed the bladder while I did some welding on the seat frame. It's really simple and no tools other than pliers are needed. Maybe not even the pliers. You'll need and large torx socket and a 13mm socket to remove the seat back. The foam and upolstery may be sort of annoying to remove and there is a trick to removing the headrest. I found it easiest to get the headrest off by going up the back of the seat with a long screwdriver to push the little catch down. Once all the upolstery is off the bladder is nothing. Bend up a couple of metal tabs, replace bladder and bend tabs back. It will be the easiest part of the whole ordeal. I can have the seat back in the car in about 30 minutes now. The first time took about 3 hours or maybe more. The only other place that might leak that I know of would be the rubber hose that fills the bladder or possibly the connection between the two. I would definatly check the hose first just because it will be much easier.

Kevin

I've got the old seat in the middle of the garage, and have a few questions -

After unzipping the seatback cover and unclipping the clip that holds the foam over the bottom of the seatback, what else needs to be done to pull off the upholstery?

Where exactly is the clip to remove the headrest?

Is there any reason to remove the seatback, other that having more room with it out of the car?

Thanks,

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Mike Walsted - NATO member
1986 5-speed TurboCoupe and 1985 5-speed XR7

OK, you've unzipped and released the plastic clip. Pull that foam that goes under the seatback to the front side of the seat and the whole thing should loosen up a bit. You'll just need to push, pull, wiggle and curse the thing till it starts to move up the frame. It will be stubborn but it will start to loosen up.

When you can get both arms, a flashlight and a flatblade screwdriver under the upolstery in back you should be able to find the catch for the headrest. It's just a little tab that rides in the groove of the headrest bar. I THINK you pry it up to release and pull the headrest out while it is up. At any rate, when the upostery is loose you can see and feel the catch. If you have a helper it should be easy. If you're alone more cursing and go go gadget arms may be needed. It's tough to reach both at the same time. Upolstery guys can stick a screwdriver down the slot from the outside and pull a headrest off in seconds but I never could. You might give it a shot.

I'm not sure if you could do the whole deal with the seat in the car or not. IMO it would be MUCH harder that way. Get the one in your garage apart and decide for yourself if you want to try. You are correct that it is an issue of room to work.

A couple other things: the 87-88 seats have that plastic hook by the headrest to hold the seatbelt. It needs to come off. Also on the ones that I have taken apart the zipped was dryrotted and I had to be very carefull with it especially putting the thing back together. I still lost a couple teeth from the zipper but got it closed anyway.

Good luck. I have a dismanteled seat in my shed and I'll take a look at it here in a bit to refresh my memory on that latch.

Kevin

For the life of me I can't see how anybody just slides the headrest out without breakage or a special tool.

That being said, if you can slide something down the groove in the headrest post about 6 or 7 inches the headrest will slide right out. You can lift the headrest only a little in order to insert your tool. If you feel it catch that's too far.

Or just look up the inside of the seat back and release the catch. If you have long arms you'll be ok.

Kevin

huh huh huh Hey Beavis! He said "insert your tool."