Off and on I've had problems with the driver's side power seat on our 97 Monty. Sometimes when moving the seat back it would stop and I'd have to move it forward until some point where the reverse would work. Yesterday it stalled again and when moved all the way forward it would not go back at all.

The symptoms:

O When switched to forward, the motor would run briefly then stop-- seat at the limit of forward movement. The motor works-- good news.

O When switched to move back, there would be a click noise under the seat but the motor would not run.

The problem and fix:

The clicking noise under the seat indicates that the seat position switch is working and is activating the seat relay (B). But for some reason power is not getting to the seat motor.

1) Remove the lower seat cushion. Remove the two bolts under the front of the seat (A), lift up the front ot the cushion, and pull it forward and out of the frame.

2) The seat relay is the box (B). I found an old Blockbuster Video card in the name of the original Monty owner's son (circa 1998) jammed under the seat slide limit switch (C). To check to see if the problem is the limit switch, pull the connector from the switch going into the seat relay (at the upper left corner of the relay box). If the seat then moves, then the problem is the limit switch.

3)The limit switch has two microswitch levers (D) that ride on the right hand seat track. When the seat approaches either end of it's travel, the appropriate lever is pushed up by a bump on the track and the power from the relay in the relay box to the motor is shut off.
You can unbolt the limit switch and test each micro switch to see if that's the problem. In my case the card had fallen between the console and seat and had slipped onto the track and was triggering the right-hand limit switch, stopping the seat from moving back. When the card was pulled out, the seat then worked in both directions.

Final step was a thorough cleaning of the track and motor areas and a wee bit of new grease (distributor or door lock grease) on the various gears.

A simple solution to what had threatened to be an expensive problem! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Eh. Once you dunk it a few times none of that stuff will work <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> haha.

Nice write-up, man. Should be very helpful to those with electric seats. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Here's beers.

Ed

Wow! Thanks! Sometimes when my wife drives ours the seat jams and I end up taking it all apart and manually turning the large srews back and then reassembling it so I can drive it - its an intermitent problem, so I've just left all the covers off and a few of the screws/bolts out. Yet another bug to chase down, and now you set me up with the fix! Now if only I can find all the stuff I took off to put it back together properly . . . . <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Thank you!

Jim