I like my 300 SD but am not much impressed with the power seat switches. Both were barely functioning when I bought it -- parts of it were broken off. I found one on E-bay for $30, looked like the real deal.

It worked at first but is now balking on a few of its functions. Seat goes back, but not forward, a couple of that going on.

I got some Saab window switches at the boneyard -- I liked their compactness -- I was hoping I could adapt 4 of them to work for me. Best I can tell, the MB power seats operate like most, I imagine, reversing polarity on each motor to reverse function. I used a continutiy tester to attempt to eletrically dissect the Saab switches; I assumed that among the 7 contacts, a polarity switching function would be available.

I have reluctantly concluded it's not. The details are too long to get into here; I'm a bit puzzled because I would imagine that power windows do a polarity reverse for up and down.

I had been hoping for a really cheap way to bypass the several hundred dollar expense of buying new MB switches. I like my rig but it's not a good enough specimen to warrant full tilt restoration.

Anybody know of any polarity reversing switches available that would do the trick?

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

The switches for MB seats are made to be serviced; and when done, work like new. Disassemble over a white terry towel (lots of springs and balls).

When open the cleaning and reassembly is intuitive. Just pay attention to how it came apart. The little seat-shaped buttons are even available:

http://catalog.eautopartscatalog.com/mercedesshop/sophio/wizard.jsp?partner=mercedesshop&clientid=catalog.mercedesshop&baseurl=http://catalog.peachparts.com/&cookieid=1PF1ACAKH1PF1ACHGQ&year=1981&make=MB&model=300-SD-002&category=O&part=Seat+Knob

I think this may be the easiest way, I hope. Good luck

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The Golden Rule

1984 300SD (bought new, sold it in 1988, bought it back 13 yrs. later)

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