Turning middle seats round has lost sliding ability on rails

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melonpips
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Turning middle seats round has lost sliding ability on rails

Post by melonpips » Wed Jul 15, 2015 9:45 pm

Hi

Hello!! New member here :) and new Bongo owner (bought yesterday)

The Bongo I have has a rear conversion and the middle seats were reversed. I love the way this looks but practically for day to day travelling I need them the other way round, forward facing. I have managed to undo the bolts and turn the seat around but having done so I have lost the ability to slide the row of seats backwards and forwards.

Does this sound right? Does that mechanism only work one way round? Is there any way of getting it working facing forwards or even both ways?

Also has anyone done this and instead of the heavy job of turning the seats around each time for camping, just folding the backrest of the bench seats forward and sitting on those instead?

Many thanks

:D :D :D :D
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Simon Jones
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Re: Turning middle seats round has lost sliding ability on r

Post by Simon Jones » Wed Jul 15, 2015 9:56 pm

Welcome to the forum :). As you have found, once the seat is reversed, the locking mechanism no longer engages so it cannot be moved to a different position. If you want it permanently reversed, the solution is to take the runners/sliders off the tracks and swap them around so they match up with the seat again. There is a mod you can do to make it work either way which is described in the factsheet http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/member ... unners.pdf
melonpips
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Re: Turning middle seats round has lost sliding ability on r

Post by melonpips » Wed Jul 15, 2015 10:15 pm

Thank u very much. I can't get into that link at the moment as its asking for user and password and what I am trying doesn't appear to be working so will need to look into that and come back to it I think.
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Re: Turning middle seats round has lost sliding ability on r

Post by Bob » Wed Jul 15, 2015 10:18 pm

Welcome aboard, the password can be found on Face Book. :roll:

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Re: Turning middle seats round has lost sliding ability on r

Post by cmm303 » Thu Jul 16, 2015 9:20 am

And if you are not a member (yet!!) it's worth considering. For a small fee you gain access to a wide range of tried and tested fact sheets/guides.
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Re: Turning middle seats round has lost sliding ability on r

Post by Diplomat » Thu Jul 16, 2015 10:23 am

If the rails are the full length variety it won't be a five minute job restoring the runners to the original direction if you have a rear kitchen to remove first.

Whoever designed the seats, at Mazda, obviously never thought that anyone would want to reverse them.

Like many, I tried reversed middle seats for a while but wasn't completely convinced. However, with a rear conversion, it can make sense especially if the seats aren't being used for travelling.


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Re: Turning middle seats round has lost sliding ability on r

Post by stuc » Thu Jul 16, 2015 2:59 pm

I have done the mod on the sliders so it moves in both directions, much easier. I still have to unbolt it and turn it when I want both rows facing forward, I would love the rotating centre seat conversion but I would not pay that kind of money.
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