Driver front power seat switch stopped working

[MrBoom]

Had the 96 Cobra windows tinted yesterday. Not sure what I'm going to do about tinting or wrapping the dotted area in the rear window yet. Left it blank. Looks odd.

Anyway, the tinters moved the front seat all the way up and not it won't go back down. I took the switch apart and did not find anything obviously wrong, so I ordered a used one off eBay. Hopefully that works, but I'm sure it will go out at some point.

Is there anyway to manually manipulate the jack screw mechanism to lower the seat down? you would think you could get a ratchet on the end of the jack screw and manually turn it.

 

[ttocs]

years ago I had my seat lock up in the high position. I took the seat out and found that the worm drive screw that moves it up/down was just dirty as all heck and after a cleaning and greasing it worked perfect for years. Start there, if that looks ok then you can try to hook power up to it and test if the motor is getting power

 

[MrBoom]

years ago I had my seat lock up in the high position. I took the seat out and found that the worm drive screw that moves it up/down was just dirty as all heck and after a cleaning and greasing it worked perfect for years. Start there, if that looks ok then you can try to hook power up to it and test if the motor is getting power

It's the switch. No juice in the down position. The other 3 positions get juice.

 

[ttocs]

I had a switch go bad as well 10 yrs after the worm gear. When I swapped it out you could see where a contact on the back broke off.

 

[MrBoom]

I had a switch go bad as well 10 yrs after the worm gear. When I swapped it out you could see where a contact on the back broke off.

Where did you find a new switch, eBay?

 

[ttocs]

yup

 

[MrBoom]

I have a used switch ordered. If it doesn't work, I am going to switch to a manual seat track.

 

[Flade]

The switches are the most common failure issue. I always keep a spare or two in hand. LMR sells a good kit to replace the motors if one goes out but no one sells the switch.

 

[MrBoom]

Manual track seems like the easiest long term solution.

 

[PNW Mike]

If you know what pins don't have power at the switch, can you jumper across them at the switch to get the seat to move temporarily until you get a new switch in?

I had the worm drive screws on mine strip out, found a set of beefier ones that LMR sold and put those in. It was not a hard install, but was definately not something I thought about as a possible failure point. Weird and unexpected stuff can start to fail once a car gets past 20 years old...

 

[MrBoom]

Tried jumping the pins, but got nowhere except several blown fuses. Electrical is not my game.

 

[Bronco2Fan]

Salvage yard. I pick them up every time I see one.

 

[PNW Mike]

Tried jumping the pins, but got nowhere except several blown fuses. Electrical is not my game.

Sorry, but good to know your limits. For me it's rebuilding transmissions and rear axles. I treat those as a combination of the mystic arts and a third rail - do not touch!

 

[MrBoom]

Ordered the switch on eBay for $156 shipped. Found the same switch from the same vendor directly on their website for $56 shipped. So cancelled eBay order and ordered directly.

Switch worked to put the seat back in position. Hope to never need to use it again