Seat Belt Latch? Putting 97 Forester seats in 95 OB wagon -

[95LEGOBW]

Hello Sooby-doobies,

 

I had the good fortune to pick up a pair of front seats from a 97 Forester. The driver's seat is adjustable in several ways, and will be a welcome replacement for the bagged-out original seat in my 95 Legacy Outback Wagon. The seats are going to bolt right in.

 

 

Unfortunately, there is a complication.

 

The Forester seats did not come with seat belt latch assemblies, so I am trying to use the ones off from the 95 Outback seats. The trouble is that they don't bolt up cleanly to the Forester seats.

 

For both cars, the main mounting point is a single bolt on the seat frame (Actually, the Forester takes a bolt, but the Outback uses a nut on a stud welded to the seat frame, but that's no big deal.)

 

The important difference is that, on the 95 Outback, a short pin on the seat frame keeps the bracket from rotating around its single mounting bolt. There is no such pin on the Forester. The Forester latch assembly must be a different shape, and be held in place in another way. I can force-fit the Outback assembly to the Forester seat, but it won't be at the right angle, and will be able to pivot on its mounting point.

 

Has anyone dealt with this? What are my opitons?

 

Can anyone post a pic of the seat belt latch on a Forester seat?

[95LEGOBW]

Anyone? How do seat belt buckles fasten to the seats in a 97 Forester?

Is there one bolt? What prevents the assebly from rotating, a rivet?

[four-fleet-feet]

(edit: too little sleep and exhaustion made me stooopid - I missed this was a front seat and kindly deleted my rear-seat-info post. My bad!)

 

Sorry about that. Wish I could help, but I know absolutely NOTHING about front seats...

[Gloyale]

OK, a little info here. First, the year the Forester was introduced is 98. So, you may have a 98 seat, but, then again, you might not. If you were told 1997, the person who told you that was in error.

 

Second, if it IS a 98 seat assembly, it's the exact same assembly as the 97-98 Imprezas (and perhaps other years as well). I know this for a fact; Aircraft-engineer and I cannibalized a 98 Forester to fix up my Imp, Dragon. Two of the parts were the rear seat belt assemblies for under the seat; I presume those are the parts you're trying to install. If I had a camera with me in Phoenix, I'd shoot you a few pix and post them, but I don't.

 

What I can tell you is two belts attach to each bolt-assembly, one consists of two buckle-ends (one is clearly marked 'center') and the second one has one buckle end and one seat belt strap for the center seat. Each belt has its own triangular metal end, which attaches to the other's end triangle for bolting. The two are kept from rotating by small metal tabs inherent in the triangles of metal which are bolted down.

 

The two are meant to cross; if you look closely, the CENTER-marked buckle end will actually be installed closest to the passenger rear door. If you're putting it in the center position before bolting, you are doing it upside down! Once you have it bolted down, and pull the seat down to cover the assemblies, you'll pull the belt over to the center and cross the rear passenger-side buckle (which secures the shoulder belt) over it. You may be trying to install the buckle triangles upside down - check the double-buckle set and see. Same for the belt/buckle combo; the lap strap for the center seat actually attaches closer to the driver-side rear door. Odd but true!

 

Once they're correctly oriented, on my car they won't move one bit, and there's nothing under my Imp seat to prevent rotation; like I said, it's all in the mounting triangles themselves. If you can't find another Forester to look at, try finding an Impreza. It's easier to see this than read about it. Perhaps someone with a camera can take a shot of their rear Impreza belts/bolts (97-98 preferred, I know they match the Forester belts for sure) so you can get a look at what I'm talking about.

 

Good luck!

 

 

I think he was having the trouble with the front seats.

[95LEGOBW]

Wow, four fleet feet, you have an amazing memory!

 

But yes, as someone pointed out, I am looking for information about the front seats.

 

And to the other point, I must be mistaken on what year Forester these seats came from. In any event, they will bolt right in, once I figure out the seat belt buckle attachment.

 

Thanks in advance for any answers from The Collective to my questions above.

[aircraft engineer]

They didn't make the Forester until 98. (That's why we "know" about it)

 

Where are the attachments in the Forester - or is it just that they were not on the seats?

[eagleb]

1) Could you go without using the short pin? The buckle would swivel more but still be securely attached.

2) Is the buckle attached to the seat or the seat rails? Would swapping the rails work?

3) You could drill a hole for the pin into the forester seat frame, just tape off the bit so you don't drill into the seat, and use a rivet or small bolt as the pin.

 

Just some ideas.

[95LEGOBW]

Thanks in advance to all who help with input on this board. The seats are in & the belts are set up. I am summarizing my findings here for the benefit of future forum searchers.

 

The Installation.

I just put a pair of Forester seats in the front of my 95 Legacy Wagon. The old seats were held in with 5 bolts. The new seats had just 4 mounting points, which matched up perfectly.

 

I moved the seat belt latches from the original seats to the Forester seats. In both cases they attach to the seat frame with one bolt. On the Legacy, the bolt is already attached to the seat. On the Forester, there is a nut attached to the seat, and the seat bracket bolts to that. To fasten the latches to the Forester seats, I had to buy bolts to fit the threads in the existing mounting points. The bolts are 7/16" with #20 fine threads. Yes, these are standard sizes, not metric. Maybe this note will save someone the frustrating time I had at the hardware store trying to figure out why none of the metric sizes fit! One-inch bolts worked perfectly.

 

The Legacy had plastic covers on the rails in the passenger area. The Legacy covers do not fit on the Forester rails. If you want the rails out of sight and the greasy parts covered, you'll need to source some Forester covers. New ones are available from dealers and not terribly expensive.

 

Using the Seats

I like the seats. They are much more comfortable then the seats they replace. There are two adjustments for tilt of the squib, plus a lumbar adjustment, so I can dial things in to fit my long frame. There are some drawbacks, howerver, that future seat swappers should know about.

 

The seat itself sits higher off the rails, plus the foam is quite firm. This all results in the driver sitting significantly higher than when on the stock seats. For a taller driver, this can be a problem. I am 6' 1" and my line of site out the front is now well above the middle of the windshield. Looking straight ahead is not a problem, but my view of the sky is pretty much cut off. I am looking through the windshield just below the factory tinting.

 

The other drawback of the new height is the position of the shoulder belt relative to my shoulder. As my shoulder is higher, the belt now goes forward to get over it. When I sat lower, the seat belt direction was more down than out. The result of the new position is that I now have constant pressure & friction from the belt on my shoulder.

 

Neither of these would matter to a shorter driver, especialy one who did not keep the shoulder belt slider in its highest position.

 

My 12 year old likes the new seat height. For the first time, she is tall enough to use the visor to keep the sun out of their eyes.

 

Peace to all.