I was annoyed by the armrest pad moving every time I touched it or flipped it up.I like German engineering and work for a German company but this design to hold the armrest was bad..real bad..

I made a large detent ball and then drilled a hole in the bottom of the pad housing and then epoxied a latch to have a positive lock when closed. I am very pleased with the outcome and performance.Couple pics to get point across.

I made a vid to show how well it holds.http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v2...inimods005.mp4 Cheers

 

Nice job! I guess you're pretty good with fabrication, seeing as how your name is lathedog, haha.

I ended up putting two thin strips of the soft side of velcro on each long side of the armrest lid to try and prevent it from sliding back so easily. It still moves some, but not nearly as much as before. If I get annoyed enough again I'll try this out.

 

Thanks FlzRider.
yes a machinist..lol. I worked a your city power plant outside of Gainsville last year. Want to go back this fall but will have to go to Wi. that sucks cause I liked the plant and people were very nice to work with..

 

Would be nice to share a proper detailed how-to...

 

I was going to try a small but very strong magnet. Won't take up as much space as a ball and detent and won't push up on the lid either.

What I'd really like to change is how the lever for reclining the passenger seat is located. With the armrest down, it's impossible to get at and with the armrest up, it's still a major pain. And it should pull rather than push. Grrrr.....

 

"Would be nice to share a proper detailed how-to..."



I basicly showed what I made. I have a machine shop at home to make things.I showed the basic idea. It works great and should never wear out.

All I did was drilled a 3/4 dia. pc. of delrin plastic to accept a 1/2" dia ball bearing and a short length of compression spring.I kept trimming the spring till I got the final tension and length. I didnt drilll thru the 3/4 " pc.. I left 1/4 inch at bottom and tapped it for a 1/4 20 bolt.

I set the approx . 7/8 long piece on the back of arm rest as shown and put a scale across sides to get a height. I measure that and subtracted 1/8" and that is the finished height.

I then drilled the armrest to mount the plastic post. A 5/16 clearance hole drilled thru and then I installed a 1/4" bolt from the bottom up thru and tightened it.

I then laid the pad on top it the closed position and then tilted it to the side and marked the bottom of ad and then drilled a 7/16" hole into the base of the pad...Dont drill thru or it will look ugly..

The area that I drilled happen to be next to a slot that is molded into armrest pad base. I cut a rectangle plstis piece to fit into the slot as the pic shows. Then epoxied it into place. After it dried i used a dremel tool and cut a bevel and lowered the height to make a positive latch. Thats it...Assemble and enjoy. Now when I shift it stays put! Love it.. Jim