Removing jammed seats

[Rubatoguy]

I have a passenger seat that the electric controls work, but the motor just struggles trying to move the seat forward (it is all the way back.) Using the manual handle does not work, nor does sitting in the seat and pulling forward while pressing the forward button on the electric seat control.

I think I have the jamed washers that everyone talks about. I can move the seat up and down.

My dilema is how to remove the seat to repair it.
I have managed to remove the front seat track bolts, but it seems an impossibility to be able to reach the rear ones as they are covered by the seat rail.

Does anyone have any tricks on how to do this?
Do you have to somehow remove the drive cable to the motors? I tried pulling this out - but it did not want to budge either!

thanks,

Todd
'88 Carrera

[cowtown]

If the tracks are really jammed, this won't work, but if it's a motor, switch, gear, or cable problem:

Remove the plastic panel that is covering the motor assembly down at the lower front of the seat. You'll see two cables (with heavy black sheaths) going into the motor, and a few plastic gears. One cable runs from the motor to each seat track, left and right.

Pull the cables out of their mounts in the motor in the center of the seat. Now you will see the cables that rotate in the sheaths. Use a small lock pliers or similar to spin the cable and move the seat forward in the track. You will have to alternate back and forth from one cable to another to get the whole seat to move. It will take a while.

If it's really jammed at the tracks, try a magnet on a stick or compressed air to dislodge whatever it is.

Good luck!

[johnnyo]

What Cowtown said is on the money I had the same problem with my 87 911 where the left bside of the seat was moving only an inch forward or backward and the right side was not moving at all. upon inspecting and pulling off the right side plastic sleave I noticed the square end of the flex cable was not fully seated into the female flange portion of the screw adjuster. upon reasembly and verifing that left and right adjustments were even I had my seat working again. Worth a shot. GOOD LUCK!

[Rubatoguy]

I FINALLY was able to get the seat loose, after much fumbling.
Here is what worked.

Unbolted the right and left front of the track to give the track some wiggle room. (May not be needed)

The motor has a "T" connection with a cable for each side going into it. First remove one cable, try the motor, then removed that one and put the first back in, try the motor again. In my case, this allowed the "freeer" side to move, and that movement was just enough after a few tries to unjam the other side of the seat.

I have the seat out to take a look to see what the problem was, and to rewire the control so that pushing the button forward does not make the seatback go backwards!

Anyway, here is a shot with one cable removed from the motor