Hi All,
Ah those dreaded washers, Thanks to the previous mail, it now all makes sense why there were washers laying under the seat on the carpet, one was a nylon washer and the other is a shaft grip washer, I thought they may have been from the mechanics under the seat but I only gave them a quick glance before storing them away.
lets be honest this type of retainer is not the best in the world, maybe ok to hold pram wheels on but not a hard working drivers seat, when I get time I am either going to stick my head under the seat and take a look, or I will take the seat out and see if they have machined a slot in the shaft where the grip washer sits so it locks it in place, but I doubt it very much as you are talking precision engineering for a seat frame which is not they way they are built.
I am sure that putting this back together on the shaft should be reasonable to carry out with an adjustable clamp and the use of a socket from the socket set which just fits over the shaft, this will then slide the grip washer down the shaft nice and tight and I will retain it all in place by cross drilling the shaft very tightly to the washer and inserting a split pin or steel taper pin.
The steel washer looks to have a 12mm diameter hole in the split section so the shaft must be 12.5mm or 13mm, so on this size shaft I would limit the drilled hole size to 2.8-3.2mm maximum, pop in pin and that's it (I hope)
And that should be it, as this should not be a big dark secret to Mazda but available to everyone out there I will take a few photo's of the task if it turns out to be as I think and post them for everyone who may have the same problem.
No scencia rocketo, or words to that effect.
Cheers