Passenger seat stuck in full recline position , preventing removal of the seat.

[Tarponhuntr]

So , I've searched and found all of the answers needed to repair my twisted seat dilemma. However , I have one issue that I never considered.
With the seat stuck in the "full recline" position , I am not able to slide the seat far enough back to gain access to the front mounting bolts holding the seat in the car.
Try as I may , I cannot even see the front two bolts. I can slide the seat forward and plainly see the rears , but at the moment , I am current up the proverbial fecal estuary without mode of propulsion on removing the front mounting bolts , thus thwarting any effort of repairing the twist.

Is there any way of performing the repair while the seat is still fully attached to the car , or a way of perhaps manually raising the seat enough to allow the seat to move rearward enough to gain access to the front bolts?

Just for clarification , with the seat reclined to the maximum, when you slide it rearward, the rear seat prevents the front from moving completely to the furthest rearward position , thus preventing access to the front mounting bolts.

[TheStigg]

The front "bolts" are hooks.

seat1b.jpg

Can you get the rear bolts out? Can you slide it forward enough to remove the rear seat bottom to get more room to access the rear bolts?

If you have access to remove the rear cover of the seat back, you can remove the seat back and then you'll be able to get the seat out.
http://www.nmia.com/~dgnrg/page_11.htm

[Tarponhuntr]

Very old update.
I was unable to gain access to the rear bolts , not even a little. However , with some pilates , a cold beer and some gymnastics , I was able to get the motors removed while the seat was still in the car.
After an hour of fiddling and fidgeting I was able to remove the cables from the motors and chuck the shaft into my drill and return the seat to the neutral position.

Still waiting to finish the final repair. I think I'll remove the seat for that.

[shogun]

In such a case: move the seat with a screwdriver or drill backwards or forward. See the workshop manual. You have to remove the cover of the seat memory module from the front of the driver seat, there is a plastic cover.
Then you should see the motor and the potentiometer, can use a minus 4 mm driver. Others says use a drill with extension and a torx bit.

[Tarponhuntr]

In such a case: move the seat with a screwdriver or drill backwards or forward. See the workshop manual. You have to remove the cover of the seat memory module from the front of the driver seat, there is a plastic cover.
Then you should see the motor and the potentiometer, can use a minus 4 mm driver. Others says use a drill with extension and a torx bit.

Shogun ,

I've got her back into a comfortable riding position following the guides here. Now all that is left , is to trim the sleeves and reattach them. However , with it being nearly 100 degrees here for the next month or so , I believe I'll wait until later in the year to complete the operation.

[Peter Coomarasw]

Sorry to hijack thread, I'm trying to remove the front seat (driver side) so I can fix the "twist" there seem to be some funky bolts holding the seats down and I need to purchase the correct socket. Does anyone know the size (1988 e32 735i)

Thanks

[shogun]

see pic 2 http://infinitier.ddo.jp/e32/page/mainte/mainte_047.htm

[Peter Coomarasw]

Found it thanks,

This is all new to me, I took the seat out and I guess it has memory so it was a bit more complex, very little room but the bottom line is that I did pull the cables out, inspected them and re-greased them, put them back and now when I move the seat back it wants to twist really bad so I guess I really screwed something up. Is there a way to re-set everything? I know it's probably in the write up but... well I'm a little lost.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[shogun]

SMM = seat and mirror momory training manual for download http://www.e38.org/e32/BMW_pdfs/smm.pdf