Installation of Recaro SRD into a 993

Contributed by Robert Henriksen


Tools required:
 

 · 5mm allen head socket driver
 · 6mm allen head socket driver
 · 6mm allen head wrench
 · stubby #2 phillips head screwdriver
 · large slotted screwdriver
 · 17mm socket
 · 3/8” drive ratchet
 · trouble light/drop light
 · hacksaw (optional)

   Accessories required or desirable:
 
 

·Brey-Krause p/n 9001 (http://www.enter.net/~breykrause/) - their website doesn’t explicitly list this part, but it exists, believe 
  me. It’s a bracket that bolts onto the inboard seatbelt buckle mounting point (it coexists with the original stock 3-point buckle),
  allowing you to clip the waist belt of a 4/5 point harness in place for use during DE, then remove it during street use. Since the
  Recaro is so much fun to install, you don’t want to have to pull it back out to add this piece in later.
·Stock seatbelt buckle mounting point:  The SRD I installed came used from another 993 owner. He had this mount welded on;
   I conclude that Recaro doesn’t ship the SRD with any accommodation for the stock seatbelt buckle. Unless you already have 
  arrangements to bolt the waistbelt of a 4/5/6 point harness to a freshly-drilled hole in the center tunnel of your car, you’ll need 
   this mounting point attached.
      
IMPORTANT: when this mount is attached to the frame of your seat, ensure it hugs the side of the seat as tightly as possible.
This mount and associated hardware will be your major headache in clearing the center tunnel in the car.
·Crotch belt of the 5-point harness: plan ahead how you’re going to attach the crotch strap to your car. Racing rules (as I
  understand it) require you to drill through the floorpan. I’m not racing, just DE; so I opted to run a strap between the two front
  bolts holding the seat to the floorpan, and attach the crotch strap to it. This had the added advantage of slightly tilting the seat
  bottom backwards for better thigh support. Fish the crotch belt through the seat bottom hole now; it’s harder to do once you’ve
  bolted the seat in place

    

Technical difficulty (1-10): 3
Aggravation factor:  7
(changing the spark plugs ranks a 10; pumping gas at Chevron is a 1)
 
 


1. Stock seat removal: this part’s easy, just to make you think you’ll be finished w. the whole job before lunch. 
a. Remove the rear floor mats, set them aside. 
b. Raise the seatbottom as high as it’ll go, and shift it all the way forward. 
c. Use the ratchet and 6mm allen head socket to remove the rear four bolts holding the seat rails to the floor of the car. 
d. Slide the seat all the way to the rear, and remove the two bolts securing the front of the seat rails to the floor.
e. Don’t heave the seat out of the car yet; you’ve got two wires to loosen (if you’ve got power lumbar support, etc, maybe your car has > 2 wires). Tilt the seatback all the way forward, then tilt the entire seat backwards to get well underneath the seat bottom. Unplug the power wire that drives the seat motors; and the smaller wire that runs to the seatbelt buckle (it illuminates the seat belt nag light on the dash if you haven’t buckled up).
f. Wrestle the seat out of your car.
2. Maintenance window
a. Do all the stuff you can’t normally do, like rescue 4 years of loose change, pens, trash, etc out from under the seat. Vacuum, etc etc.
3. Preparation
a. MEASURE the distance between the holes on the lower rail assembly. The mounting points on the floor of the car offer three different threaded holes in front, two in the rear. (Or is that two front, three rear? Anyway,) You’ll only have one combination of Recaro rail holes and  floorpan holes that’ll work – note this now!
b. My Recaro mounting rails came attached to the seat – you’ll probably have to get out your ratchet and 5mm allen head socket & attach the rails on your seat. Apparently, there are two flavors of rails: ‘flat’ rails and some other kind. Everyone I know wants more headroom with the new seat; you want the flat rails to mount the seat as low as possible.
c. The knobs on either side of the seatback won’t clear the sill & center tunnel – remove those now. My seat came w. these knobs already removed, so can’t help you here on the procedure.
d. Cut off the plastic tie-wraps holding the seatbelt buckle wire from the stock seat frame, and use a 17mm socket to remove the buckle/wire assembly
e. Assemble the buckle (and Brey-Krause bracket, if you choose) to the Recaro, using that stock buckle mounting bracket that you’ve had welded on, or otherwise acquired. Brey-Krause includes a diagram of the pieces & how they fit together. If you’re not using the extra bracket, just assemble the buckle same as stock
f. Slide the rails all the way forward to expose the 5mm allen bolt holding the rail to the seat. Loosen this rear bolt enough to slip the wire between the rail & seat, then tighten back down. It won't squeeze the wire (you just have to loosen to get the connector through), and you won't have to worry about damaging the wire on the seat rails when sliding the seat. No tie-wraps required.
g. Thread the crotch belt of your 5-point harness through the hole in the seat bottom (assuming you have opted to get each of these items)
h. Take a deep breath
4. Installation
a. Tilt the SRD onto its face; raise the slide release and move the seat rails to the front (IOW, such that the seat would be slide as far to the rear of the car as possible). Let go of the release to latch the rails into place.
b. Set aside the washers that were used with the six 6mm allen head bolts that held the stock seats in place; while you’re at it, set aside two of the six bolts. You’ll only be able to use 4.
c. Place the seat in position on the floorpan. I tilted the seatback all the way forward to make it easier to get through the door.
d. If you’re going to take my approach, and secure the crotch belt via another belt strung between the two front bolts, then slip the buckles for said belt underneath the front end of the rails now.
e. Line up the hole on the front end of each rail (and optionally the belt buckles of #4d) to the appropriate hole in the floor bottom (see step 3a – you DID measure the hole spacing & pick the right holes to use, right?). Insert & tighten these two bolts about 90% of the way. You may have to use the 6mm allen wrench instead of the socket to tighten these; the Recaro doesn’t give you nearly as much room as the stock seat did.
f. Slide the seat ALL the way to the front
g. Get the rear two bolts inserted. What makes this fun is the seat belt buckle mounting bracket & Brey-Krause bracket pressing against the center tunnel, making it hard to line up the holes here. Sweat & curse a lot.
h. When you get the rear bolts tightened down, go back & tighten up the front bolts as well. Get out a hacksaw & chop ½ of the allen wrench off to clear the Recaro, since you may not be able to slide the seat all the way forward now (same obstruction w. the buckle mounting bracket against the tunnel)
i. Go have that beer now.
5. Follow-up
a. I’m pleasantly surprised at the extra headroom I gained. The people I had talked to beforehand had been dismissive of how much headroom you get out of the SRD & flat rails versus stock. What I haven’t had much time to adapt to yet is some loss of forward vision (dashboard, windshield wipers obstructing near-forward view). I might be willing to try re-orienting the wipers’ parked position from driver’s to passenger’s side; but from the looks of the DIY, I’ll have to want to pretty bad!
b. Got to use pliers to adjust the seatback angle L with the knob gone.

 

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