Sport Seat Problems
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Le Mans Master
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 8,107
Likes: 0
From: California
St. Jude Donor '05-'06-'07-'08
Sport Seat Problems
I took both seats out my car for a thorough interior cleaning, and when I put them back in, everything works fine, except the "forward/backward/up/down" control only moves the driver's seat regardless of the "DR/PS" switch location. I'm pretty sure everything is hooked up properly... Any thoughts? Thanks in advance. :seeya
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Joined: Jun 1999
Posts: 82
Likes: 0
From: Lake Oswego, Oregon
Re: Sport Seat Problems (Knight Ryder)
You probably have swapped connectors in the wiring underneath the driver's seat. I had this exact problem a few years ago on my 95, and that's what it was. I've forgotten some of the details, but hopefully this will be enough to help.
Pull the driver's seat bottom cushion and find the set of 4 or 6 wires going to the seat motors. Follow those wires from the motors and find the connector that hooks the motor wires to another set of wires that disappears under the carpet. Then look around and find another 2 runs of wires coming from under the carpet that are joined by the same kind of connector as the seat motor wires. Try swapping the connections beween those two connectors.
After trying to decipher the Helms manual for awhile, I finally came to the conclusion that for the driver's-only power seat the wires from the seat adjustment switch on the console plug directly into the driver's seat motor wires, while with the dual-side power seats the wires from the adjustment switch plug into a jumper harness that goes over to the passenger seat and another connector from that harness plugs into the driver's seat motor wires. It looks like what is happening is that when the connectors get swapped under there, the adjustment switch is getting hooked directly to the driver's seat motor wires like in the single side configuration and the jumper harness is getting plugged into itself. To make things more confusing, on mine, the correct connections resulted in smaller gauge wires being connected to larger gauge wires and vice versa (which is why I think it's so easy to get them swapped), but it worked and it's been that way for several years with no problems.
Pull the driver's seat bottom cushion and find the set of 4 or 6 wires going to the seat motors. Follow those wires from the motors and find the connector that hooks the motor wires to another set of wires that disappears under the carpet. Then look around and find another 2 runs of wires coming from under the carpet that are joined by the same kind of connector as the seat motor wires. Try swapping the connections beween those two connectors.
After trying to decipher the Helms manual for awhile, I finally came to the conclusion that for the driver's-only power seat the wires from the seat adjustment switch on the console plug directly into the driver's seat motor wires, while with the dual-side power seats the wires from the adjustment switch plug into a jumper harness that goes over to the passenger seat and another connector from that harness plugs into the driver's seat motor wires. It looks like what is happening is that when the connectors get swapped under there, the adjustment switch is getting hooked directly to the driver's seat motor wires like in the single side configuration and the jumper harness is getting plugged into itself. To make things more confusing, on mine, the correct connections resulted in smaller gauge wires being connected to larger gauge wires and vice versa (which is why I think it's so easy to get them swapped), but it worked and it's been that way for several years with no problems.
Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 8,107
Likes: 0
From: California
St. Jude Donor '05-'06-'07-'08
Re: Sport Seat Problems (Jeff S)
Yeah, I noticed that there was some funny stuff going on under the driver's seat. When all wires are connected, there seems to be some that come out of the floor and then right back in... I assumed that matching the colours would result in the proper connections. I'll go fiddle with that, but it sounds like the issue here. Thanks for all the replies. :seeya
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,159
Likes: 0
From: royal palm beach florida
Re: Sport Seat Problems (Jeff S)
You probably have swapped connectors in the wiring underneath the driver's seat. I had this exact problem a few years ago on my 95, and that's what it was. I've forgotten some of the details, but hopefully this will be enough to help.
Pull the driver's seat bottom cushion and find the set of 4 or 6 wires going to the seat motors. Follow those wires from the motors and find the connector that hooks the motor wires to another set of wires that disappears under the carpet. Then look around and find another 2 runs of wires coming from under the carpet that are joined by the same kind of connector as the seat motor wires. Try swapping the connections beween those two connectors.
After trying to decipher the Helms manual for awhile, I finally came to the conclusion that for the driver's-only power seat the wires from the seat adjustment switch on the console plug directly into the driver's seat motor wires, while with the dual-side power seats the wires from the adjustment switch plug into a jumper harness that goes over to the passenger seat and another connector from that harness plugs into the driver's seat motor wires. It looks like what is happening is that when the connectors get swapped under there, the adjustment switch is getting hooked directly to the driver's seat motor wires like in the single side configuration and the jumper harness is getting plugged into itself. To make things more confusing, on mine, the correct connections resulted in smaller gauge wires being connected to larger gauge wires and vice versa (which is why I think it's so easy to get them swapped), but it worked and it's been that way for several years with no problems.
Pull the driver's seat bottom cushion and find the set of 4 or 6 wires going to the seat motors. Follow those wires from the motors and find the connector that hooks the motor wires to another set of wires that disappears under the carpet. Then look around and find another 2 runs of wires coming from under the carpet that are joined by the same kind of connector as the seat motor wires. Try swapping the connections beween those two connectors.
After trying to decipher the Helms manual for awhile, I finally came to the conclusion that for the driver's-only power seat the wires from the seat adjustment switch on the console plug directly into the driver's seat motor wires, while with the dual-side power seats the wires from the adjustment switch plug into a jumper harness that goes over to the passenger seat and another connector from that harness plugs into the driver's seat motor wires. It looks like what is happening is that when the connectors get swapped under there, the adjustment switch is getting hooked directly to the driver's seat motor wires like in the single side configuration and the jumper harness is getting plugged into itself. To make things more confusing, on mine, the correct connections resulted in smaller gauge wires being connected to larger gauge wires and vice versa (which is why I think it's so easy to get them swapped), but it worked and it's been that way for several years with no problems.
Heel & Toe
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 24
Likes: 1
From: West Rutland Vermont
86 sport seat problem
I have an 86 with sport seats. The side bolster and lumbar supports do not work on both sides. I am not sure if there is a special fuse location. The seats work fine when you adjust forward and backwards. Any ideas as to where to start to find out what is wrong
