I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been busy diagnosing my no starting issue. I’m currently fighting her with replacing the CPS, which I’m hoping is the problem. Since it’s taking me sooo long to extract it, I decided I needed a quick win to make me feel better so I turned my attn to the front seats. But first, a little background info.
The forward / back buttons on both seats were broken off. They’re on a very spindly plastic arm and I imagine somewhere in its 30+ yr existence became brittle and snapped off. When I did my initial battery test back in Nov, I found both seats moved by bumping the stub that was left. The passenger seat had more stub to work with than the driver’s seat. I ordered 2 new switches and put them on my kitchen table while I worked on the fuel system.
With the starting issue being either the CPS or one of the computers gone bad, one of the options was to take out the computer and send it to ORE for diagnosis. I thought this would be a good time to take the seats out before I pull the computer, in case that disables all electronics. It would be a good time to work on the seats and clean the interior while the computer was gone. I figured I’d do the passenger seat first and then devise a plan for the driver’s seat later. I connect the battery and push the passenger seat back far enough to get the front bolts out. Then move the seats fwd as far as it will go. However, it’s not far enough to access the rear bolts. I can see by marks on the console carpet that the seat is stopping a good 2” short, which would be the distance I’d need to get to the rear bolts. Dang! At our local PCA monthly breakfast, someone suggested the seat drive line may have dirt or grime on them, causing the stoppage. Typical 928 situation – she’s fighting me at every turn, even with something simple like removing a seat. This was all a couple of wks ago. I moved back to the engine compartment to fight the CPS extraction. I figure I'll change the CPS first and see if that's my starting issue. If not, the computer check is next.
With the CPS being harder to extract than an impacted molar, I got an idea for the seats. If I can’t take the seat out and replace the entire switch and wires, how about pulling the internals of the new switch out and snapping them into the existing one? I open the pkg of a new switch and look it over. It appears the internals will snap out, so I carefully attempt to do that without breaking a perfectly good $80 switch. It works – I got it out.
I decide to do the driver’s seat first since I already had the internals pulled. I take the switch and the wires / case of the new switch to the garage. I notice there are 4 ball bearings still in the case that need to be transferred to the existing case.
When the new case is on the kitchen table, the bearings sit nicely in place. When the case is turned vertical, like in the seat, the bearings fall out without the internals in. Hmmm… This is going to be a problem. I decide to buy some dielectric grease, grease up the bearings, and put them on the springs. The plan was the grease would hold the bearings in place long enough for me to snap the unit into the case. The plan worked on my 1st attempt. Hooked the battery up and the driver’s seat moved fwd / back and the bottom cushion went up / down. Yay!
Now all I had to do was the same on the passenger side.
Should be simple. I snap the internals out of the new and existing switches. Grease up the bearings, ready to snap it in. The bearings won’t stay in place when I rotate the internals vertical. No matter how many times I try, they fall off. Simple my a$$. I decide to leave them in the grease overnight and hopefully will stay in place in the morning. Same thing the next day – a bearing falls off with each attempt. I clean all the grease off the bearings and springs and implement Plan B.
Let it sit for an hr, then grease up the bearings, and attempt to snap it in. It works! Hook up the battery and the seat moves fwd / back, up / down. Success!
A minor victory and it doesn’t get her any closer to running, but I needed something positive to keep my sanity. Hopefully soon I’ll have the story of the CPS replacement ready to publish but not until I get that molar out. While I had the cushion in the up position, I could see a ton of crap on the drive bolt thread, so I'll need to knock it off and spray some cleaner on it. Hopefully then it will stop fighting me and I'll be able to actually remove the seats.
I guy can always dream...