Question-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
I just bought a 1994 Chrysler LeBaron Convertible. The problem I am having is with the driver's seat. It has the control in the door panel. The seat will move up and down, but won't move forward. Any suggestions?
Answer -
Hi Joni,
The fact that some of the motors work means that power is getting to the control switch. So then the problem is either the switch or the horizontal motor. There is an interesting issue of which wires to look at for control of that motor. There appears to be several errors in the wiring diagrams and written instructions (which is very rare for Chrysler engineering) such that I am a bit leary of telling you which points to test for voltage and in a second kind of test which points to apply jumpers to for fear of short-circuiting the system. Let me know if you have a volt-ohmmeter and also a set of small jumper wires (not the big ones for jump starting a car, but for doing circuit testing; they would have small alligator clips or tips) and whether you have experience with electrical meters and jumpers. If so, I can go thru this quagmire and figure out with you what numbers are wrong on these darn confused circuit diagrams!
Roland
Hi Roland.
Thanks for replying to my request. My husband has experience as an electrician, so he is very familiar with volt-ohmmeters. He has a couple of them, and plenty of jump wires. His request was to see if I could find a wiring diagram, but something told me to ask for help also (which has proven to be a good idea!) Where do we go from here?
AnswerHi Joni,
I can tell you and your husband about the wiring of the back and forth motor of the seat, or copy the wiring diagrams and snail mail them to you. The diagrams are faulty but I believe after looking at other model years diagrams I know what the proper color assignments for the wires are. The limitation I have is that I personally don't have a power seat on my '89 LeBaron Coupe, so I can't go look at things that aren't clear in the diagrams. The diagrams in the '94 manual and the electrical description of the wiring troubleshooting do not agree with oneanother (even the wiring sketches in the troubleshoot differ from those in the diagrams sections) But basically, the horizontal motor has wires that are red/blue and yellow/blue and the motor goes forward or backward depending upon the polarity of the 12V supplied on those wires to the motor via the switch. The switch basically reverses the polarity as you choose direction. The power (+) for the whole seat comes to the switch on a solid red wire (when the ignition switch is "on"), and the ground (-) comes on a solid black wire. Then when you ask for a seat motion the relevant wires are supplied with 12V in one or the other polarity. The first difficulty I have is that I can't describe which of the pins at the switch actually is connected to the red and black wires becasue of the disagreement mentionned above. But with a voltmeter he can find the one pin on the plug that has 12V on it, and with the ohmmeter he can find the one pin that is grounded.
Then the horizontal motor leads (foward and back motion) are uniformly colored from the switch all the way to the seat motor of the colors yellow/blue and red/blue. There are two disconnects between the switch and the seat motor, one I believe is at the door hinge (probably inside the door), and one is under the seat (near the motor). So he can jumper from the red to either of the above referenced bi-color wires and the black to the other bo-color wire to try and get the seat to move forward or back. If it doesn't move, then either one of the wires is open or the motor is not working, perhaps because of bad brushes. The manual just talks about replacing the motor, I conjecture that he might be able to replace the brushes to see if he can get it to work. There are a number of motors in the seat (front of seat, rear of seat, recliner seat back, wing motor, and lumbar pump) and each has a pair of wires, though the wing and pump are on saparate harness, and the recliner has a separate harness that splits away under the seat. Under the seat he will find the remaining three motors grouped together, with the horizontal motor in the middle (I believe).
It is also possible that the internal contacts of the switch for the horizontal motor are not making good contact. Unfortunately because of the confused drawings I can't tell you the pin numbers to test (assuming the pins are numbered) but if he can trace the bi-colored wires from the motor to the switch plug, then he will know which pins on the switch side of the plug to test for continuity of the switch (i.e. red to yellow/blue and black to red/blue, and the reverse, depending upon whether he asks for forwad or backward).
If this is too obscure I will be pleased to copy the relevant pages and send them, but be aware of the diagreement between the data therein and the clearly erroneous color and pin assignments in some places.
Roland
