Power Seat Blues

[sweetscience]

Has anyone had any trouble with their power seats moving forward and backward? 2001 limited.
Recline works fine and the motor sounds strong but is binded when trying to go forward or back.. I took the seat out and found no obstructions. Plugged it back in and tilted the seat back to see if the gears are turning, which they are not. I can turn the gears manually with a socket but the motor will not turn the gears. They twitch a bit but don't turn. The long screw that runs from one gear to the other, turns when you use the motor but it's not turning the gears.

Any ideas are appreciated..... thanks

 

[theizzardking]

Has anyone had any trouble with their power seats moving forward and backward? 2001 limited.
Recline works fine and the motor sounds strong but is binded when trying to go forward or back.. I took the seat out and found no obstructions. Plugged it back in and tilted the seat back to see if the gears are turning, which they are not. I can turn the gears manually with a socket but the motor will not turn the gears. They twitch a bit but don't turn. The long screw that runs from one gear to the other, turns when you use the motor but it's not turning the gears.

Any ideas are appreciated..... thanks

my '99 passenger seat will not move forward or back with weight, i think the gears are a weak point there, the seat will move when no one is sitting on it albeit slowly, but it does work, i was thinking a weak motor but the gear problem your talking about could also be the issue,

the long screw under there is called a ball screw drive
YouTube - Linear Motor and Ball Screw drive comparison

in the video replace the green thing with your seat, you can see where the failure points are in this system, so you either need a new ball screw bearing or a new motor, it's really the only components that could be bad, but at this point you may know more then me man, i've never took my seat off to fully inspect how it''s set up, i just saw the ball screw and figured that was what was wrong.

as for a fix if the seat is not binding i would think motor, how does the motor work with no load on it? seat completely off? if it works fine put on some gloves and try to slow the rotation of the shaft and see how it does if it dies under load, i'd just be done with it and swap a new motor in.

again i'm kinda new here and my info needs to be taken with a grain of salt, maybe in a few years i can give a definitive answer to this stuff, lol

 

[sweetscience]

Thanks King, this is good info.... you are way ahead of me.... I just took the seat out and started trying to figure things out.
The gears do not turn load or no load... I took it all the way out so I could watch the gears turn as I turned them manually....just wanted to make sure they would turn freely which they do.... they twitch just a hair when you hit the button...problem is I dont know if it's become disconnected from the gears or if the motor is weak like you suggested...
I may just head to the junk yard and get a used motor...at least if that's not the issue, I won't be out much....