Mounting seats

[DJbrand1]

So I picked up a pair of some nice Koenig seats from a local club member. They had sliders on the bottom of them and he pulled them out of an 87 944. I am attempting to put these in my 88 944 Turbo S. Figuring they would go right in. Wrong. So my factory seats have 6 bolts, three on each slider. 1 at the front and two at the rear of the slider. The sliders on the seats bolt to the front holes fine, the rears are off by a hole. The previous owner added some 1/4 inch steel plates and welded them to the sliders inside the tracks, I guess to reinforce the sliders since only 4 bolts can be used with the aftermarket seats. This 1/4 inch plate ends halfway into the hole on the rear of the slider that matches up with the hole on my floor. I guess 87 to 88 changed?? I can't drill out the plate since only half is blocking it, and the bit would just keep slipping right off.

Next, I ordered up some mounting adapters from Stable Energies, because I want to keep the stock seat belt receptacle and not drill a hole in the driveshaft tunnel of the car. Got the adapters, they line up fine except now I need tabbed sliders to mount to the adapters. I order Recaro tabbed sliders. To mount these tabbed sliders to the adapters securely I'll have to use a bunch of washers to get a bolt snug up because there is 1/4 inch gap at where the tabs match up on the adapter and slider. Problem now with the Recaro tabbed sliders, they don't mount to my seats. The sliders that were on the seats have bolt holes 11" apart, the Recaro sliders are about 11 5/8 " apart.

Anyone familiar with what I am trying to do here? Ideally, I'd like to just have the bottom mount sliders right on the floor to mount the seat as low as possible, but since this is still a street car, and the interior is mint. I don't want to drill into the floor pan to keep the stock seat belt receptacle. Hence the need for the wedge mounting adapters which have provisioning to bolt the seat belt buckle to.

What sliders do I need for these Koenig seats. Koenig USA said they would sell me sliders for 80 dollars a pop and adapters for 170 a pop. If the sliders will work for the adapters I already have, that's the only solution I suppose. Any other ideas?

[Larry Herman]

Wow, my head hurts just reading that; not to mention figuring it out.  Yes, the 944s did change from '87 to '88, so trash the cobbled up sliders and use the Recaros.  You should be able to drill a new hole in the slider at 11 &5/8s to match up with the seat (I am assuming that they are bottom mounts).

For your inner seat belt mount, I would suggest using the R905 Brey-Krause tunnel mount adapter.  You can use both rear bolts that way.  The other piece is for the outside to keep the sliders from being uneven.



If that does not help, then post some pics of the problem so I can see what you are talking about.

[DJbrand1]

Yes, sorry, it hurt my head too writing it!

The only thing I was worried about drilling a hole at 11" on the recaro sliders is that the hole will be pretty close to the existing hole on the slider. With not too much metal between the holes, will the slider still be strong enough? I feel like this is the reason the previous owner had the metal plates welded into the rails that came on the seats.

With those BK adapters for the seat belt receptacle, I can use those instead of using the Wedge adapter I bought?

That would be ideal since with the tabbed sliders and the adapter the seat will probably be higher then stock. I'd like to get it lower then the stock seat for helmet clearance.

Thanks for your help!  I'll try to snap a pic of the way the sliders are lining up to mount to the bottom of the seat.

[Larry Herman]

I don't know what the wedge adapter is, but we use the BK ones on my son's '89 951.

[DJbrand1]

This is what I ordered from Stable Energies, the Wedge brand adapter. http://www.stableenergies.com/Adapter-Br...nfo/SB244/

Does Dan's car just have the bottom mount sliders and those BK adapters you mentioned? I assume he still has the stock seatbelts in the car as well for street use?

Thanks for the help.

[Larry Herman]

Image shown not the exact product? WTF!

No we use side mount seats on his car.  They are MUCH easier to use and get the proper mounting brackets for.  And yes, it allows us to use the stock inboard seatbelt connector and a clip-on racing belt at the same time.

[DJbrand1]

Larry Herman wrote:

Image shown not the exact product? WTF!

They are basically a square box frame with tabs with a nut welded to them to mount tabbed sliders to it. Then on the side they have another tab for the stock seatbelt connector to attach to. I'll try to snap some pics next time at my garage. I guess I should just return everything and get the Koenig sliders and just drill holes where needed to mount to floor pan holes. Or get Recaro non-tabbed sliders, drill where needed to mount to bottom of my seat, then the other half of the sliders should match up with the stock floor pan holes? This is a bigger headache then I thought it was going to be!

[Larry Herman]

DJbrand1 wrote:

This is a bigger headache then I thought it was going to be!

When it comes to installing seats and belts, it usually is.

[DJbrand1]

Got some Recaro non-tabbed sliders and the R905 Brey-Krause tunnel mount adapter you suggested. Will need to drill out the slider to match  up with the seat and floor pan. Let you know how it works out. Unfortunately, won't have them in for Thunderbolt tomorrow.