Hey y'all. I got the 98 Laramie, 5.9.
So couple weeks ago I posted about the drivers seat being ripped, what to do about it. "Heyyou" and others said get a pass one and swap it. So I found one at pap in nice cond, did the swap, now my drivers seat bottom is freakin slammin! Love it!! Great idea, y'all!!

Well, but now got diff prob. I'm gonna try to put a pic up of it.
Anyway, when you lift seats lever to make seat back go incline, decline, that lever pulls on this skinny braided wire/cable type of line. At that lil bracket(behind the lever) the braided wire/line/cable was parently rustd a lil or just worn out, but right there is where it broke. I got a pair of vise grips clamped on it now, works fine, but that's not gonna work permanently. Obviously.

There a way to join two ends this type of line together? Like some kind of "coupling" type thing or smthn? Thought I'd extend braided wire/cable/line from where it broke to the one I got from pull a part maybe?
I went to pap other day and cut back about 8" of it, plenty ways past that metal ring that's at the end of the wire. Was thinkin if I could join the current one with the length I need off the pap one, it'd work again.

Lastly, I went there intending on getting the whole line off one of the seats. But, I could get it taken apart just fine behind plastic cover at bottom of the seat(where pwr seating buttons control box is), but I couldn't get other end off. Other end was way up in seats closed, 4 sided, "square channel". Couldn't get my fingers, much less my hand, up in there to take THAT end off. Other end is easy to get at, you know, the end where it broke.
To me it looked like they tack welded the channel closed around it after it was connected! Like, I can stick my fingers/hand up in the channel tubing, following the braided cable line, but you can get them high enough in there to take it off. Unless I'm missing somethin there, I couldn't get the braided seats recline cable off.

 

No way to splice that cable that will last more than the first pull.

Take the seat out of the truck, and have a look, you *might* be able to thread new cable thru there, but, that's a major pain.

 

Ughhh. So what do I do? I guess I could hope to run across one at pap?
IU do have that good bottom now, so if I could find a drivers with a good back I'd be ok, I guess.

Btw, when I got the pass seats bottom, you know it comes out with 4 little 10mm bolts. 1 bolt in each corner under the seat, they hold the bottom down onto the the seats frame. But because it's the pass side seat bottom, the holes on it dont line up right to the drivers side holes, of its frame(those swivel pieces at each corner of drivers frame).

But because the back 2 holes of the pass seat bottom DO line up w drivers seat frame back 2 holes, you can at least get those in, no prob. But that leaves the 2 bolt holes at the front of the seats cushion out of alignment with the frame(at that point). Well, if you take a sharpie and mark in where the holes should be at that point, then take the seat bottom back off, you can drill a hole into the cushions metal so to line it up with the seats frame. Then go drill out your 2 marks, use the exact same 10mm bolts at the front. Done. And, I like the cushioning to the left of me being thicker anyway, to me it's more comfy!

No removing cushions, shirts, putting the cushions and shirts back on the old one, all because only 2 holes wont line up! And really, they only miss lining up by about a 1/2 inch or so. It's an easy drilling 2 holes job. I was actually gonna use self taps instead but that metal is freakin hard! So I marked & drilled the 2 holes where they're supposed to be, bout 1/2" away from original holes. I even went so far to tap the new drilled holes with one of the thread makers out of my cheap a** HF kit. Worked perfectly!

Anyway, about that stupid cable! So I'm sorta screwed, need an entirely new seat I guess? Why is that braided wire cable thingy impossible to get to??

 

Auto manufactures sub out things like seats. Not sure if that's what chrysler did but wouldn't hurt to see if there is a part # for it at the dealer. Any way to post a pic of the complete cable? Depending on what it look like you may be able to replace just the cable(wire rope).

 

Yes Moparite, you're def right. A complete cable is exactly the way to go! And that's what I wanted to do but...

So, replacing the whole cable is exactly what I wanted to do, originally. I went to our pull a part, took the plastic cover off the side of the bottom of drivers seat, now I got access that cable that's in the 2 pics in my 1st post, at top here. Btw, it's only 3 screws and cover is off, then 1 screw from the lever and bang!, the cable is connected behind seat's lever. Sweet(so far).
So, easy peazy to undo the cable there. The eyelet connected to that end of the cable simply comes right off after removal of lever.

So I go to pap, go to a seat out there in a 99 Ram 1500, same procedure- take off plastic cover, take off lever, remove cable's end eyelet. Now, that end of the cable is off. Next, the other end, get it off and take it home, put on my trucks seat and bang!, I'm done. NOT!

I try to get to the other end of the braided cable, but it's in the square tubing channel that goes from the bottom there all the way up the side of the seat. This channel is a closed in, big square tubing, tack welded in several spots all the way up. And the other end of the cable is barely just ever so high in there, too high to get to its eyelet. Well, I assume thats what's at the other end of the cable. You cant see the other end in the channel. It could be an eyelet like the end at the lever but on a stud with a nut holding it on, but again, I dont know cuz you cant get to the other end of the cable. FOR SOME REASON! Cant unhook it up in there like you can from behind the lever.

I could grind the tack welds maybe, but that may take away from the integrity of the seat to stay together in case of a wreck? I could possibly find the cable new from somewhere(which I would def buy!), but how do people get to the other end? I don't get it.

I def feel I'm missin smthn here though. Doubt Dodge would've set theirselves up with havin to replace entire seats, like for people under warranty, if a cable broke. A seat versus a cheapy short cable. Chrysler? Dodge? Dont think so!
I did notice last might that the other end that u cant get to MIGHT be permanently connected to a device that goes up, like up in the channel or somethin, so that you take that whole mechanism out, put one back in with that end of cable already connected to its spot, then just hook back up the eyelet at the lever. That'd make more money sense to me than replacing whole seats.

I see spiral, metal shaft mechanism, right there! Could it be that? I just think I'm missing something with this.

Heyyou usually always has answers for anything I shoot up in here. But his answer so far isnt what I hoped to hear, of course.

Feels I prob cant coupling 2 pieces of this type cable together and have it last more than day or couple pulls with the lever. And he thinks(which I already KNOW) to thread new one is prob a pita.
Thx for chiming in with more thought Moparite! It's got me thinkin further now!
Maybe u and others know or can remember or come up with, a "trick" or somethin that Heyyou or I haven't thought of yet? But usually the Heyyou moderator guy is on the money, so, this might be one of those "problems" that comes along every so often.

 

You could MAYBE weld it or solder it I tack welded mine before and it held up until I found new seats

 

Ex. Thanks for that.
But I was more thinkin bout settin it on fire! HA! Jk. Love my Ram!

I"m still pondering all sorts of ideas here.

 

Use a hole saw on a portable drill and cut an access hole in the square tubing to get a replacement cable from the pick-a-part yard,
and possibly do the same on your seat in order to install the replacement cable.