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Lowering the power seat without the switch
#1

I have the 8-way (I think? two + switches, (+) (+)) seats for both driver and passenger. Both are completely inop. The driver's side switch actually disintegrated. Is there any way to lower the seat height without that switch? (Jumping contacts on the back of the switch? Any idea as to which two to jump?) Right now it's stuck "all the way up" and my head hits the top.
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#2

You can try jumping the contacts.... the wires leading to the upper arrow and the lower arrow will be the ones you want, plus whichever one is the common I suppose.

As long as the seat still moves fore and aft, I would take the seat out and use a cordless power drill to turn the cable going into the correct motor to try and lower the seat while you troubleshoot the switch or wait for a replacement. Could be that your motor is dead too. If that's the case, you need a new motor no matter what. With the seat out, you can diagnose the whole problem- motor or switch or motor & switch. If the seat doesn't move fore and aft, that motor and/or switch could be fried too. There is a plastic cover at the bottom front of the seat, remove this and you should see a spot where you can insert a drill driver bit into a gear and mechanically move the seat back and forth. If you get resistance, stop immediately and check see if anything is stuck in the rails. If so, clean the rails before you continue.

If you decide to remove the seats, a couple of tips:

1) Use a good quality hex bit and make sure it is seated in the bolt head well. Failure to do this could result in a stripped bolt head, and that ain't fun at all. If the seat has never been out before, the bolts may be troublesome to break loose for the first time.
2) The seats a freakin' heavy and bulky. Put a towel or some other protective covering over the sill so you don't scratch anything while removing the seat.
3) The motors and the seat switches are fairly expensive new, but available from the usual places like Sunset. You can get used parts that are in working condition from places like Oklahoma Foreign, DC Automotive, eBay, etc.
4) Doesn't hurt to have a few spare seat bolts (new) available should you damage any you take out.
5) Don't forget to disconnect all the wiring below the seat before trying to take it out of the car....!
6) Put the seat on a work bench or some saw horses to make working on it easier.

I had to do just about everything to the seats except for recovering. I've even completely removed the backrest from one! Not fun! I had some loose change jamed in one rail and replaced two motors and one switch. While working on them is not technically difficult, it is a pain in the @ss nonetheless, especially if you don't take the seat out of the car! I tried to fix the seat in my first coupe while in the car by tilting it back and forth. I smartened up with my cab and completely removed the seat to replace a broken switch.

Complete removal also gives you a chance to give the seat a real good cleaning too, if you're into that...

Good luck!
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#3

WOW - is that ever the voice of experience! (Reminds me a little bit of my door lock mechanism trials and tribulations.)
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#4

Door panel removal and seats - I got a lock on 'em!!!!! Not good for much else though....

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

Also, I did try to clean / restore the switch that was kaput on my seat. Ended up buying a new switch because, as others have said, when you take apart the switch, lotsa little things can fly around and so they did!!!!! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif[/img]
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#5

...and steering wheels! Can't forget about them.
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#6

rumour has it that each motor has a manual operation capability that is done with a long allen wrench - i have never done it, and don't know where the socket is, but i've seen a drawing of it in the manual
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94 Midnight Metallic Blue Cab Porsche 968 w/deviating cashmere/black interior and WAY too many mods to list - thanks to eric for creating www.968forums.com



"It isn't nearly as expensive to do it right as it is to do it wrong."
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#7

Wow Jim. Thats good stuff.

Ever think of doing a DIY PDF?

Might already be there, I didnt check.
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#8

The fore and aft movement can be done with a long allen wrench should your switch die- the location to do so is under the lower front plastic guard. You take out the two screws that hold the black plastic guard, and beneath you will see the white plastic gear with a hex recess in it. This is what I mentioned turning by drill as doing it with the hex will take a long time!!! The hex key is better because you can strip out the gear easily using a drill, especially if there is some sort of blockage in the seat rails (don't ask me how I know!). You can also disconnect the steel cable coming from the motor and turn it using a drill as well. This will only do one side, so you have to do the other side to move the seat, then switch back and forth to "work" the seat far enough in one direction.

I do not believe the other seat movements can be done by wrench. I do not recall seeing any other gears below the seat which would allow you such functionality. I am pretty sure they only provided it on the fore/aft movement so as to be able to remove the seat and fix whatever, especially since seat removal can only really occur if you can move the seat fore and aft! All other things can be fixed easily as long as you can take out the seat.

No DIY as I did this many months ago and I am horrible with taking pics.... Sorry!

Steering wheels are a little lower on my knowledge list!

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif[/img]

Since I need to replace the aforementioned gear in my driver's seat, I'll try to snap some pics and ask the mods to throw something up in the library. Bear with me as I am working on a house project and I do not expect to be done anytime soon. The house takes priority right now, unfortunately! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif[/img]
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#9

Wow, it sounds like there is a lot to these seats. My fore/aft movement died many years ago, but since nobody drives the car but me, fixing it has been low on my priority list. Besides, my wish list includes a set of much lighter seats more suitable for tracking.

But lately I've been contemplating teaching my fifteen year-old daughter to drive a stick on my car (I know - horrors!), for which I'd have to move the seat way forward. So, maybe it's time to dig into this thing, with all the time off I have over the holidays. If the activation energy (sorry, my ChemE nerdiness is showing) for this project remains too high, I now know, thanks to this thread, how to move the seat manually. Thanks!
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#10

Hooray for ChemEs.
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#11

"But lately I've been contemplating teaching my fifteen year-old daughter to drive a stick on my car (I know - horrors!"

LOL - I got mine into my RX-8 (a bit more forgiving clutch pedal) and she gave up after about 10 minutes. Now my 14 year-old boy, that's another story. I put him in the seat adn within 5 minutes he was shifting like a pro - been hiding the keys ever since...
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#12

"LOL - I got mine into my RX-8 (a bit more forgiving clutch pedal) and she gave up after about 10 minutes. Now my 14 year-old boy, that's another story. I put him in the seat adn within 5 minutes he was shifting like a pro - been hiding the keys ever since... "

I learned how to drive on a Mazda RX4 with a stick. It was just after the earth's crust had hardened, so my memory is a little dim, but I remember it being insanely difficult for me to grasp. Kind of like my first, oh, I don't know, twenty trips to the track. But then it just clicked. I hope my daughter is a faster learner than her old man...
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#13

Must be something in the air. Man I was on such a roll thiese last two weeks with getting the final bugs out of this car. Got the Brake Pad light issue handled (Thanks to Jim Child) , got the airbag light reset and the (!) is finally out. Had this issue with the Caster Blocks where my shop installed and said "there was one that seemed to not want to snug up.......better keep an eye on it". Turned out they used the old bolts when the new Caster Blocks were installed and they were kinda like hourglass shaped where the threads had wore down...........causing the loseness. New grade 10 Bolts cinched right up to 34 lbs torque. (Thanks Flash). So I was putting the dash back in and dropped a screw. I ran the seat all the way forward to get it.............then all the way back to get in and finish the job. When done, I hit the switch to move it back to my driving position and it stops about 4 inches from where I like it. Looked under the seat at the rails...........don't see a thing. Moves freely from that spot back and forward to that spot again but won't go past it. Tried the manual override to move it.......but it just doesn't want to go any further. Before I pull this thing out.................is there a detent somewhere that needs reset? Anybody got any ideas?
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#14

OK, took a better look this morning and I just can't see anything in the rails that is stopping the seat from moving forward. Decided to take the seat out and took the front bolts out no problem. Ran the seat foreward as far as it would go and its not far enough to see the rear rail bolts. It also appears there is another bolt about midway back on the rail that appears to be coming up from the bottom of the car into a welded nut in the rail. Its not shown on the schematic of the seat. Anyway, looks like I'm in a pickle. Any suggestions?
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#15

got a pic of that odd bolt and the rail? that doesn't ring a bell
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94 Midnight Metallic Blue Cab Porsche 968 w/deviating cashmere/black interior and WAY too many mods to list - thanks to eric for creating www.968forums.com



"It isn't nearly as expensive to do it right as it is to do it wrong."
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#16

Last post had an error that I had used up my alloted text or something....................so here are the pics again. The first two show the stud coming up thu the nut with the front bolt as a reference point. The last pic shows where the seat is stopping in relation to the front bolt.
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