Re: [Chrysler300] 1955 C-300 Power Seat Repair and Gearbox Lube

[<fabe7445@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

   Rich,

   Sounds like you've been down the road on projects like this before. 

   Two comments, first; do not rely on WD40 as a lubricant, it has solvents features that help in 
   cleaning but it primarily a moisture displacer, great if you have moisture in your distributer cap.
   If you want to lube something use Breakfree or one of the other quality oils.
   Second, you asked for a grease reccomendation, Lubriplate is an excellent choice or some of the 
   new synthetic greases as speced by some of the automobile companys will do a great job.

   Jim faber South Carolina
> 
> From: Rich Barber <barber@xxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 2005/05/31 Tue PM 01:07:59 EDT
> To: Chrysler 300 Club International Yahoo Server <Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Chrysler300] 1955 C-300 Power Seat Repair and Gearbox Lube
> 
> I spent the afternoon getting the power seat in my 1955 C-300 to work.  
> Before, it would just click, but not move.  I'm sharing my findings and 
> procedure below, but have a question first.
> 
> Page 201 of the 1955 Chrysler service manual states:  "The vertical 
> power unit shaft is equipped with a ball nut and should not be 
> lubricated.  The horizontal power unit shaft is equipped with a friction 
> nut that is packed with life-time grease requiring no further 
> lubrication."    Additionally there is a gearbox on the horizontal power 
> unit where a small worm gear drives and rotates the worm drive power 
> unit shaft.  If that gearbox was also packed with "life-time grease", 
> its life-time is over and the grease is gone, having leaked out and and 
> accumulated on the exterior of the gearbox and assembly and attracted 50 
> year's worth of dirt and dust bunnies..  Anyone have a recommendation 
> for what kind of grease to pack that little gearbox with?
> 
> Findings and Procedure:
> 
> Inoperation was partially due to a buildup of crud on various rotating 
> elements, especially the 3/4" (?) worm gears that position the links and 
> torque rods.  With the assemblies removed and the motors direct fed from 
> the battery, nothing would rotate until disassembled, cleaned and lubed.
> 
> Inoperation was also partially due to one of the two switches not 
> feeding a ground in one position as it should. 
> 
> The ground cable was disconnected from the battery.
> 
> The front seat bottom can be removed by just lifting it up.  Pretty 
> handy!  Looks like a plumber's and electrician's nightmare under there, 
> but you don't have to understand the complex mechanical linkage to work 
> on the system.
> 
> The six wires connected to the switch were tagged and removed.  This 
> enabled checking the various switch positions for continuity.  One 
> position was dead on the vertical switch, so the seat could not be moved 
> down after being sent all the way up.  Jumpering a ground to the relay 
> enabled reversing the motor.  It was possible to clean the worm drive 
> power shaft of the vertical unit without removing the power unit by 
> spraying with WD-40 and ragging it off.  So only repair of the switch 
> was required
> 
> Both switch positions worked ok for the vertical power unit and produced 
> relay clicking at the motor but no rotation.
> 
> The steel and aluminum surround at the driver's side of the seat base 
> was removed by removing four small sheet metal screws holding it to the 
> seat frame.  This enabled  access to the three screws holding the switch 
> assembly to the surround..
> 
> The surround was cleaned and the aluminum polished.  The steel part of 
> the surround needed repainting with black enamel, that for another day. 
> 
> The switches are serviceable, sort of.  Each of the two switches is held 
> in the chrome pot metal housing by two spring steel clips.  I ended up 
> breaking the clips to get the bad switch out of the housing.  Once out 
> and cleaned, it became apparent the black plastic switch body was held 
> together with small wire clips that were sort of like big square 
> U-shaped staples.  These clips were easy enough to remove and enabled 
> the inside mechanism and contacts to be accessed.  One of the sets of 
> contact points had enough erosion and corrosion to prevent electrical 
> contact.  Not having any contact cleaner, I just polished all the points 
> with a little brass detailing brush and reassembled the switch using the 
> two wire clips.  Much like filing a set of ignition points.
> 
> Not having replacements for the broken spring steel clips, I just jammed 
> a couple of steel brads into the spaces where the clips would have 
> gone.  This seemed to do a good job of securing the switch in the 
> housing.  Time will tell how long this crude fix lasts.
> 
> I removed the vertical power unit after first removing two small snap 
> rings from the mounting pins.  This task required a snap-ring tool with 
> tiny points.  The relay box was removed after tagging the wires.  The 
> relay functions checked out ok.  The wires from the switch provide 
> grounds to the relay and cause high-amp hot current to flow to the 
> armature and one or another of the fields of the motor.  There are three 
> wires coming from each motor.  The two smaller wires are fields, one for 
> each direction.  The larger wire is the armature connection.  To test 
> the motor, I bolted one field wire to the armature wire and connected 
> these two wires to the Negative (Hot) side of my 6-Volt battery.  Then 
> connecting the Positive (ground) side of the battery to the body of the 
> motor.  After completely removing the motor from the gearbox, The motor 
> started and ran fine in both directions.  (Whew!--what a relief--don't 
> have to go shopping for a motor.).  After cleaning the worm drive power 
> rod and the gearbox, they were reassembled to the motor and the system 
> worked fine in both directions with direct power from the battery.  
> There was a large rubber flex coupling between the end of the motor 
> shaft and the small worm gear driving the power rod.  I think some of 
> the accumulated crud was surrounding the coupling and preventing rotation .
> 
> Reassembly went fine.  The seat can be levered as needed to allow the 
> power unit to be slipped over the two mounting pins.  I WD-40'd the 
> connection points on the linkage and torque levers.
> 
> Reconnected the battery ground cable and everything worked fine.  The 
> motors ran smoothly and quietly.  Cleaned and buffed the leather seat 
> base while it was out.  Also vacuumed the carpet under the seat.
> 
> Now that the power seat works, I can install the seat belts I bought 
> last year.  I have sure felt naked without them and 
> she-who-must-be-obeyed will not ride in the car without them.  One old 
> report on the 1955  Chrysler 300 said the car cornered better than the 
> driver, what with the slick leather seats.  Not so bad when you have a 
> steering wheel to hang on to, but there is no panic bar for the 
> passenger to grab.
> I hope this may be helpful to anyone with inoperative power seats.  The 
> bottom line is they are a complex electro-mechanical system, but can be 
> services with simple tools and unskilled labor.  I assume they are 
> pretty much the same in later years.  Consultations available and 
> criticisms welcomed.
> 
> C-300'ly,
> Rich Barber
> Brentwood 94513
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
>  
> 
> 
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