I've never taken a seat apart. What kind of trouble am I looking at here?

I let somebody else drive the MB today (I was riding) - and they had to adjust the seat from where I keep it set (5'4" people don't drive cars set for 6'4" people without some minor problems). The particular adjustment that seems to have died is the rear portion of the seat up/down adjuster. The seat back recliner works perfectly, the seat sled forward-backward functions perfectly, and the front half of the seat goes up and down perfectly.

When I tried to re-adjust the car back to my driving position after I took the wheel again, my last correction was to lower the back portion of the seat. So, I did, without issue. I lowered it a little too far, and ran into trouble when I tried to raise it back up again. When I raise that part of the switch, I hear the seat motor engage, but the seat never actually moves. Sounds about like... well, a motor free-wheeling that has been clutched out of whatever it's supposed to engage. It'll do this indefinitely without ever "grabbing" the seat and moving it upward again. I didn't want to mess with it too much going down further because it was already uncomfortable for me to drive, but it seems to be willing to go down, just not up.


Is this enough information to provide a guess on what decided to break and how hard it's going to be to fix?


This is getting slightly old. I've already had a window switch break this week. Physically can't push the switch to "Up", it's damaged inside or there's a piece broken preventing the button from pressing. Works fine going down of course. The window I use the most, of course. :-/ End of rant.

__________________


~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL

Well....time to take the seat out and look. I'm not familiar with that particular motor, so can't help you unless you need a motor. I can probably get you one...or the whole bottom frame.

I've switched the bottom frame from one seat to another seat --- not too bad of a project.

I've got a few extra window switches. PM sent.

__________________
daw_two
Germantown, TN

Links:
Sold last car --- 05/2012 1984 300D Light Ivory, Red interior
Cluster Needles Paint
New Old Stock (NOS) parts

Past:
3/2008 1986 300SDL "Coda"
04/2010 1965 190D(c) "Ben"
& many more

From my limited experience... there are 3 things are usually involved:

the switch, which sounds like it is working ( in both directions?)
the motor, which sounds like it is working
a cable that goes from the motor to the gears that actually move the seat

The cable can come loose or the hex head end can get rounded off.

It sounded like your motor was spinning in both directions, but no motion in one. I have had luck moving the seat by adjusting it while standing outside of the car (not sitting in the seat) and giving it a push.

The seat springs on my car were bad and I found a whole bottom end (spring section and motor section). There are posts here on taking the seats apart. Good luck.

I had the same issue on my 124 drivers side seat. I thought I took pictures when I did the repair, but if I did, I can't find them.

There are speedometer type cables that run into boxes that have plastic gears in them. I think there were three or four of them. In my case the cable had run past the ends of the gears. I think it was about 4 screws to open the box. Once I had it open I was able to align the cable with the gears. I also put some grease on the gears. There was plenty of grease in the box, it just wasn't on the gears anymore.

So if you have power, I could hear my clicking, it just didn't move. You may want to take the lower cover off the seat and open up the box the cable goes into.

I believe there are a couple write ups on removing the seat covers.

Did you have the memory set on the seat? Did you try setting it back with that if you did have it set?

Chris

I found some pictures, but not of the actual repair. Not sure if they well help. I took the entire seat out and then removed the base from it. Then I put it back in so I could hook up the power to it.

If you take it out, it is a good time to tune up the seat as well.

Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________
1987 300TD 309, xxx 2.8.2014 10,000 mile OCI


Be careful of the toes you step on today, as they may be connected to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow. anonymous

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter won’t mind.” Dr. Seuss

My seat memory failed in the exact same manner as the switch itself, that's one reason I ruled out the switch early on. I've got no clicking noises, but I do hear the motor itself... it is precisely what I would describe as a cable that's no longer attached to the gear it's supposed to pull, now that I know what's in there.

__________________


~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL