Awesome!

I am glad to be able to help you like Daw_two helped me...
If you are having issues with part of the seat function do what he told me to do. Pull the button off the switch (they are hard to get off) and spray electrical contact cleaner into the switch while working the stud back and forth. My passenger's seat back, which would not come up from a nearly horizontal position thanks to my daughter, started moving as soon as the spray went into the switch!

We all have to stick together :-)

Brian has been a great help to me and to others in the past...

Regards,

Joe

__________________
"I have no convictions ... I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy"

Current
Monika '74 450 SL
BrownHilda '79 280SL
FoxyCleopatra '99 Chevy Suburban
Scarlett 2014 Jeep Cherokee
Krystal 2004 Volvo S60
Gone
'74 Jeep CJ5
'97 Jeep ZJ Laredo
Rudolf ‘86 300SDL
Bruno '81 300SD
Fritzi '84 BMW
'92 Subaru
'96 Impala SS
'71 Buick GS conv
'67 GTO conv
'63 Corvair conv
'57 Nomad

JUST be CAREFUL pulling those buttons off the post. You do NOT want to break the posts.

__________________
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

Yes use a straight pull backwards, do not wiggle them side to side...

__________________
"I have no convictions ... I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy"

Current
Monika '74 450 SL
BrownHilda '79 280SL
FoxyCleopatra '99 Chevy Suburban
Scarlett 2014 Jeep Cherokee
Krystal 2004 Volvo S60
Gone
'74 Jeep CJ5
'97 Jeep ZJ Laredo
Rudolf ‘86 300SDL
Bruno '81 300SD
Fritzi '84 BMW
'92 Subaru
'96 Impala SS
'71 Buick GS conv
'67 GTO conv
'63 Corvair conv
'57 Nomad

Now that is bizarre.

The FSM drawing is in error. It shows the auxiliary fuse holder in the position for the power seat relay and it shows the power seat relay in the position for the fuse holder.

Maybe the PO was attempting to follow the FSM diagram...........??

Thanks for getting that photo............the snow is too much here to get into the SDL.

Although my role was only the caller on the phone to support, I get a great deal of satisfaction on a fix like this, pumps me up.

I'll try the cleaner on that head rest switch and report back.

Brian, the PO was in the clutches of more than one Indy and I suspect one of them. The records he gave me show two new seat controllers, seat frames and pads. One of the work orders stated "a broken spring damaged a wire and its possible the controller is bad". The list of parts includes a controller.

I know part of this because we became friends as he tried to buy this car from me for two years. I sold it to him two years ago and he dumped a ton of money into repairs including a paint job. The parts list to fix the cruise includes an actuator, switch and amplifier, even I could be that kind of a mechanic.

So I was his PO before he is my PO. I held his check for 30 days in case he decided if was too much of a mess and it was a mess.

It comes back to me with four problems and you guys fixed the worst. Now the blower motor aux fuse kit which should get done today, the driver's window and the radio. Yeah, an Indy R&R the blower assembly. BTW, he even had the outside temp sensor replaced and spent $540 on a new clock and the list goes on, with records, A/C, front end, four Bilstien shocks.

He bought a 94 140 rod bender and fell in love with it. (sigh)

Thanks
Harry

Ok, I truly hate posting to a thread this old but my 86 560SEL has just developed exactly the same symptoms (no power at all to the front seats under any conditions) after I had completed my annual replacement of fuses/cleaning of relay pins and sockets.

Having done this numerous times already w/o any problem, I am somewhat suprised to say the least as well as quite reluctant to just drop an "ice cube" relay into place of the twin fuse holder as seemed to have solved the problem for the OP.

Has anyone else developed this problem? While I do know that my diode is on its last legs (soon to be repaired), could a TOTAL failure of power to reach the front seats be the result of complete diode failure?

TIA!

__________________
"Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy."

Although its been in moth balls for the past four years, I still have The SDL and if I can help by looking or testing I'll be glad to help. I think you should go back to where Brian started giving me tests to perform and do them on your car. Chances are you'll get fixed quickly. My car had been in the hands of independent mechanics and I'm guessing one may have fouled the fuse box.
Good luck.
Harry

Very many thanks for the input and the most kind offer of assistance.

Nothing worse than those journeyman hackers and gnawers, vivisectioners (sic?) of precision machinery, eh?

My Gentleman Practitioner of the Mechanical & Ancillary Arts (tm)* and I will run through those diagnostics just as soon as I have a known good diode in hand because if it isn't that I myself don't have the foggiest idea idea what else it could be given that that "relay" 1235400950 is nothing more than a fuse holder as far as I can see (or understand).

And yet, after having stared at page 130 of the 126.0/.1 Electrical Troubleshooting Manual, it clearly "does" something more than it would appear to me - but what?

Odd.

Anyway, I can't even begin to imagine that putting fresh fuses in and cleaning contacts/connectors with contact cleaner and cotton swabs for the umpteenth time would or (even really could) short anything so if it isn't that "relay" it must be that diode - he wrote with fingers crossed at 4am...

Cheers!

*From Massey Ferguson to Ferrari & Maserati he knows them inside out AND wants to show YOU the how and the why of them all. Sounds like I am lucky to have him and that ya'll down there could really use somebody like him.

Attached Files

Page 130 of 126.0 slash .1 ETM 126 from 1986.pdf (199.7 KB, 79 views)

__________________
"Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy."

Hello all,

In my case it was a complete failure of the diode in part no. 0005404281 that caused the sudden and total loss of power to both front power seats.

Installed in a new unit and seat functionality is back to 100%

So if both of your front power seats just stop working out of the blue w/o any warning or mounting loss of function, your first stop might well be to check out the condition of your Power Seat Diode.

Cheers!

__________________
"Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy."