Repairing Electric Seat

[Mopar1973Man]

Hey Gang...

I figured I would share my attempt at fixing my electric driver seat on my 1996 Dodge Ram. Now when I started the motor wouldn't even turn. So I verified the power was coming from the switch. Rock the switch one way you got power and rock it the other and power again but reversed polarity which is correct. No I grabbed a Allen socket and turned the motor a bit by had and it got loosen up. Then I can hit the switch and the motor turns for a short time binds up. (sigh) something is wrong in the gears. So after slowing ratching the motor around I was able to get the seat high enough to pull the 4 bolts in the seat bottom and just lay in the back seat area. Now I got good working room.

Now you'll need a rod or in my case I used a small #1 Phillips screw driver and a hammer to knock out the 2 pins. There is one pin holding the motor and the other pin holding the screw casing to the seat frame. Now from here I got the motor out and the gear case is just a couple of small hex head metal screws. As you'll see the both gears are damaged. One is completely broke the tip off and the other split the gear (not shown).

Now using lacquer thinner I cleaned both gears up and got all the grease off the gears. Next using some Gorilla Glue and a razor blade I was able to push the Gorilla Glue all the way down in the cracks really well. Using my table vise I clamped the gear carefully to squeeze the plastic back together and allow the glue to set up. 

This will be easy to clean up with a small shop knife or file to clean the gear up. Now I moved on to the broken gear. Found it was hollow so I hunted around the shop for something solid I can place in the core of the gear to give strength after gluing. I found a metal clothes hanger and snip a very small chunk off. Light reamed out the hole just enough to make it solid.

So I'm waiting for the one gear to set up right now and then I'll glue this gear as well.

[Mopar1973Man]

Update... Gorilla Glue doesn't bind to plastic very well. So project delayed till Monday.

[Buzzinhalfdozen]

So what do you think caused these to break in the first place? Age and fatigue or was the adjuster rod binding up?

[Mopar1973Man]

Unknown. It's been broke since the day I bought the truck back in 2001. Since MoparMom and myself agreed to put effort into these truck and fix what I can. Since The_Hammer is starting a interior thread I figured I put some effort into the truck today.

Educated guess. It did bind up at some point. The previous owner used pilers or channel locks to spin the rod to adjust the seat. Sad part is I've got a seat from a 2000 Dodge but the motors are way different. I'm going to place these 2000 Dodge seat motors up for sale.

I'm going to head into town and get plastic epoxy tomorrow attempt to get these glue back together.

Edited December 20, 2015 by Mopar1973Man

[tbo1450]

Let me know if u can't fix the motor. Send me the last eight of ur vin number. I wanna see if it still available from mopar. Maybe I can help if u dont want to post ur vin on here you can text it to me.

Edited December 30, 2015 by tbo1450

[Mopar1973Man]

Go take a peek...

http://articles.mopar1973man.com/members-rides/17-mopar1973man/26-1996-dodge-ram-1500

[tbo1450]

 Got it. I'll check tomorrow

[tbo1450]

No luck. No longer available. No dealers show. No vintage parts. It was offered only as the whole assembly. 

[Mopar1973Man]

Wrecking yards here I come. I might actually convert it back over to manual seats and skip the whole electric seat thing just a big PITA... My 02 works fine with manual seats.

Edited December 31, 2015 by Mopar1973Man

[dieseled]

I bought parts from this place for mine      2men1garage.net

[Mopar1973Man]

Thanks that is killer someone is making replacement replacement seat motors.

http://www.2men1garage.net/index.html