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On 26 Aug 2006 at 8:44, Arkady Mirvis wrote: > I was horrified yesterday when pulling the string, used to lift the > rear seat in my 1972 Square, I couldn't get the seat up. It was locked! > After several attempt the seat finally came up. I see that the plastic > string, when pulled, is opening the latch. But what one will do if the > string rips off? How one can open the latch and get the seat up? That seat bottom lock was introduce in late '71, I think. There is supposed to be a kind of translucent yellow plastic strap there to release the latch, but those are often broken. They get broken because they get used, as you imply, to pull up the seat. Earlier squarebacks came with a rather large vinyl strap, made from the seat cover material, which WAS meant to be used to pull up the seat. In reality, the little late strap should ONLY be used to release the latch, then the seat should be lifted with the other hand, by grabbing around the rear edge of the seat. Unfortunately, this makes lifting the seat a really awkward process. Frankly, I've never understood why VW added that latch. This is not something that will flip up on its own. Or maybe they were worried about its coming open in a roll-over accident. That might be the only reason for this concern. At any rate, I find that most of these late latches have been disabled by hammering the hook that's welded to the top of the tunnel to one side. It will just lay there flat. If the latch strap breaks, you can reach down that slot with a hooked wire and snag the release that way, but that's REALLY hard unless you have another late square that you can look at to see what you're trying to reach. I've also seen people take the hinges apart to get at it from the front, but the wire trick works rather easily once you know what you're trying to hook onto. -- ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~