Ejector seat modification

[Richard Gregory]

I've noticed that when pushing the ejector seat onto the release mechanism I pushed the seat cushion forward exposing the plastic underneath. This is difficult to return to the correct position with the back of the seat in place, so I have run small bead of super glue along the sides and back to keep it in place.

The other option is to push the sides of the seat down to insert it onto the release mechanism.

[Wtshark]

On 5/11/2024 at 7:18 PM, Richard Gregory said:

I've noticed that when pushing the ejector seat onto the release mechanism I pushed the seat cushion forward exposing the plastic underneath. This is difficult to return to the correct position with the back of the seat in place, so I have run small bead of super glue along the sides and back to keep it in place.

The other option is to push the sides of the seat down to insert it onto the release mechanism.

Having finally received Pack 7, I found exactly what you said, I did follow your advice and put a small bead of super glue along the edge/lip of the back of the seat. I didn't initially and when I went to mount the seat, it pushed the back of the seat down and I had to disassemble the seat to reset it, I should've listened. I will add that ejector spring is VERY tight/strong and getting the seat to reset and engage with the lever requires a lot of force, I'm not sure it'll be any easier when the model is assembled and the entire assembly is in the car. I didn't want to alter the mechanism, nor did I want to mix machine oil and plastic (half of the spring retainer) so I opted for a bit of Olive Oil, you could probably use mineral oil or food grade silicone as well but running a bit of that over the spring assembly and spring itself really seemed to help reset the seat. I probably won't eject it again once it's assembled, unless of course someone just has to see it, but the OO seemed to help with the slide and catch. 

 

[Jo.Mora]

Yep! Same issue here for the seat...  Is it me but I find the spring to be crazy strong and the whole thing really hard to reset??

As @Wtshark says, it will probably be even harder to set the seat back in place once the model is complete...

Since I don't think this is a feature that I will ever use, I think I will just remove the spring.

I also followed @Richard Gregory advise to super glue the seat bottom. Great tip Richard! 👍

 

[Wtshark]

I removed the seat, and trimmed about a 1/4 inch, (3-4 mm) off the top of the spring. I pushed the seat down onto the mount by the top of the back and it snapped right into place. I'm wondering if using the back of the seat is how it's supposed to be reset, as it's a single piece of plastic, screwed into the bottom of the seat. 

It will still "eject", but with less force and since I don't plan on ejecting the seat anyway, this allows it to sit tightly on the mount and be removed/reset without having the push so hard on the bottom of the seat, although the gluing of the seat cover did alleviate that, it's not the strongest connection. 

Hope this helps.