Working on my power seat

[Guest sintid58]

The power seat in my 1964 Riviera doesn't work. The motor runs but it doesn't move. I pulled it out of the car to look at it thinking maybe I could lube something up to make it work but that doesn't seem to be the case. I can turn the motor easily by hand but neither of the cables turn when I do. This looks to me like the electric motor must run into a transission and then that is electrically activated to run either the back and forward movement ot the up and down on the rear of the seat. Is there any way with the seat out of the car on a bench to see it this works and are there any adjustments or maintenance i can try to see if I can make this work. Thanks in advance. Sid

[NTX5467]

You might need to remove the cables and check to see if one of the ends hasn't rounded off where it might index with the transmission mechanism. Which could also ultimately lead to one of the "jacks" it runs being locked up, hard to make work, or broken. That general format of power seat architecture was used into at least the later 1970s, so there might (repeat "might") be the possibility that you might salvage some items from a later model GM vehicle to fix yours. Key thing would be the width the seat tracks are apart from each other, I suspect, with respect to cable length.

Just some thoughts,

NTX5467

[Guest sintid58]

After I wrote this we went out to the garage and cleaned up the mechanism and then lubed it up some. After moving things around a little manually I hooked up a battery and found out which terminals controlled what. Got it working quite well and put back in so all is well. Also put in a FM converter a freind here found in his garage and it works very well. I don't really need a great loud stereo and the old am really has good sound espescially with the rear speaker so I am very happy with the way it works.

[JohnD1956]

See, this is why I like Buicks. Generally you can just clean em and go.

Good job Sintid

JD