PonchoVette

Hey folks-
I'm starting to replace the carpet in my 81, and had a question. The passenger seat came out without much trouble, but my driver's seat is a power seat. Sadly, the power part of the seat doesn't work. My question is whether or not there's a secret way to move the seat manually that I have not figured out so I can access the bolts that hold the seat in.

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Big2Bird

Nope.

M. Young

Nope+1

...but the nuts that hold the seat down are under the car.

PonchoVette

Yep, that's how I started to try to take the passenger seat out, but the nuts under the car are square (at least on my car) and the ones I tried to remove- the ones that I had enough room to even get a wrench on- would not budge at all. That led me to the *assumption* that they may be welded nuts attached to the floor pan, and I'd have to go after it from inside the car.

Maybe the ones on the driver side will be more cooperative.

See Three

Is it the motor or the switch that doesn't work? I was thinking you could bypass switch with power if you got lucky.

gbvette62

The driver and passenger seats each mount differently in 81-82's.

The driver's side seat tracks have studs on them, that go through the floor, and get nuts threaded on to them from underneath. The passenger side floor has nut plates in it, that the seat tracks get bolted to from inside the car.

The illustration is from the 82 Assembly Manual, but the 81 is the same.

PonchoVette

Thats helpful, thanks. I looked at my AIM before I started, but was confused between the illustration and what I saw under the car.

MarkinSETX

I have an 81 as well. My drivers power seat would not work at first either. The previous poster was correct, I had four studs protruding underneath the car, I loosen the nuts all them and pulled the seat right out. The problem with mine was someone had used a vampire plug on the ground and it wasn't getting ground correctly. I also had a bad connector. I tested with the meter, found that I had good power and ground prior to the plug, changed out the plug and now my seat works. Except for one of the motors doesn't seem to want to come online, but it does move front and back. My wife is much happier as we are different lengths. Good luck

Big2Bird

A member here took mine apart, cleaned the gear cases and cables, greased them up, now they all work well. Hardened grease, hair, pepsi-cola, french fries, all that junk over the years gums them up.