Dodge "rocking seat" repair...the right way.

The truck has a problem that is commonly referred to as a "rocking seat" issue.  What happens is that when you accelerate or hit the brakes, the seats will move forward and backward.  This is a problem not only from a comfort standpoint, but it is enough to cause inspection failure.

The issue that causes this problem is that Chrysler decided to use rubber bushings in its seat tracks, which break down over time due to the grease they used to lubricate the seat track. It seems that their engineers forgot that petroleum based products rot out rubber.

Dorman Products has a repair kit (Part number 924-073) that is supposed to remedy this issue.  I decided to document this repair mostly because the other ideas of using washers to fix this just did not sound right, look right, or, as I found, work right.

You will need:
-3/8" drive ratchet and/or 1/2" ratchet
-18mm, 13mm, and 16mm sockets in the drive you are using
-1/2" combination wrench
-T25 torx driver
-Dorman repair kit (part number 924-073)


Step one: Remove the seat. 

Move the seat as far back as it can go, and remove the two bolts that hold the front of the seat in place.  Move the seat as far forward as it can go, and remove the two bolts that hold the seat in place in the back.  Use the seat controls to raise the seat as high as it will go and then remove the bolt that anchors the seat belt to the seat frame, lift the seat and disconnect the wiring for the motors, heater, etc. (There are two sets of wires and they are color coded.)

This is the rear seat anchor bolt.  It is a fine thread bolt so using air tools is not recommended.

The seat belt anchor spot to the seat frame.

These are the wires. One white plug, one green.

I moved the seat to the cargo area to finish working on it, that way I am not dragging the parts I need to install all over the place, and this brings us to part two: Remove the worm gears.

Turn the seat upside down and, using a T25 torx driver, remove the two small bolts that hold the bracket in place that allows seat movement.  Then, using a 1/2" wrench, remove the bolt that holds the worm gear in place. You may have to slide the seat track down and/or up to coax the worm gear out of the seat track.

Interesting that one of the little torx head bolts is missing...this tells me that this was attempted before.

This is the bolt that holds the seat track in place.

Step three: Disassemble the worm gear assembly.

The worm gear is essentially a long threaded bolt with specialized ends on it that allows the seat to move back and forth. There is an aluminum bracket with rubber bushings in it that needs to come off of the assembly.

This is the bracket and also where the bushings are supposed to be...these rotted away.

If you take a close look at these worm gears, you will see that someone decided that installing washers to take up the space was a good idea....right up until the worm gear was rendered useless when the washers apparently destroyed the threads.

On the left, worm gear with bushings that are no longer there.  On the right, worm gear with damaged threads.

When you remove the block in the center of the bracket, you will take notice that the block has a flat side and a pointed side.  The pointed side needs to be facing up.  This is also a good time to clean up the block and bracket.

Part of the rebuild kit.

The rebuild kit contains eight of these nylon spacers and two bolts. Reinstall the metal block (pointed end up) into the aluminum piece, then install one of the nylon spacers on one side of the block, which is actually a specialized nut. You might have to persuade the second spacer to go in, which can be done by either tapping it in with a small hammer (and notice I said "tap" and not "beat the shit out of") or lightly sanding the face of the spacer, constantly checking the fit.

Once you have done this procedure to both sides, you must make the position of the brackets on the worm gears the same on either side, then reverse the steps to reinstall the gears, and then the seat.

It might be helpful to mark the worm gears as to which side they go on and reinstall them in that order.

After installation, I found that the rocking issue is gone.  The kit cost about $25 with shipping, but you might be able to get it through a local parts dealer for a little cheaper.  My local parts dealer didn't have a clue as to what I was talking about, so I opted once again for parts geek and their yet to let me down or piss me off delivery time and service.

As far as time goes you can count on spending about 30 minutes or so per seat.  I would take the time to go ahead and clean out the area under the seat (I found another $1.56 under my driver seat alone) as well as make sure you have the time to get this done in one shot.