Replacing seat sliders

[anewman 0]

Hello! I am not sure if this is the correct spot to ask but thought I would give it a try. I just purchased my first boat. It is a 2001 Response LX. The next thing I did was join this forum. 

We took the boat out for the first time yesterday and although I had driven it the day we bought it, I wasn't in it for long. Now that I spent the day in it, I noticed the back right of the driver's seat felt loose. When I got home last night I took the seat off and discovered the slide bolts were pretty rusty. And wouldn't you know, the back right slide bolt had no nut attaching it to the seat. The bolt is too rusted to accept a nut. 

As naive as I am, I decided to just replace the slides. I assumed I would need to take off the round black plate between the slides to gain access to the bolts below so that I could remove the slides. I unscrewed the six screws but I can't remove the plate. The plate has to be lifted straight off because there is a lip on the under side of it (it cannot be slid left or right). If I lift it straight up it is blocked by the upper part of the slides. So....I have to take the slides off to get the plate off and I have to take the plate off to get the slides off. Anyone have any suggestions? 

Thank you!
 

Edited September 12, 2018 by anewman

[vernonreeve 4]

Try sliding the slides all the way back to get a little more clearance.

[anewman 0]

Thank you for the follow up! I have tried sliding them all the way forward and all the way back. Still not enough clearance. I believe I need to take the sliding part off the tracks but can't figure out how to do it. Maybe I'll just stick with a slightly wobbly seat for now. 

[Bozboat 2,749]

39 minutes ago, anewman said:

Thank you for the follow up! I have tried sliding them all the way forward and all the way back. Still not enough clearance. I believe I need to take the sliding part off the tracks but can't figure out how to do it. Maybe I'll just stick with a slightly wobbly seat for now. 

It has been a few years, but I seem to remember the top slide comes off the bottom slide and then the round circle pops out. 

[John I. 471]

I have had my driver's seat off plenty of times, but never had occasion to remove the sliders or the round access cap. At the risk of stating the obvious, I would assume there is a tab or clip near each end of the slides that prevents the top portion from sliding right off the bottom portion.   

[Woodski 1,361]

@anewman:  IIRC, when I removed my seat, first step I removed just the seat from the slides - required moving seat forward and back to access the nuts, then removed the round black center access cap and did a similar process to remove slides from floor.  The slides are a very simple generic part.

[JasonK 160]

On my 1990 they were loose but never came off. Looked like I would have had to cut them with a hack saw.

[anewman 0]

Thank you all for the information! As John I. noted, it should be easy enough to remove the top slide which would give me access to remove the black plate. We have been out of town so I haven't had a chance to look closer at the slides and see if there is a tab somewhere. I will do that over the weekend and report back. Thanks again!

[UWSkier 4,529]

Wait.  I'm confused.  Which bolts are rusted?  The ones that screw UP from the slider into the seat base?  Those are simple carriage bolts and can be found at any home improvement store.  Or are the bolts that go down into the glassed-in seat structure the problem?

I just bought a 2001 Response also and one of the first things I did was take the seat off the sliders and put more washers on back, less on front, to tilt the whole seat forward a few degrees.  I was able to do this easily by removing the seat from the sliders.  If you have a bad carriage bolt, take the seat off the sliders, and slide the slider with the bad bolt as far forward or back is necessary to remove the carriage bolt.  Replace with new.  Easy job.