if you own an 87' and your power seat switch is broken you can just call gbodyparts and buy a new one. if you are pre-1987 like me you can buy several used switches and find that none of them work.
eventually i got disgusted and took one of the switches apart. the switch itself will pop out of the casing quite easily with some small flat screwdrivers. this will expose the inner contacts. looking at the 4 non functional switches i have, it revealed that the spring contacts [maybe due to corrosion] or other reasons must arc and burn away slightly. once that occurs the switch cannot push the spring far enough down to bridge the contact. it leaves you with either a motor the free wheels or a soleniod the activates but no power to the motor.
in this picture i have circled the contact that was damaged in my switch.
actually, the arrow points to the contact that was actually damaged but my camera sucks at close up shots. using a bit slightly larger than the mushroom'd style rivits that hold the spring contact on, the spring contact can be removed without damaging the switch itself.
chances are, if you have another non-working switch on hand one of the contacts in it will be ok and can be used to replace the damaged on in the other switch.
so i removed a good contact from another switch and soldered it on.
don't laugh at my skills, i never solder electrical.
anyway, now i have a fully functional switch.
hopefully someone else can benefit from my write up. i actually just put the switch back together minutes before posting this. if it is of any real use i can type a more comprehensive write up with better pictures when i am less tired. i have a couple more bad switches which i plan on making one good switch from.
eventually i got disgusted and took one of the switches apart. the switch itself will pop out of the casing quite easily with some small flat screwdrivers. this will expose the inner contacts. looking at the 4 non functional switches i have, it revealed that the spring contacts [maybe due to corrosion] or other reasons must arc and burn away slightly. once that occurs the switch cannot push the spring far enough down to bridge the contact. it leaves you with either a motor the free wheels or a soleniod the activates but no power to the motor.
in this picture i have circled the contact that was damaged in my switch.
actually, the arrow points to the contact that was actually damaged but my camera sucks at close up shots. using a bit slightly larger than the mushroom'd style rivits that hold the spring contact on, the spring contact can be removed without damaging the switch itself.
chances are, if you have another non-working switch on hand one of the contacts in it will be ok and can be used to replace the damaged on in the other switch.
so i removed a good contact from another switch and soldered it on.
don't laugh at my skills, i never solder electrical.
anyway, now i have a fully functional switch.
hopefully someone else can benefit from my write up. i actually just put the switch back together minutes before posting this. if it is of any real use i can type a more comprehensive write up with better pictures when i am less tired. i have a couple more bad switches which i plan on making one good switch from.