6 way power seat issue

1966 t and c

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The 6 way power seat on my 66 T&C worked great when I took it out. Got the seats recovered and reintalled the seats and now the front seat want go up and down. It goes forward and backwards fine, tilts but looks like only the back is tilting not the front. It starts to move up and down just a slight bit and then stops. Anyone have any ideas what might be the issue?
 
The 6 way power seat on my 66 T&C worked great when I took it out. Got the seats recovered and reintalled the seats and now the front seat want go up and down. It goes forward and backwards fine, tilts but looks like only the back is tilting not the front. It starts to move up and down just a slight bit and then stops. Anyone have any ideas what might be the issue?

The 6way power seat has a transmission and three clutches that run the various functions and the transmission is hooked up via a series of cables similar to a speedometer cable. If you are locking up in the up/down position, I am guessing that you probably have a problem with the transmission. It could have thrown a tooth from one of the gears that is blocking the movement of the gear assembly or some other piece of debris could have gotten in there. To get the transmission for the seat out, your are going to have to take the whole seat back out and remove it from the underside of the seat. While you have the seat out, carefully check the cables to be sure that they are free and the various mechanisms that they hook to are free as well. When you are satisfied that the cables and mechanisms are ok, proceed to evaluate the transmission by hooking power and a good ground to the motor assembly to test the unit in the various functions. It works best to detach the various cables from the unit and use the factory switches to test the functions. If the up/down function is still locked, you have isolated the problem in the transmission. The FSM should have details on how to disassemble the transmission. The parts for these units went obsolete many years ago so if you need parts you will probably need to find a unit from a donor car.

Dave
 
Did you leave the power base installed on the seat when it went to the upholstery shop? Just curious. Not sure what they might have done while they had it that might have caused that issue.

For good measure, make sure that there is nothing they did that might be wanting to limit the travel of the jacks, up and down. You'll have to look at this with the seat on a work bench and powering the motors with jumper wires and such. Maybe hooked a listing wire to the seat frame and restricted movement of the power base when they did?

IF the power switch might have gotten "tweaked" in the re-upholstery process, that can be a visual thing. IF the inner contacts are flaky, their spring action might feel different than the others, relating to the up/down or front/back functions.

I believe there's a way to carefully disassemble the individual "jacks" for inspection and possibly for some new lube?

Please keep us posted,
CBODY67
 
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Does it work with you out of the seat?

Most of the time it's just a matter of taking the seat base off and doing some cleaning and greasing.
 
What a drag! But par for the course with these old cars. Take something out to fix and something else breaks during the job! I don't envy you after reading Dave's post. Good luck!
 
Does it work with you out of the seat?

Most of the time it's just a matter of taking the seat base off and doing some cleaning and greasing.

Got the base off and inspected all the jacks, the two front jacks were stuck due to the old grease setting up like glue. Before I took the seat out to be recovered I raised it all the way to the top thinking it would give me more clearance to get it out. when the jacks bottomed out the two surfaces stuck together and then 3 or 4 weeks later when the seat went back in the surfaces were stuck tight. After taking the jacks apart, cleaning and greasing them the seat works better than ever. Turns out that it was a good thing to have happen when it did, would have been a problem sooner or later. Although the seat was working before the motor must have been working harder than intended, it moves much easier and faster now.
 
Got the base off and inspected all the jacks, the two front jacks were stuck due to the old grease setting up like glue. Before I took the seat out to be recovered I raised it all the way to the top thinking it would give me more clearance to get it out. when the jacks bottomed out the two surfaces stuck together and then 3 or 4 weeks later when the seat went back in the surfaces were stuck tight. After taking the jacks apart, cleaning and greasing them the seat works better than ever. Turns out that it was a good thing to have happen when it did, would have been a problem sooner or later. Although the seat was working before the motor must have been working harder than intended, it moves much easier and faster now.


Nothing broken, excellent outcome.

Dave
 
By observation, the lubes which any OEM used fit into the "good enough" category rather than "the absolute best" category. Saved them lots of money and lasted plenty long enough. By comparison, the new grease was probably slicker than anything available back then. Things always work better when they move easier.

CBODY67
 
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