Hi Guys
I've been looking at this post for ages as I my driver side tilt seat handle also broke, it's the same thing as in the pic at top of this discussion - the plastic snapped in the seat casing bit (the lever is actually fine but now useless).
I have massive respect of all of you who posted here and if what I'm about to write duplicates anything in your posts that's only because I took a little bit of everyone's experience and managed to get the job done - eventually!
Firstly, I managed to replace the whole lever assembly (driver side part is no: 1417520) by not doing the following:
- Remove the seat
- Remove the headrest
But I did need to:
- Tilt the seat forward by pulling up the nipple on the cable with a large flat head screwdriver (in my case) or long nosed pliers would do it too!
- Buy a replacement lever assembly from a respectable auction site before I started to actually see for myself how the thing was attached to the seat, which I would highly recommend you do! You shouldn't pay more than 25 quid for it though!
The tools you will need:
- A small flat head screwdriver, preferably one you don't mind breaking as I can guarantee you will have a fight getting the thing off the seat unless you are a Ford engineer/technician who could probably do it in 5 mins.
- Your hands - both of them!
If you look at the pic at start of the discussion, which is very helpful, you will see 2 dark square-ish recesses above and below the nipple and slightly to the left, these holes will give you access to the 2 clips holding the thing into the seat.
I'd like to say that both clips are easy to release but their not. In reality I couldn't get the bottom one to release from the seat and ended up breaking it which didn't matter to be honest as it got the thing out.
If you put your screwdriver into the lower recess, which is quite deep, you will need to push the clip upwards with your screwdriver. As already mentioned, I didn't successfully manage to get this clip to release so you might need to use some gentle force to release the seat casing by giving it a good pull at the bottom.
The top clip is much easier to get to as it's not as deep, you will need to just push it down with your screwdriver in the upper recess while also pulling at the top part of the seat casing - it should release without too much effort.
Please do have a good look at clips on your replacement lever assembly before you start (and during) as this will give you encouragement that the clips are there somewhere.
Once the seat casing is out you will left with a piece of plastic which is a bit like a mini ski ramp which enables the lever to slide the nipple up/down smoothly to release/lock the seat. To fit the replacement lever assembly I would recommend you carefully tilt the seat back to its normal position and make sure the nipple is at the bottom of the ramp and is in the correct vertical orientation, this is the perfect place for the lever to make contact with the nipple when you push your replacement lever assembly into the seat.
I can frustratingly report that the removal of the seat casing took hours but the replacement of the whole lever assembly took minutes.
Best of luck if you have a go at this job and thanks to everyone for their posts - cheers
