Well, I solved the problem over the weekend.

This is an odd one, I really wish I had taken pictures.

Here's what happened - at some point, one of the springs in seat snapped. I guess the previous owner was hefty. Anyhow, the broken spring, the second from the rear underneath the seat, now had an exposed sharp metal edge on it. After repeated getting in and out of the car, the broken spring actually cut through the wire tail going to the seat tilt motor, severing 3 out of the 5 wires completely, and removing some insulation off the remaining two.

I had to unbolt the seat from the floor, but luckily did not have to remove it completely. I am skinny enough to contort myself upside down and underneath the thing when it is unbolted, and after some rather tricky splicing, soldering, and shrink-wrapping, I was able to make a very professional repair without even adding any wire, which was a miracle. MB gave us a good 10" of slack on that tail, and it was very useful indeed. There was even enough slack leftover to reroute the wire away from its previous position under Damocles' sword and to a safer spot.

Y'know those plastic thingies that you cut to length and then insert in a hole in a concrete wall to hold a screw? One of those worked perfectly to cover the broken spring end.

Everything works great now, except for some reason the seat makes a shuddering noise if you slide it rearwards while sitting in it. Hmmmmm......

__________________
-tp


1990 300SE "Corinne"- 145k daily driver - street modified differential - PARTING OUT OR SELLING SOON - PORTLAND OR. AREA - PM ME FOR DETAILS
1988 560SEL "Gunther"- 190K passes anything except a gas station
1997 S420 - 265k just bought it with a rebuilt trans. Lovely condition