Broken Captain Chair Arm Rest

[Jonwid]

The driver's seat right side arm rest height adjuster isn't working in our 03 GLS. The dial mechanism is broken inside and the arm just hangs down. I keep the main allen bolt tight in all the arms and don't let them get too floppy ever. So I don't know how the arm adjuster could've been broken.

Anyone ever fix one of these chair arm rests?

[boostin20v]

You can buy metal brackets to fix the arm rests, they can be found a lot of places and pretty cheap.

http://www.gowesty.com/product-details.php?id=23365

[Jonwid]

[DenverB]

If i understand you correctly, the answer is no. the problem is the metal tumbler in the armrest has a little tab that locks it in place and it's come dislodged. I have one like this I just pulled off a van and am trying to figure out the best way to get it back into place. I'll get photos up on Monday if I can
_________________
-------
'77 Transporter/camper (Bussy - Reef Blue/Pastel White)
'67 bug (Santos - VW Blue)
'84 Vanagon Westfalia (Pink Flamingo - Pastel White/Pink)
'88 Vanagon GL Westfalia (Frankie Says - Wolfram Gray)
'02 Eurovan Weekender (Green Apple)
'95-'03 Eurovan full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'84 -'91 Vanagon full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'72 Porsche 914 (Greta - RIP)

www.RockyMountainCampervans.com

[Jonwid]

[DenverB]

_________________
-------
'77 Transporter/camper (Bussy - Reef Blue/Pastel White)
'67 bug (Santos - VW Blue)
'84 Vanagon Westfalia (Pink Flamingo - Pastel White/Pink)
'88 Vanagon GL Westfalia (Frankie Says - Wolfram Gray)
'02 Eurovan Weekender (Green Apple)
'95-'03 Eurovan full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'84 -'91 Vanagon full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'72 Porsche 914 (Greta - RIP)

www.RockyMountainCampervans.com

[DenverB]

Have not yet figured out how to get that big metal Tumblr back into the armrest with the little tab going back into the slot. I also haven't spent much time trying to figure it out.

The last two shots are of the armrest fix that go Westy sells if the little cast piece you have is broken
_________________
-------
'77 Transporter/camper (Bussy - Reef Blue/Pastel White)
'67 bug (Santos - VW Blue)
'84 Vanagon Westfalia (Pink Flamingo - Pastel White/Pink)
'88 Vanagon GL Westfalia (Frankie Says - Wolfram Gray)
'02 Eurovan Weekender (Green Apple)
'95-'03 Eurovan full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'84 -'91 Vanagon full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'72 Porsche 914 (Greta - RIP)

www.RockyMountainCampervans.com

[Jonwid]

Cool. Thanks for sharing these pix. I'm going to take the arm off this afternoon and check for the sheared off tab first before I attempt to go in after the tumbler. That thing looks kind of mysterious, maybe better not to take it out, eh?

I got over-excited originally and I ordered a couple of the Go-Westy do-hickie brackets. Funny thing is, though, it feels like the arm height adjuster mechanism is working internally, but it's like there's just nothing holding the arm in place externally, so that's why I figured it might be that external tab that kind of holds the position in place relative to the seat back while the internal mechanism shifts. But, obviously, your external tab was broken and the Go-Westy didn't solve it.

Anyway, I'll report how it goes.

[Jonwid]

So, I found this inside the chair when I took off the armrest.

I'm guessing that's the cause of the arm not staying put.

Time for some JB Weld, I guess. The Go Westy bracket thingy hasn't arrived in the mail yet, so I've got time.

[gakali]

I glued the Gowesty repair bracket to my armrest part to ease installation. Clamped them together with a nut and bold through the hole and let it sit overnight.

If you were to JB weld all the bits together along with the new brackets she'd be bullet proof. The brackets are shaped in such a way that they would hold the whole mess together.
_________________
Why do it? Because you can.

1999 Eurovan
2003 A4 Avant 1.8T Quattro
1992 W201 190e 2.3 Mercedes
2006 W220 S600 V12 Twin Turbo 5.5 Mercedes

[DenverB]

solid. that's the advice i would have given. I"ve had a few of those cast pieces turn to garbage like that one you posted... it's rough. but glue keeps them all together and prevents and further wiggling in there.

solid.
_________________
-------
'77 Transporter/camper (Bussy - Reef Blue/Pastel White)
'67 bug (Santos - VW Blue)
'84 Vanagon Westfalia (Pink Flamingo - Pastel White/Pink)
'88 Vanagon GL Westfalia (Frankie Says - Wolfram Gray)
'02 Eurovan Weekender (Green Apple)
'95-'03 Eurovan full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'84 -'91 Vanagon full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'72 Porsche 914 (Greta - RIP)

www.RockyMountainCampervans.com

[jjvincent]

One thing I found that keeps that will extend the life of that cast piece is to take the cast part of the aluminum that sticks up through the stock steel part is to drill it out, tap it with a 10-32 and loctite in a short button head bolt. It won't cure the breaking forever but it does make it last way longer.

[DenverB]

nice. good tip
_________________
-------
'77 Transporter/camper (Bussy - Reef Blue/Pastel White)
'67 bug (Santos - VW Blue)
'84 Vanagon Westfalia (Pink Flamingo - Pastel White/Pink)
'88 Vanagon GL Westfalia (Frankie Says - Wolfram Gray)
'02 Eurovan Weekender (Green Apple)
'95-'03 Eurovan full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'84 -'91 Vanagon full campers and weekenders (rental fleet)
'72 Porsche 914 (Greta - RIP)

www.RockyMountainCampervans.com

[IdeaNerd]

We've got a few of these to fix in our Weekender. Thanks all for posting on this subject. I have a feeling it will save me considerable headaches!

[Jonwid]

The fix appears to be successful. The arm is back on and is solid and adjustable, just like new.

Here we are getting ready. JB (HF) Weld. Masking tape. Instructions.

All prepped and ready to glue, er, "weld."

Welded up one side with a big fillet.

Welded up the other side with another big fillet.

Welding is set and ready to add the new bracket welding.

Here it is all set and ready to mount back on the chair.

Only thing is, you lose a bit of length on the mounting bolt, but there's not that much "meat" available for the threaded mounting hole anyway. So a longer mounting bolt wouldn't really help, I guess.

Anyway, the fix feels very solid. Our driving elbows are thankful.

[ludogg]

Hi guys

Great info but I think i may have another issue. I had installed the GoWesty brackets a couple years ago and my arm rest was great but had gotten loose again so I thought I just needed to tighten the screw that attaches the armrest to the seat.

However, it seemed tight so I thought I would take it out to take a look at it. Now it seems the screw has nothing to screw into, like the threads in the seat are broken or fell or something. So I can't attach the armrest anymore .

Are you saying welded the entire armrest to the seat or just the gowesty bracket to the armrest, if that makes sense. Im not sure how I will be able to fix this one!

[ludogg]

Here are a couple pictures. I have confirmed that the screw thread piece came off from inside the housing and is loose. I can move it around with a nail but don't see how I can reattach it. Of course im going on a 3000 mile trip in a couple weeks.

here is my passenger seat with the screw thread

and here is my driver side without the screwthread

[/img]

[Jonwid]

Ohh man. That's a bummer. Hey, can you capture the threaded plate using the bolt from the armrest and then do some creative JB-Welding on it? Maybe drill some very small holes around the bolt hole and take an epoxy syringe and squirt some adhesive through between the threaded plate and the back of the wall with the bolt hole. Then tighten down the armrest bolt to hold the threaded plate in place while the adhesive sets up. Just kinda thinkin' out loud, really.

[trbowgn]

Use a large sheet metal bolt or lag style bolt to put that back together. There is enough metal there to grab onto. Otherwise I am not sure what else you could do besides tear the seat apart to put a nut on the back side.

[pinetreeporsche]

Not a real 'problem' here, but: I just spent 20+ years with vanagons, and could pass from the driver's cab area to the camping area/living rm/kitchen/bedroom easily. The EV (a Winnie) has about 2 inches less room to squeeze through. Yes, I can go through with the arm rests laid out flat, as my butt is thicker than my legs. But I'm contemplating removing the passenger's left arm rest to open up the van. Anyone done that?