Power-Seat Repair, Addition of power-tilt/recline

[turbokinetic]

Okay finally had a little while to work on my project car today. It's the 84 Century. The car came with a power seat that would move fore and aft, and the front and rear can raise and lower. There was no provision manual or electric for tilting (reclining) the seat back.

The original seat track mechanism had one large motor and a "transmission" consisting of electric clutches that would operate the actuators via cables. This transmission broke after the plastic housing got brittle and crumbly.

Newer cars have a 3 motor system. Instead of the "transmission" there are 3 individual motors controlling each function.

When at the salvage yard I got a set of tracks from an 89 Ciera which also had a power-operated tilt for the seatback. It had a fourth motor and separate switch for this.

The track and 3-motor system for the basic seat motion was a direct swap with the old tracks. The wiring is different and will have to be swapped along with the motors. The only thing that has not fit is the trim bezel around the switches.

My camera messed up several pictures on this disk so I can't show the seat track replacement. It was very straightforward.

Now I wanted to install the power tilt and I remembered that there is a "fixed bracket" holding the seat back in the upright position. On 2-door cars this is replaced with a mechanism to lay the seatback forward to access the back seat. On manual-recline seats, it is replaced with a mechanism to manually release the seat and recline. They appear to all mount the same.

In the following pictures you can see the installation of the power tilt actuator was extremely easy. The only modification was the cutting of some of the seat bottom foam to make a "pocket" to fit the actuator.

The motor for this function mounts underneath the seat in the center. It is cable driven. The picture of all the motors was corrupt. (3-motor system for seat base, and tilt motor).

I haven't figured yet where to mount the tilt switch that will not look crappy. After modifying the original switch bezel to accept the switch for the 3-motor system, I may add another small switch beside it for the tilt. Or the tilt switch may be concealed under the seat near where a manual seat adjustment lever would be located.

The following pictures show the installation procedure. It should be the same to install a manual recline mechanism.

After the upholstery was reattached with new "hog ring" staples you can hardly tell anything was done to the seat. The picture of the finished project and wiring was corrupt by my sorry antique floppy-diskette munching digital camera :(

Hey look I figured out how to make the pictures show on the forum without you clicking on them individially! I can reprogram an ECM in my sleep but THIS was hard to figure out... ;)

http://68.209.87.173/84_Century/Restoration/tilt_ins1.jpg
http://68.209.87.173/84_Century/Restoration/tilt_ins2.JPG
http://68.209.87.173/84_Century/Restoration/tilt_ins3.jpg
http://68.209.87.173/84_Century/Restoration/tilt_ins4.jpg
http://68.209.87.173/84_Century/Restoration/tilt_ins5.jpg
http://68.209.87.173/84_Century/Restoration/tilt_ins6.jpg

[notsoslimshady76]

that's really neat. If it was that easy, why didn't all the cars come with tilt? lol. Shake n Bake's seat can get really annoying

[SCREECH]

I'm curious as to how this would work on bucket seats such as the ones in my W45. However, it's got the large gray handle on the side for the manual seat tilt function. I'm not sure how this would look if it were no longer needed as the trim on the side of the seat seems to be formed for it's presence - I've never seen sport buckets with power recline capability.

[turbokinetic]

I think I know what sport-bucket seats are. I beleive my 86 T-Type Century has them. They are used with the console shift. I havd to disassemble the drivers (non-reclining) seat and it definately does have the same "fixed bracket" that I replaced with the tilt actuator on the 84 car. Don't know what you would do about the upholstery around the old handle location. But I am 99% confident the mechanism would fit.
Okay I found a picture of your seats - they are different than my T-Type seats. Don't know if the mechanism would be different but it looks like yours has extarnal hinge mechanism with plastic covers over the mechanism; whereas my seats have all mechanisms covered by the seat upholstery. You would have to take the covers off and look for the mounting holes.
I plan to do my T-Type when I find another power-tilt seat in the JY.
By the way, I'm looking at your site now - I see you're going through the same thing with your W45 that I am with my Century Olympia. That is restoring a car that had been purchased from a salvage operation! Looking good, glad to see someone else that looks at things like I do.
Later,
David

[86euro]

The sport bucket mechanisms have a different bolt pattern than the bench, 60/40 and 45/45 style. I'm sure it could be done with some work, but custom covers would need to be rigged up.

[Prospeeder]

I got a question, on my Full bench seat 6000, its manual seat, would i be able to turn it into manual or power recline? Does the actuator have its own motor? And what about wireing? is it basic switch with a power and ground? Did they only come on like cutlass cieras?

[turbokinetic]

The actuator has its own motor, connected to the gears by a cable (like a super-size speedometer cable).

Does the bench seat recline at all? I bet you could adapt the recline actuator. You might need 2 actuators (one per side). I've had 60/40 and 45/45 seats in all my cars and I'm not too certain how the bench seat works.

As far as the wiring, it is a simple reversing polarity switch. The switch has power and ground connected to it. It sends power to the motor when pressed, with the polarity being one way to run motor forward, and the polarity being the ther way to run the motor reverse.

I haven't got to installing the switch yet. At the moment it's just hanging under the seat until I can find a way to "tastefully" mount it.

[Prospeeder]

Ic, so this could work, now i have a full bench, with an arm rest that goes up and down, so theres basicly 2 independent seat backs, so i need an actuator for each side. Awsome, im going to try this, i take pics for everyone too, maybe we can all have reclining seats, its rediculous they wouldnt give us reclining seats. Wich cars had this feature, only Cieras and centurys after like 89-90?

[SCREECH]

It's ridiculous they wouldn't give us reclining seats. Which cars had this feature, only Cieras and Centurys after like 89-90?

I had both extremes of the scale between the two Eurosport wagons I've owned - my '87 had fore-aft adjustment of the driver and passenger seat, and manual recline control on the passenger seat ONLY. :( My '90 Euro wagon had an 8-way power driver's seat and power recline with the manual fore-aft adjustment on the passenger seat.

I don't know if '90 was the only year for power seat backs in the Eurosport or not, but I've never seen it in any thing other than a few of the '90 wagons. However, it was, indeed available on the Celebrity in '90. And it was, of course, available on 6000s in the mid-'80s with the STE package at least - they actually had dual 8-way seats available, as I'm sure a number on here know. I was fortunate enough to grab a passenger power seat track from an '86 STE the day of it's date with the crusher. :rock: Both of the seats in the car had power reclining, but I didn't have the materials to get them apart at the time. :uh: Definitely, though, the power reclining feature was available on the Century and Cieras into the '90s.

[jinxtigr]

Power reclining sure was available on the '93 Century, because mine has it- and I'm soon replacing those very seats with sort of rally-style seats. I wonder if it makes sense to try to take the mechanisms out of these for other people's seat projects :)

[Prospeeder]

Hey long time, but i had to bring this back, I am now getting serious on my power recline, On the seat, theres that fixed bracket on the one side, (which would be replaced by motor) Whats on the other side of the seat? Just a free wheeling hinge or nothing? also the split backs on the full bench should be independent right? Ohh im excited, i want a recline, hehe

[lackneramanda]

Hi Guys, Can the heated seat be repaired by lifting the cover or do you have to take the seat out? i wonder how much it will be cost to repair this or should i just start to find some cheap seat covers (http://www.carparts.com/Seat-Covers-Protection-Upholstery-Cushions/600022223.car) for replacement...

[Mur]

hey prospeeder, im surprised your 6000 doesn't have dual power recliners....my best guess is that 1990 all a bodies except the celebrity got power recliners standard on all models because the door mounted seat belt door panel covers didnt leave enough room for a manual seat recline handle....ive seen base model 6000's with non split bench but dual power recliners

[white89euro]

Nice original post, David. You do incredible mods, fixes, repairs, etc...
George

[billkandi]

Next question: How to repair sagging seats? My son's Ciera has a large "collapsed" spot right where the old tuckus sits. I guess it's because the springs have given way or broken. Anybody tackled this issue before?