Technical How to fix your folding seats for less than 10p

[taxi13]

I bought a Ulysse a few weeks ago and found that neither of the outer middle row seats rolled up to allow access to the back seats.

Although the seats folded down easily, with an audible click, they did not roll forward. So, to get to the rear seats you had to climb over the folded seat, or had to reach right under the seat and release the bar holding the back legs onto the track. Saw Clicky had the same problem in another thread, so it is probably fairly common.

I took the seats out and found that the sheathing around the cables had shredded and was not allowing the inner cable to function properly. New cables are quite expensive so I looked at how to fix the ones I had. It turned out to be quite easy.

This is what to do.

Take out the seat and turn it upside down. You will see the cable going from one back corner, around the base of the seat and to then to the other back corner. There are different shaped metal lugs at each end of the inner cable located into holes on the seat. The curved lug, at one end, just needs to be pushed out of its hole. The other end needs turning 90˚ before it lifts out.
On each end of the outer cable sheathing are plastic grommets, about 15mm long, which are held onto the seat base by push-fit retainers. These grommets need to be pulled out of their retainer, or prised out with a screwdriver. Be careful not to damage them. Once these are out, the complete cable will be free.

Find the first good bit of the sheathing below the shredded part and cut round the outer plastic to form a new end. You will probably have about 20 thin wires poking out (plus the inner cable). Take each thin wire individually and wiggle it at your new cut and you will find that, they break off easily. Finally strip the blue plastic covering, on the inner cable, back to your new end.
You can now slide the grommet down onto the new cut end. Of course, the inner cable will now be far too long. So, at the end of the cable with the curved lug you need to cut off the metal stop at the very end of the inner cable.

Now you will need a one bit of electrical connector block (also known as terminal block or choc block) about 15amp size will do.

Slide the choc block down the inner cable until the distance from the front of the choc block back to the end of the cable is the same length as the thin wire pieces you broke off earlier. Tighten both screws of the block. They need to be really tight to stop slippage (don’t forget to make sure that, the metal lug is on the cable between the block and the grommet). You can loop the end of the cable round and screw it into the back of the block connector.

Now replace the cable (the reverse of above). Make sure the cable loop is protruding through the slot in the seat. If you tuck it up neatly inside the seat, the lug can slip out of its holder. A plastic tie will cure this.

Replace the seat and it should now roll forward! It took me about an hour to do both seats.

The length of the outer cable is not important. What is important is the length of the inner cable. So if the seat still doesn’t work properly or works intermittently, try shortening the inner cable by moving the electrical block a few millimetres closer towards the grommet.

I did this three weeks ago and both my seats are still working fine.

 

[cliky]

I bought a Ulysse a few weeks ago and found that neither of the outer middle row seats rolled up to allow access to the back seats.

Although the seats folded down easily, with an audible click, they did not roll forward. So, to get to the rear seats you had to climb over the folded seat, or had to reach right under the seat and release the bar holding the back legs onto the track. Saw Clicky had the same problem in another thread, so it is probably fairly common.

I took the seats out and found that the sheathing around the cables had shredded and was not allowing the inner cable to function properly. New cables are quite expensive so I looked at how to fix the ones I had. It turned out to be quite easy.

This is what to do.

Take out the seat and turn it upside down. You will see the cable going from one back corner, around the base of the seat and to then to the other back corner. There are different shaped metal lugs at each end of the inner cable located into holes on the seat. The curved lug, at one end, just needs to be pushed out of its hole. The other end needs turning 90˚ before it lifts out.
On each end of the outer cable sheathing are plastic grommets, about 15mm long, which are held onto the seat base by push-fit retainers. These grommets need to be pulled out of their retainer, or prised out with a screwdriver. Be careful not to damage them. Once these are out, the complete cable will be free.

Find the first good bit of the sheathing below the shredded part and cut round the outer plastic to form a new end. You will probably have about 20 thin wires poking out (plus the inner cable). Take each thin wire individually and wiggle it at your new cut and you will find that, they break off easily. Finally strip the blue plastic covering, on the inner cable, back to your new end.
You can now slide the grommet down onto the new cut end. Of course, the inner cable will now be far too long. So, at the end of the cable with the curved lug you need to cut off the metal stop at the very end of the inner cable.

Now you will need a one bit of electrical connector block (also known as terminal block or choc block) about 15amp size will do.

Slide the choc block down the inner cable until the distance from the front of the choc block back to the end of the cable is the same length as the thin wire pieces you broke off earlier. Tighten both screws of the block. They need to be really tight to stop slippage (don’t forget to make sure that, the metal lug is on the cable between the block and the grommet). You can loop the end of the cable round and screw it into the back of the block connector.

Now replace the cable (the reverse of above). Make sure the cable loop is protruding through the slot in the seat. If you tuck it up neatly inside the seat, the lug can slip out of its holder. A plastic tie will cure this.

Replace the seat and it should now roll forward! It took me about an hour to do both seats.

The length of the outer cable is not important. What is important is the length of the inner cable. So if the seat still doesn’t work properly or works intermittently, try shortening the inner cable by moving the electrical block a few millimetres closer towards the grommet.

I did this three weeks ago and both my seats are still working fine.

Yep I thought of exactly the same thing!
However I was at the scrappers so i just got one whilst i was there.
Didn't realistically cost me anything as it was 'in' with the other stuff I got.

Having swopped mine over seat works fine However the end of the sleeving still pops out of the grommet which over time will lead to more fraying of cable end! (design flaw!).

I'm off to my local bicycle shop tomorrow to see if they do a brake cable of comparable length.
At least a brake cable will have a metal end cap to negate the 'unspirraling of the outer sheath!

I'll also be glueing both ends of the outer sheaths in to the grommets!

I'll try and get some piccies up later this week.