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MG MGB Technical - Stuck headrests

Hi everyone,
Has anyone got any ideas to free off the headrests, on our newly aquired '73 B please.
So far I've tried to pull them up, push them down, rattle them sideways and all I've achieved is that I'm now exhausted.
I've now admitted defeat for today and left the shafts stewing in a release agent.
Thanks in advance, for any help.
Graham

AFAIK they are not designed to come out without removing the seat back cover! The "catch" is a flat springy piece of steel that has an "ear" protruding thru slots either side of the headrest shaft. These ears are angled so you can push the head rest in but can't pull it out. I managed to make a pice of thin metal shaped around the section of the shaft, Pushed this down the shaft (headrest NOT pulled fully up) so it covered the ears. Then pulled headrest up. The metal "sleeve" pushed the ears in enough to remove the head rest. Lotta swearing required.
Michael Beswick

Cheers for that Michael. I've tried the swearing and that didn't work on its own, so now (tomorrow) I'll try the piece of metal.
Graham

Had the same problem on my 77 roadster. There is only one 'ear' on one 'side' of each tube of a headrest (on mine). Took of the seat cover, was doing it anyway. Still a real pain as the 'ear' spring mechanism was rusted solid (as so much else...). Used WD40 and let it sit for a few days. Is fine now.
/Moss
Moss

Just had the same problem.
I stood on the seat and gave the head rest a mega yank and the spring bit just buckled and the headrest
came out. no problem.

Tim
Tim Hodgkinson

I've used a hydraulic jack in the past, resting on the floor with a piece of timber bearing on the bottom of the headrest.
PaulH Solihull

Job done.
In the end I used "levers & moments" to free them off and to be honest, they weren't as bad as I thought, but I wonder how much of that was down to the plus gas that I put on the night before.

Thanks to everyone for their ideas.
Graham

No problem getting mine out (they weren't there when I bought the car) but when I put new ones back I left out the metal spring clip. I have a non pocket tonneau cover so I need to put mine in and out often. There is also a plastic roller thing in there that is meant to help hold them in place. That can seize up too.
Simon Jansen

"I left out the metal spring clip."

Ditto for the same reason, although I have a pocketed cover now. Fortunately the drivers headrest slid in and out easily, the passengers didn't (despite no clip) but the seat-back tilted forward did the same job.
PaulH Solihull

This thread was discussed between 09/06/2011 and 13/06/2011

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