So I went to the junk yard in blue island illinois today and scored a set of R seats in GREAT shape....very happy about that...now for the problem:

The passenger seat is power, and my car does not have a power passenger seat. How do i rectify this?

 

Remove the cushion from the seats and swap them out. Not sure how hard it is to get the new seats wired in, unless the wires are ALREADY THERE under the carpet and all you have to do is pull the wire out and plug it in. My guess would be that the later is your solution.

 

rspi: hope you're right on that. that would be nice. if not, I'd like to make that seat power...maybe i could pull power off the driver's seat and run across if the wiring isnt there...il figure it out. Just curious if anyone has done it before and what was involved.

 

No, I never installed a powered seat in a car that didn't already have power seats there. My guess is that the wire harness is there.

 

I haven't done it either but pulling power from the drivers side would likely be the easiest and cleanest way to do it if it isn't already there. That and getting the wiring out of a parts car so you have the right connector and gauge wire

 

No power plugs on passenger side...on to phase 2.

 

Grrrrrrr.

 

Off to the recycler, snip snip, splice splice and the seat will buzz buzz !!

And you wouldn't have to fuse it as the driver's side is already fused

 

rspi: exactly my thought. damn 94's..... Kiss: exactly my thinking. And of course I got the connectors - it seemed much easier to just cut them off than to unplug them. That's how you roll when you're in a junkyard and its 33 degrees and you're freezing your shiny hiney off...

Besides, I kinda anticipated that this might be an issue. That being said, it's probably not going to be too difficult to resolve.

 

With the connector and whatever lead you left yourself it should be a snap. If you're lucky you have enough to reach all the way over if not hopefully you use a gauge thicker wire and solder your connections and heat shrink them to insulate and protect them.

 

Is there any other way to do wiring? It's the only way I do it. Ever. I didn't get enough wire to go between the seats, but as you said, spanning it wont be an issue - I plan on stripping insulation off the existing wires on the driver's side, soldering in wires to go across, and shrink wrapping those. then I'll stick the wires into a loom, pull them under the carpet (and center console) inside the loom, then solder in the passenger's side harness on the other end. Shouldnt be too bad a project - maybe a couple hours.

 

That sounds like a good plan. The shrink wrap will keep any drinks from seeping down into the wiring your doing.

The safe thing to do is go at least one size bigger on the wire than you have now. If you don't have enough to go all the way across then use a size up (8 instead of 10, 10 instead of 12 ,,,,,,, you get the idea. Cut as close to the connector as possible or all the way to the terminal if possible to replace the existing wiring.

Heavier wire costs more (not much) but it prevents any possibility of motor problems, slow or no power due to insufficient current flow.

Then you can recline your passenger and ....... well whatever you have in mind !!

 

Yep. I think most of the wiring for the seats is, at thickest, 18 GA. I've got plenty of 16 and 14 around the house - more than enough to wire in the seat.

Technically, if you solder your wiring right, you dont need to go up in size, but I usually do it anyway. It's never gonna hurt anything.

 

Sorry, it's just "belt and suspenders" thinking on my part. I always tend to give myself more robust a system then originally engineered as I also tend to add on down the road.



It's why my three amp, four sub, four midrange, four tweeter stereo system never blows a fuse.

 

I usually use those splitters that has the splice and jump wire.

I still think swapping the cushions over is an option.

Our jy is having a 1/2 off sale today so I'm on my way to get a steering rack and na cams. I can tear one apart and ck wiring for you?

 

I could probably swap the cushions over, but i think it'd be a lot less of a PITA to just wire the damn thing. Plus, id have a power passenger seat then...