So I looked under the seat, removed the front carpeting cover and rear plastic covers, cleaned out what I could, lubed w/ silicone & lithium depending on the spots, and I've got a bit more information.

All of the motions work well (beautifully, in fact, after the lube, for an '88!), except for moving the aft part of the seat cushion up and down, and only in _some_ circumstances. What happens then is that one of the two gears in the back (the right one, I think) doesn't move as fast as the one on the left, so that the seat tilts -- if I keep going (down or up), then it "catches up" and the seat straigthens out. When that happens, there's a grinding noise as if the gear or the motor is caught on something.

Strangely, the problem is intermittent -- so it doesn't seem that the gears themselves are worn or that the motor is failing. It also happens "under load" (as in, with me sitting the chair) and under no load. I can't reliably reproduce it with a particular motion, but I can make it happen with a few minutes of "going through the motions".

My best guess at this point is that some of the cabling under the seat that drives the motors are themselves sometimes getting caught in the mechanism and somehow causing a side to get "stuck". Is that likely, or is a foreign object more likely? (The cabling story works for me because I could see the cables getting stuck and unstuck).

My question to y'all is what my next step should be -- Should I try to disconnect the seat from the floor of the car, so that I could see much better what's going on? Should I give up and find a mechanic to take the problem on? I'd like to solve this one myself, it seems it should be doable...

Thanks in advance,

--david

'88 300 TE, 150k