Hurst 300/Imperial seat question

[65MonacoND]

I’m in the midst of recovering my 300 Hurst seats. On the passenger side is a device that looks like a piston. Not sure what it’s function is. Is it to adjust backrest? If so it doesn’t work. Any recommendations on where to get it rebuilt along with seat motor? I posted a few pics of it and seats below

 

[ImpJay]

To me it looks like the reclining seat back mechanism, so when you pull the chromed lever up, the seat back may be pushed rearwards to the desired position.

I have no information about where it could be rebuilt.

PS, where are the head rests?

 

[bigmoparjeff]

There's not much to that reclining device. It's just a rod inside a tube and a catch. When you pull the lever, the rod can move and when you release the lever, the catch is supposed to hold the rod in position. It would probably be hard to test it with the seat disassembled.

 

[ceebuddy]

Isn't there a spring inside the piston, too? To aid moving the seat back back up again (if the lever is pulled)?

 

[Samplingman]

The FSM has an exploded view of the seat mechanism that might help.

 

[bigmoparjeff]

Isn't there a spring inside the piston, too? To aid moving the seat back back up again (if the lever is pulled)?

There probably is. Otherwise, you'd have to pull the seat back up.

 

[65MonacoND]

Thanks everyone. My upholstery guy is going to reassemble it to make sure it works. He didn’t see it until it was tore down and wasn’t sure how it worked.

On a separate note does anyone know where I can get the seat motors rebuilt

 

[ceebuddy]

On a separate note does anyone know where I can get the seat motors rebuilt

No, but whacking them with a hammer in order to get them going again always worked for me.

 

[Imperialist]

View attachment 310074 View attachment 310075 View attachment 310076 View attachment 310077 View attachment 310078 View attachment 310079 View attachment 310080 View attachment 310074 View attachment 310075 I’m in the midst of recovering my 300 Hurst seats. On the passenger side is a device that looks like a piston. Not sure what it’s function is. Is it to adjust backrest? If so it doesn’t work. Any recommendations on where to get it rebuilt along with seat motor? I posted a few pics of it and seats below

I wonder if that could be part of the "Automatic Doorway Entrance Enlarger" which was a part of the bucket seat option on Imperials. When you tilted the front passenger seatback forward, the seat motor would activate and move the seat all the way forward to allow better ingress and egress. When I had my seats redone on my '69 Imperial 2 door, the upholstery guy told me about this feature, which I was unaware of, but he couldn't make it work. I never saw the seats opened up to know if the piston relates to that, however.

 

[Trace 300 Hurst]

I wonder if that could be part of the "Automatic Doorway Entrance Enlarger" which was a part of the bucket seat option on Imperials. When you tilted the front passenger seatback forward, the seat motor would activate and move the seat all the way forward to allow better ingress and egress.

My Hurst doesn't do that, FYI,

But it sure does recline nicely. When I "show off" that feature, it ALWAYS gets a snicker or two.

 

[65MonacoND]

Got it working. It is for reclining

 

[Trace 300 Hurst]

Got it working. It is for reclining

"Reclining"? Snicker, snicker.....

 

[ceebuddy]

I wonder if that could be part of the "Automatic Doorway Entrance Enlarger" which was a part of the bucket seat option on Imperials. When you tilted the front passenger seatback forward, the seat motor would activate and move the seat all the way forward to allow better ingress and egress. When I had my seats redone on my '69 Imperial 2 door, the upholstery guy told me about this feature, which I was unaware of, but he couldn't make it work. I never saw the seats opened up to know if the piston relates to that, however.

EDIT:

Imperial (and later New Yorker Brougham) 2-door hardtops with leather power bucket seats did have that Automatic Doorway Entrance Enlarger feature but I never heard of any Hurst doing this.

 

[detmatt]

AFAIK, that feature was not available in 1969 or 1970 as it wasn't around until 1973.

The 1972 Imperial (and NYB) 2-door hardtop featured an automatic seat back latch release (for both passenger and driver's side) when either door was opened, as standard equipment, no matter what seat. This also explains why the seat backs of these seats do not have a chrome release button/lever on the side (there was a small manual release lever at the bottom, though). But the seats didn't move automatically.

Then in 1973, on Imperial (and NYB) 2-door hardtops with optional leather power bucket seats, the Automatic Entranceway Enlarger was standard, moving the passenger seat foward if the door was opened and the seat back was folded to the front.

My ‘67 does this and there’s an interior handle at the back of the door so you can let yourself out of the back seat without assistance.

 

[ceebuddy]

My ‘67 does this and there’s an interior handle at the back of the door so you can let yourself out of the back seat without assistance.

I stand corrected. It was indeeed an Imperial feature.

 

[ImpJay]

EDIT:

Imperial (and later New Yorker Brougham) 2-door hardtops with leather power bucket seats did have that Automatic Doorway Entrance Enlarger feature but I never heard of any Hurst doing this.

When this Imperial-only feature was available on a Chrysler?

 

[ceebuddy]

When this Imperial-only feature was available on a Chrysler?

The Automatic Entranceway Enlarger seems to have been an Imperial-only feature. The (electro-magnetic) Automatic Seat-Back Relesase was standard on 1972 and 1973 New Yorker Brougham 2-door hardtops, too.