Hey so my power seat just stopped working in my 1991 camaro z/28 and i did some testing and the orange wire gets 12 volts, and i get 12 volts to the back of the switch so i just replaced the seat switch on impulse and that didn't fix it, i also figured theres no way all of the motors died at the same time.
Any insight would be great, thanks

 

Here's some diagnoses tips

 

Thanks, i'll do some more testing based off that and see what happens

 

Id check the circuit breaker in the fuse box.

 

Since you already know that your getting power,... Check the ground. It might be rusty or loose.

 

I checked the circuit breaker by swapping it with a 30 amp fuse and still nothing.

Is the ground under the carpet?

 

Yes it is

 

Ok thanks i'll check that

 

Don't dig under the carpet right away....... Rather than trying to access the ground wire itself (where it's bolted to the body under the rug), just "JUMP" the black wire @ the plug with a proven-good ground.

OR

Use a 2 wire test light. @ the plug simply JUMP the ORANGE with POS and the Black with NEG and the light should work 'at all times'.

If you have good Power and Ground at all times then next things I'd do is inspect the Switches' Plug itself. I've seen a couple seat harnesses that had corrosion on the round-type plug terminals before. I'm guessing that a needle or thin wire would be about the only thing that might be able get into all those little holes to "scratch" the terminal clean enough again to make a complete circuit.

Do you KNOW the replacement Switch is functional ? (I doubt it's the switch ) It's not a bad Idea to use a small wire brush on the terminals on the back of the switch itself to be sure they are all clean.


Like you; I find it hard to believe that all 3 motors just failed !

 

Ok so i didn't start looking for the ground under the carpet but i was looking for a cut wire or corrosion on the pins where the switch goes and they are all clean. with my voltmeter i back probed the switch at the black and orange wire and they get 12 volts but on the new switch if i depress the up and down it drops to 0 volts but side to side stays at 12. the old switch it drops to 0 volts in all directions i thought that was strange.

The only other thing that i know is the seat worked up until i had to unbolt the front two bolts and gently pop a wheelie with the seat to get a center console bolt i dropped into no mans land.

 

found the problem, the part where the pins on the back of the switch make contact had to be pinched tighter to make better contact and i totally over looked that. thanks for the help guys

 

: