Electric seat track swap to manual (1 Viewer)

[Vitek]

Hi

So after several unsuccessful attempt to make my electric seats work, I would like to replace the seat tracks with the manual ones I sourced.( Yes I replaced the worn plastic gears)
The car is a hdj80 1996, leather full electric heated. The seat tracks are from a earlier, 1994 car.
I would like to retain the electric tilting, lumbar support, backside adjustment and heating.
Did anybody replaced the tracks, is there anything that I should be aware?
The bolt pattern seems to match, I was just wondering if its possible to only remove the forward and backward electric motors and leave the rest intact.
Thanks

 

[Irish Reiver]

I had a similar thought once but it looked well beyond my skillset and i didn't fancy asking someone to weld such a critical part. I eventually found a set of manual seats for my '94 which i reupholstered in appropriate grey leather and i haven't looked back..

 

[enox]

The bolt pattern seems to match, I was just wondering if its possible to only remove the forward and backward electric motors and leave the rest intact.

Did you have any luck with this?

 

[Vitek]

Hi,

Its a no go. If you are handy with the welder its maybe possible, but that main issue is that on the seat belt side (where you attach the seat belt assy), the tilting mechnism for the vertival part of the seat is in the way, there is quite some difference between the manual seat track and the electric there, how the two main parts of the seat is attached together. We took a look and decided that its easier and safer to reholster the manual seat that the tracks came from.
Also the leather on the electric seats is 2 years old, did not wanted to mess with something nice and functioning.

Cheers

 

[enox]

Cool thanks, I'll have to revisit the forward back assembly AGAIN. I've replaced gears, caps, motors but now oddly enough the driver's side is binding again...I had all seats reupholstered (new foam and leather) about 4 months ago...but like you im tired of having to repair the forward/ back. Thanks for the info!

 

[landtank]

Cool thanks, I'll have to revisit the forward back assembly AGAIN. I've replaced gears, caps, motors but now oddly enough the driver's side is binding again...I had all seats reupholstered (new foam and leather) about 4 months ago...but like you im tired of having to repair the forward/ back. Thanks for the info!

The factory rails can be built in two different ways. The small block with two tapped holes where the following nut bolts to can be welded in one of two places. The difference between the two is about 1/8”. I’ve seen seats with one of each style rails on it and the seat will bind and damage the gear boxes. It’s easy enough to check. Just measure the distance from the end of the rail to the beginning of the block and see if both sides are the same.