porsche0nut

When I bought my car it was known that one direction of the seat controls didn't work - the "forward tilt" of the seat back. No big deal at first, the seat was in a comfortable position. Unfortunately, over time people tend to play with the controls and now the seat is way too reclined for my liking. Time to fix it!

Fairly easy to take apart, all 4 little ball bearings were there (though I'm guessing one of them wasn't making proper contact) and luckily as they all fell out they didn't roll out of sight.

I have no clue how people put this back together with the control box in any orientation other than facing up, because you cannot set those ball bearings in place when it is sideways. Unfortunately there wasn't enough slack in the wiring for me to re-orient it, so I decided to solder the ball bearings to their spring seats.

Worked well enough, the ball bearings stayed in place as I fumbled to put it back together, seat adjusting constantly on different axis. What a pain it is to keep all of the components together in their grooves while trying to push the housing into place! I ended up wedging the assembly with mini screwdrivers to keep the pieces positioned as I slid it in.

Now the seat is in a really awkward position! Of course, the ball bearings don't really work as ball bearings after they've been soldered to the springs, so the control was really stiff.... and as I'm adjusting my seat the plastic 4-way switch snaps off.

Great. Seat is in a terrible position. So I take it back apart, and play with the controls inside until my seat is in a good position. Then as smoothly as I possibly could I pushed the assembly back together. Of course the seat moved a bit, but other than being a bit high it's in a good position.

So, does anybody have any suggestions for how to do this properly next time? Is there a way to disconnect the entire switch and take the whole assembly + wires out of the seat for rebuilding it?

I just looked up the replacement part on Pelican...... how is this switch $130!?!!?

rusnak

Someone on Pelican posted a fix. I think (dont quote me) it was MThomas?

Amber Gramps

Dielectric grease would have helped. I use it everywhere.

theiceman

ive never had such luxuries such as power seats in my car .. but looking at your pics i would have taken it apart as you did cleaned it all up and verified the connections. Then put it back together with big gobs of dialectric grease to hold the ***** in place. you need the diaectric grease anyway to stop arcing at the seat contacts. and it would have held your ***** in place ....

ok i said it ..

1986 Targa

Hope this helps the "next" guy:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...-switches.html

dshepp806

what a frikin' design...? Is this a common design (with the ball-bearing-looking thingies)? WTF? Was that the best they had to offer in my 1989?

Thanks for sharing your data with us..

Doyle