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740 Seat rail roller bearings 700 1989

The driver side seat in my 89 740 GL was difficult to adjust forward and backwards, so I removed it to take a look. The seats are non-electric. Sure enough there was lots of rust and built up grime on the rails so I separated them to better clean and lube. While doing this 4 steel rods and some small ball bearings fell out unto the lawn where I was working. The rods were easy to find but I only found one of the ball bearings which is roughly 3 mm in size. I want to reassemble but I'm wondering where i can find these ball bearings. I believe it takes 8 total. My usual approach has been to go to the junkyard and get what I need so I checked the local salvage yards and I could not find one single 740 to pull from. Anyone have recommendations for my dilemna.








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740 Seat rail roller bearings 700 1989

Problem solved. Not knowing exactly what size the ball bearings were, I ordered an assortment tray for $12 on Amazon. Upon arrival I compared them to the original bearings and 5 mm was the correct size. I reassembled the rails with some difficulty, but it got done. I lubed and reinstalled the seat and it works like new again. Anyone having this problem can order the multi-size kit or simply buy the 5 mm size only for less money.








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740 Seat rail roller bearings 700 1989

Try searching for the wayward ball bearings with a strong magnet. A nail sweeper is ideal for the job, available at many tool stores, often for cheap. Harbour Freight currently has one for $12.99. If you don't have one try borrowing from a friend, neighbour or sympathetic roofer. Back of a car speaker will often do. If you check the 700 FAQ here there's a brief note on reassembling the track after the ball bearings and rods fall out. Only time it happened to me I caught it at the first two ball bearings and one rod -had to check the other track to be sure how it went together.

Thinking of nail sweepers, I swore off working on my car on a gravel driveway after spending too many minutes with a sweeper locating errant fasteners. Found a lot of buried roofing nails in the process, even a few sharp nasty deck and drywall screws -for the sake of my tires and barefooted children I'm glad they were mildy well buried. I try to throw down a tarp now if I'm forced to work on gravel and worry the belly pan won't catch things from my fumble fingers or falling out of a socket wrench.
--
Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now








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740 Seat rail roller bearings 700 1989

I tried using 2 car speaker magnets together but I had no luck. Gonna keep my eyes open for a donor car.








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740 Seat rail roller bearings 700 1989

Nail sweepers do work better. Most are raised on wheels and can more easily cover a large area. Something like a ball bearing could have ricocheted and rolled further than you might expect, also you might have stepped on it slightly into the ground, especially if the soil was damp. A nail sweeper is often strong enough to lift it out of the ground. After a few passes you could maybe try doing a light rake of the lawn to see if that might coax them out of hiding.
--
Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now







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