robot808

I went for a beautiful drive today, car was humming but...
I reclined the drivers seat and it will not starighten back up. I reclined it a little further to see if I could get it to come back to life, but no luck. Now it is back too far. I've got a cool gangsta lean goin', but it's not me. Any tips before I go under there?
Thanks as always,

Mrmerlin

is this an electric seat??
If so then the switch is probably dirty and needs some cleaning. Its easier to work on the switch if the seat is out of the car. To remove the seat first remove nthe 2 front securing bolts then slide the seat forward then undo the rear securing bolts then tip the seat to undo the harness. put the seat on a blanket on a flat surface to catch any loose switch parts, you could have a ball bearing or flat piece of metal come out of the switch IIRC

Red UFO

if that don't work, switch your switches with one that works until you fix the other one

Jfrahm

The switches are pretty easy to take apart and clean if you are careful. It can even be done, uncomfortably, without removing the seat although it's not easy to keep track of the little ***** and whatnot.
Putting the switch back together after cleaning is not too hard if you use dabs of dielectric grease to hold things in place during reassembly.

However if your car has been dirty and has pet hair or whatever in it, this is a good time to clean the tracks and clean/lube the gears so you might as well pull the seats and make it all easier. I need to do this to my 968.

A coin in the tracks can cause the gears to strip out too so it's good to pull the seats and clean things out under there.

I just had the seats out of my Saab and my snazzy new Skil Power Ratchet made that fast and easy, BTW. Good tool.
-Joel.

jpitman2

Almost certainly dirty switch contacts, they seem to burn quite readily. I bought a complete panle with 3 switches on ebay a few months ago very cheaply.
On an 82, it should have 6 way seats - 3 rectangular switches. The whole plate removes with 2 screws, then you can ease the connectors out of the rear of the switches, and work on them on the bench. With a thin driver you should be able to winkle the rocker out of its pivots. Then you can clean the contact points in the body of the switch, and the contact rockers.

jp 83 Euro S AT 51k

heinrich

Bob tap the switch for now while you press it

Hi Ho Silver

Its easy, I did mine last sunday, passenger seat (UK) wouldnt go back, remove the 4 little screws, whole plate comes out, remove the offending swirch, test with one of your others that works. If it works with new switch, take apart the old switch, mine had crusty bake on it, cleaned with a fibre glass electric pen, tested, it worked, put back together, bingo

marton

Had that problem some years ago - it was too fiddly to clean the switches (kept dropping my *****) so I bought some new switches from Jim after the OPC tried to sell me a whole new panel for some astronomic price.

Marton

robot808

Thanks so much for the input guys. I will try to get to it tonight.

robot808

Guys, thanks so much. It was a very easy fix (even for me). I took the four screws out, slid off the switches, took the switches apart and cleaned them. When I re-installed everything worked great. I even repaired the fore and aft switch that never worked. Very simple. Thanks for all the help.

Charley B

What is that?

Hi Ho Silver

Its a cool pen that you can but from Maplin in the UK, dont know if you have them in the US, its an elctronic shop. Basically its like a paint brush but the head retracts up and down like a ball point pen, the fibre glass is abrasive and cleans your electical contacts, makes it easier to get at hard to reach areas.

Buddha_Kip

in the states, you can get those pens @ the local Pep Boys/Auto Zone/whatever. They're found in the paint touch-up section. They're used for spot removing rust and paint. 3M makes it.

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