Tri Pacer front seat removal

[Tailwind_Fan]

Yes, Student Pilot Owner just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Believe it or not, but Student Pilot is actually a certifiable rating now.

[Glen Geller]

Hey Glen,

You're totally correct, but that's my nature. Plus, my flight instructor has stated he won't fly with me until I get this fixed and our on site A&P won't just remove the pin....

-Alana

Switch the latch pins to opposite seats, with the erroneous cotter removed.
Or have local welder fill the hole and then clean up the surfaces on a grinder.
The spare cotter hole is below the load-bearing portion of the latch anyway, and will not impact strength or security.
Jeez, you'd think this was an engine mount on the Space Shuttle.

Just looked at Univair, I think this is it:
Front Seat Stop Plunger, PA-22,
SN 3218, 3387 and up ...............................................120 32-002 .......... $85.07
Jeez, maybe it is an engine mount on the Space Shuttle.

[Steve Pierce]

I would see what the drawing CD shows for this assembly and compare to what you have.

[EdH]

Sooooooo………. I was playing around with the front seat, (left) and of course it broke. Somewhere in the mechanism itself. the shaft I think is broke, seems spring and everything else is still up in there, tried to screw it back in, but it isn't having it. Now the seat won't budge, and it is all the way back. Any ideas on how to get the plunger to come down so I can get the seat out?

[Tailwind_Fan]

Sooooooo………. I was playing around with the front seat, (left) and of course it broke. Somewhere in the mechanism itself. the shaft I think is broke, seems spring and everything else is still up in there, tried to screw it back in, but it isn't having it. Now the seat won't budge, and it is all the way back. Any ideas on how to get the plunger to come down so I can get the seat out?

I just had to deal with this myself. I put the seats in for a few minutes and on removal the co-pilot seat had the plunger pop out of the handle and fully into the seat rail. Our field A&P and I tried a small hole above the plunger and a pin drift to push it back down. When that didn’t work, it became clear the only way was out the top. So the hole was enlarged and what remained of the pin was extracted with one of my personally favorite tools, an o-ring pick. I manufactured a new plunger to replace the old one that was sacrificed.

It’s now had the seat plunger housing pushed up, and a new pin installed with about.050” longer on the top, and 0.2” longer pin on the bottom.this way if both split pins come off there’s still a nub of the bottom pin still sticking out the bottom to grab with vise-grip pliers.

[Tailwind_Fan]

Just to add insult to injury... the pin I made failed at the upper hole. I purchased the univair sourced plunger, then noticed it requires an AN3 bolt to act as the pin... I purchased a couple of AN bolts from Aircraft Spruce... So when I got the official part, it’s just rough stock 3/8 diameter with a taper on one end and a 0.5 deep 10-32 thread hole on the other... even has a pantina of surface rust on the rough stock surface.