Removing arm rests on 92, 93, 94 Suburbans and trucks (bucket seats)

[Burning oil]

For years since 1993 I never knew Until today!!

Never knew the arm rest were removable with out disassembly of the seat. Anyway I figuered out how to remove them. It was driving me crazy because they were sticky and would sqeek when moved. They needed to be lubed so I started playing with them and found the right combo to remove them.



Push in at pivot. I used a hammer handle

Rotate the arm rest rearward


It will pop out like this.


You have to get the head on the seat past the raised area in the groove of the guide channel.


I wonder if 95&^ are the same??

 

[jrsavoie]

Now, how do you fix a front seatbelt so it retracts fully like it did when new.

Thanks for a great write up on something I have been wondering about. I need to print this. We are going to put seat covers on the 98 Suburban - the seat covers I bought 6 or 7 years ago when the drivers seat got a couple of cracks in the leather.

 

[Burning oil]

Not sure about the seat belts. Necesity is the mother of invention.

Forgot to say above, I used white lithium greese on the pivots. Much better now!

 

[WarWagon]

Sigh... I am going to have to get off my butt and fix a high effort armrest now that you have shown me the way.

 

[Burning oil]

It takes maybe 5 seconds to get it off

 

[3500GMC]

Kewl. Did not know that.

 

[WarWagon]

It takes maybe 5 seconds to get it off

The working ones maybe. The high effort ones... :skep:

30 min later it still would not pop in with a hammer, tire iron, etc so it could move backwards. So I used a blunt hammer to smack it backwards.
Then I pried on it some -about half an hour.
Then I got a pickle fork out and beat it into submission. :mad2: It finally came out of the seat.
I then sanded the rust off, used a battery post cleaner brush in the seat, greased it and put it back together.

Works fine now. Why it was rusty I don't know.

 

[Burning oil]

You do have to get a feel for it, but I can get mine off in maybe 5 seconds. Today it was so nice not having the binding and the sqweek when I moved it. On the Suburban 92-94 anyway they have armrests on both sides of both seats.

 

[jrsavoie]

I always liked that style much better.

You do have to get a feel for it, but I can get mine off in maybe 5 seconds. Today it was so nice not having the binding and the sqweek when I moved it. On the Suburban 92-94 anyway they have armrests on both sides of both seats.

 

[Burning oil]

Now, how do you fix a front seatbelt so it retracts fully like it did when new.

Thanks for a great write up on something I have been wondering about. I need to print this. We are going to put seat covers on the 98 Suburban - the seat covers I bought 6 or 7 years ago when the drivers seat got a couple of cracks in the leather.

Knowing this will make seat covers so much nicer fitting. Before I had to wedge as much of the cover as I could get down in the pivot area and it looked like POOP.

 

[WarWagon]

1995 + is not the same. My seat has a padded part behind the armrest and the cut groove will not allow it to move back no matter what.

 

[Burning oil]

OH yea, I need to look at my 96, but I think its the same way?

 

[Hobie1dog]

Google led me here, thanks for sharing this with us, it saved the day for me. I did have to pull the Velcro tabs apart at the bottom of the rear seat cover. And had to pull the zipper up in the back to allow me to put some Kroil in the hinge pin/socket area and soak for an hour. After that, the armrest that was giving several of us a very hard time, came right off. It does take a huge effort to get the armrest pushed in far enough to get to the large hole area, if there's any corrosion inside ( which is to be expected for a 94 model I have owned for the past 17 years).

 

[WarWagon]

@Hobie1dog Yeah, next time I will take apart the seat for the stubborn ones...

 

[Burning oil]

Wow! blast from the past

Glad it helped.

 

[D-Day]

Burning Oil, so happy you figured this out and posted it. So helpful, thank you.

 

[WKeiter]

Just found this write up that is quite old. Trying to fix a seat now and armrest is back but won’t pop off. It’s about 10 o’clock position behind seat. Doesn’t move farther and could feel it go through tighter area. How the hell do you pop it out?

 

[Burning oil]

Just found this write up that is quite old. Trying to fix a seat now and armrest is back but won’t pop off. It’s about 10 o’clock position behind seat. Doesn’t move farther and could feel it go through tighter area. How the hell do you pop it out?

(10 years ago) If I recall they could be rusted so you may need to work it/twist it out. Some lube if you can will help.

 

[NVW]

In ones Golden Years, Lube is Necessary.

 

[WKeiter]

Got it off, had to take along screwdriver from inside the back and tap it out. Thanks everyone