Broken Rear Seat Center Medical Kit Latch Repair Procedure

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    The rear seat center medical kit plastic latch assembly can not be purchased separately, but must be purchased as a complete leather assembly. If your latch is broken the same as this one, here is a procedure that is simple to do and costs next to nothing.


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    Rear seat center medical kit leather cover showing the green and white medical symbol cross on the latch handle.


    Material/Tools Required
    o Philips screwdriver (for disassembly of the leather cover from the gray flocked piece)

    o Vise Grips (for aligning the metal pin)

    o Two part Epoxy or your favorite strong glue for gluing metal to plastic

    o Exacto knife (for scoring the plastic so the epoxy adheres)

    o One 18-22 AWG Ring Lug (to replace the missing plastic ring on the latch assy)

    o Needle nose pliers (for removing the metal pin)

    o Diagonal cutters (to remove the plastic from the ring lug)

    o Feeler gauge (for separating the leather cover from the gray flocked piece)


    Time required
    o 1 hour


    Procedure


    1. Pull the handle and release the latch and remove the center leather covered medical kit assembly from the car and place in on a clean workbench in order to disassemble it.


    2. Pull the Velcro strap and remove the medical kit.


    3. Remove the outside plastic bezel that surrounds the latch handle on the leather side. This can be removed by placing your finger tips under the lip and “gently” prying it up and outward. There are four plastic securing tabs. DO NOT FORCE this piece or the plastic tabs may break and you may not be able to reuse it. (Reference picture below)


    4. Using a Philips screwdriver, remove the four Philips head screws that secure the gray flocked piece to the leather cover.


    5. Once the screws are removed, you will need to “carefully” pry or slide a feeler gauge between the gray flocked piece and the leather cover. This probably hasn’t been apart since your car was made and has to be separated. You’ll feel and hear it start to come apart. Do this gently!


    6. Once the grey flocked piece has been separated but not yet removed from the leather cover, carefully remove it while watching the relationship between the plastic latch assembly and its latch handle opening to be sure you can clear it without getting anything caught and increasing the risk of further damage. Then set the leather cover aside.


    7. Lay the assembly on your workbench with the latch facing up.


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    You can see the latch assy sits at an angle due to a broken and missing ring tab (right side in this picture)


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    Close up view of the broken latch showing that the plastic ring tab or ear is missing.


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    Since you can’t buy a new plastic handle, your only solutions are to find one from a junk yard, post for one on an internet message board or repair the one you have.


    8. Note the position of the spring, take a picture or make a diagram such that you can reinstall it in the same position, or just use this picture.


    9. Remove the metal pin and spring from the latch assembly by simply pulling the pin out.


    10. This gives you a clear picture of the broken handle


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    11. Take an Exacto knife and make deep cuts into the plastic in the area marked in the above picture with the yellow square. This is to help in a future step when you add epoxy to this area. It’s recommended to make your cuts criss-cross each other. You want to really give the epoxy something to adhere to as it will have to overcome the spring force. (Reference step 18.)


    12. Next, you can buy a Ring Lug at home improvement stores, electronic supply stores and in just about any utility/hardware store and probably most of you already have a supply of these kicking around in your basement or garage. Use a red one that is for 18-22 gauge wire as it has the right inside diameter that matches that of the original plastic ring, about 3/16”.


    13. Remove the red plastic insulation by cutting and twisting it off. This was necessary for me in order to fit the ring lug shank between the plastic walls of the latch handle.


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    14. Place the spring back into its proper position and push the metal pin back in.


    15.Place the ring lug in the position as shown below, such that when inserting the pin back in the handle, the ring lug serves as the missing ring tab or ear.


    16. Using a pair of vise grips, you will need to position the pin parallel to the plastic handle in order to prepare for the proper fitment of the ring lug. The one remaining original plastic ring and the new metal ring lug need to hold the metal pin in a straight parallel-to-the-handle fashion. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a crooked/twisted latch handle like you started out with. You will be fighting the spring force when “gently” clamping down with the vise grips.


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    The new metal ring lug has been temporarily placed in position to check alignment. The proper alignment may take a few minutes of playing around with it and adjusting the vise grips.


    A. When properly aligned, the pin will follow the yellow arrowed line. You don’t want one end of the pin to be higher than the other and you should use the end that is through the plastic, original ring, as your reference point.


    B. Pay attention to the bright blue arrows, you will need to have the new ring aligned out far enough so the pin will go through the two rings on the handle AND the two rings on the large gray flocked piece that the handle attached to.


    NOTE: The vise grips are only to hold the pin parallel to the latch. Use just enough force to do that, and no more. You don’t want to crack the plastic.


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    17. Once you have practiced and have the vise grips in the proper position, remove the ring lug.


    18. Mix a batch of epoxy and apply a liberal amount in the area marked in white, above. This is the area you scored with the Exacto knife in step 11.


    19. Fill the inside of the ring lug barrel with epoxy and place the ring lug back into position.


    20. Cover the ring lug and surrounding area with more epoxy. You are basically trying to make the ring lug an integral part of the assembly.


    21. Let the epoxy cure according to the directions for the epoxy you used.


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    It’s difficult to see the epoxy due to it being black, but you can see where it is in this picture and how it completely surrounds the shank of the ring lug.


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    22. Once fully cured, test the latch by lifting up on the spring arms and looking for any signs of the epoxy giving way or any movement of the ring lug.


    23. If all is ok, reassemble the complete assembly by referring back to the pictures on pages 3 and 4 for fitment back onto the gray flocked piece, attach it to the leather cover and reinstall it the car.




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    Marty Saracino January 2006

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