Lancia Beta Forum

The front seats of my Spyder (and I presume all Betas) are held in place by 4 bolts which wind into captive bolts.  For reasons unknown, 2 of these have unattached leaving nothing for the bolts to wind into.

Has anyone got any ideas on how to secure my seat now?  Although the turret has a hole form the bolt and another slot (that I could probably squeeze a nut through) I can't see any way of easily securing it.  Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Any ideas or tips?

Would it be possible to thread a piece of fishing line or the likes through and attach a BOLT to it?
You could then pull it up through the hole and track and eecure the track by using a locking washer and a half nut to keep the profile low.
I'm presuming the second hole you refer to would accomodate a bolt.
It would be necessary to use longer than required bolts so you could fit the washer and nut then hold the portion of bolt above the nut with a vise grip while tightening the nut with possibly a swanneck ring spanner.
Having said all that and just retrieving a mental image of the lack of space between the sides of the rail, unless it is the front bolts, it would leave it impossible as the nuts would beed to be spaced up above the level of the runner.
I've done similar in the past with success but I'm sure someone will have a more practical plan.
 

Thanks Frank but neither of the holes would be big enough to get a bolt through otherwise this would have been an option (and I suppose still is if I wanted to enlarge one of the holes)

The height of the bolts / nut is not an issue as there is a tab that prevents the seat from running too far forward.

That's because the captive nuts aren't captive  - they're on little plates that slot into place in the mounts (or at least they are on mine) it's quite possible for them to fall out.

The interior is out of mine at the moment so I'll see if I can get a picture to show you what I mean.

happened to me with the driver's door on my Fiat 132 years ago.
I ended up hacking a thumping great hole in the pillar with a cold chisel then had to get it braized as no one had anything capable of welding light gauge steel in the area, or possibly the entire country, at the time.

I had the seats out of my '78 a few times and obviously had a narrow escape

Here you can see the clip in place

(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b178/HFStuart/WP_20160510_001.jpg) (http://s19.photobucket.com/user/HFStuart/media/WP_20160510_001.jpg.html)

Press down on the threaded bit too hard and it will bend and drop out leaving you with this

(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b178/HFStuart/WP_20160510_002.jpg) (http://s19.photobucket.com/user/HFStuart/media/WP_20160510_002.jpg.html)

If you're really lucky you might be able to fish out the clip, failing that it might be a part common to other cars.

No idea on the sizes but probably too small, but they use captive nuts on UK style computer cabs to secure the rack rails...... So they may be available just in different applications

Peter

That's exactly what I am looking at on both side.  For some reason I thought they had bolts spot welded into the turrets.  Have tried fishing the clip out but can't see it. 

Have been trying to work out how to make something similar by tacking a bolt onto a plate / rod to hold it in place. 

Unless you can still buy / get hold of the original seat mounts?

Hi, I've not seen any caged nuts with that sort of entry but would it be possible to fit a rivnut in the hole.

I'd give you the part number but I couldn't see it at all in the parts book

Edit: But an optimistic google turned up this

http://www.midwest-bayless.com/LANCIA-BETA-0_p-14039-82342364-u8-seat-adjuster-mounting-well-nut-lancia-beta-coupe-zagato-all-u8.aspx (http://www.midwest-bayless.com/LANCIA-BETA-0_p-14039-82342364-u8-seat-adjuster-mounting-well-nut-lancia-beta-coupe-zagato-all-u8.aspx)

And a Google of the part number in there suggested Felix at Lancia Cape Town might have them too

Having looked back at a couple of old threads on an earlier spider (HongKongPhoey's sadly) they did! Obviously that was another production change made at some point.

I can help with these.

I looked at rivnuts but I think that they are too big and I also have concerns about getting them out

You beauty - PM on way :)