Power Passenger's Seat? My Theory on an Easy Conversion!

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I couldn't sleep ( sux, I have a morning shift tomorrow...) and I got to thinking. The best seat track for the driver's side is the three motor unit of 87/88, but you never see a passenger's side power seat in a G body. Now, the reason the driver's side is important, is that I accidentally pulled the wrong track once. I saw a 3 motor track in a junkyard and jumped on it only to figure out later that it was adapted from a Cutlass Ciera/Century/6000/etc. However, I did just find the proper G body track for my car and got it all fixed up and ready to go. But, what about my A body FWD track? Well, I just put them side by side in the car and the tracks and motors appear virtually identical! The big difference is in how the feet of the track are shaped. They are much shorter on the A body track than a G body, and the rears have an odd shape to them that only allows one bolt of the two to be used. However, the passenger's side of a G body needs a shorter set of front feet because of the catalyst hump. So, if the rear feet can be adapted from a manual track, it should be a bolt in. I already know it will bolt to a G body seat because I pulled it from one. Also, the passenger's side seat ( I have a split bench) appears to have a place in the seat frame that is shaped to take a passenger's side seat switch. All it would take then is adapting the feet to the correct position and type for the G body, running the wiring in the seat, making an extension harness to run from the driver's side wiring to the passenger's side with 10 ga wire, and cutting an X shaped cut to allow the switch to be put in. Anyone have a better idea on how to make all this work? Also, if anyone knows of a factory power passenger's seat application feel free to post it here. I thought I saw one once many years ago, but it was the only time.

 

[mr evil]

check this out, he's done some cool stuff
http://www.members.shaw.ca/gregtsmith/

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

He went through a lot more trouble than what I am doing though. I already have both my power tracks mocked up in the car, and both of mine are the later, three motor design not the nylon transmission design like he had. One motor controls tilt of the front of the seat, one for the rear tilt, and one moves it backwards and forwards. What I am doing is making essentially a "Y" connector to run both off my original driver's seat power wiring. I will need 2 female plugs and a male plug to make this work. This way, I can plug the male into the female plug that is already there, and use it to run the two seats. That will take care of powering the seats. However, I will have to figure out a solution to flipping the seat switch over to the other side of the car.(It will run 2 switches) Right now, I am leaning towards switching the plugs from front tilt to back tilt, and reversing the pins on the forward/backwards motor connector. However, I will do a bit of a proof of concept first to see if all that is necessary.

Also, it's a shame he hacked the seat trim piece like he did. There is a GM parts bin solution available which puts the switch inside a trim piece. You just need the power seat side piece from either a Caddy Cimirron (Cavalier clone), or Camaro. There may be other cars that used this piece as well as GM seems to have used a generic bucket seat framework and made the cosmetic changes in the foam and upholstery during the 80's. I have one from a 3rd gen Camaro sitting on the shelf for the driver's side, but not for the passenger's side. I plan to use them when I eventually switch the car over to buckets, a console, and a 5 or 6 speed manual trans.

 

[mr evil]

You guys are both in further than I've been. I read it through after I posted, but figured you might grab some info from it.

I'm just tossing the eggs, you decide which go in the basket, lol.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Thanks for that link. He did a few things I have already done, and one thing that I wanted to do but did not know how. The "Flash to Pass" mod for the headlights is something I had wanted to do, but did not know where to source the parts for it. It will DEFINITELY be on my car!!!

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

OK, I will post this for all of those poor lost souls who come upon this in a Google search. Here are my findings to put the power track in a passenger's side seat. You will need a track out of either a late 80's Cutlass Ciera or it's clones, or maybe a baby Caddy and it's clones. The seat wiring needs to come from a Ciera as does the switch. For wiring, all you have to do is build an extension to the driver's side seat harness's orange and black wires and run it to the passenger's side. The passenger's side seat will have the grommet hole in the bottom of the seat like the driver's side, and it will have the hole in the seat foam for the switch. What it will NOT have is the bracket the seat switch attaches to that is under the upholstery. My suggestion is that you salvage the bracket from the Ciera when you get the wiring from it. Also, you will need to swap the front and back tilt wires and then reverse the way the wires are in each connector, right to left and vice versa to compensate for the switch being on the other side of the car. Otherwise, it will all work backwards. Now, to add the bracket to the seat, you will probably have to peel back the upholstery from the bottom of the seat. It is attached with J hooks. Don't break them! Once you get it peeled back, install your bracket. Now, put the upholstery back on but do not cut it yet. You will do that after it is stretched back on the frame. This way, you cut it to to where the bracket winds up and not to where you think it should be. Cut the hole in an X pattern and do not remove any material. This is the way GM did it on the driver's side, and it adds strength. If you were successful, you should now have dual 6 way power seats that look factory. I would also add that you should put some sort of grommet around the edges of the oval hole in the bottom seat frame that you run the wires through. You can make one by slitting a piece of vacuum hose and gluing it on with silicone.