[ The casting on the forward tilt motor broke, dumping the pinion gear; complete repair notes are at various places in this thread, in random order; if this happens to you, read the whole thread. This posting brought to you by Captain Obvious; thanks to lipadj for some hints. --Baylink ]

Got in the truck the other day, and ka-thunk, the front of the driver's seat went down about an inch or two on me; when I sit in it, the seat pivots on the rear mounts.

I bumped the front and back of the tilt switch just a bit to see what happened; the rear goes up and down as expected; the front, I just hear the motor.

Slides fore and aft properly, as well.

I'm assuming a pin or bolt has fallen or popped out; looked in the shop manual last night, and it doesn't have as much detail on the mechanism as you might like.

Anyone ever had this happen before?

Now that my and my toolbag (read: flashlight) are in the same place -- was moving a friend all weekend and cleaned the truck out for it -- time to go compare the left and right seats. Thank ghod they're mostly identical on this model.

 

The rear corner of my seat collapsed. I took it out drilled out the welded bolt and re-bolted it. I read a post over on dweb about a collapsed front seat forgot what the outcome was though. I would remove the seat though and try to repair it out of the truck. They come out pretty easily though you need a female torx socket.

 

I may have to do it that way, yeah; it is my only vehicle, though.

<ducks as people throw vegetables>

 

Ok.

I can see the actuator motor casing, and the pinion gear sticking out the after end of it... and the broken casting in between the two.

Clearly, a) I'm going to need a part, and b) I'm going to need to pull the seat to install it. But happily, at least c) I'm likely not going to break anything by sitting on it to drive while I wait for said part to come in.

Important question: d) am I going to have to part out someone's seat? Or does anyone have a pointer to (or perhaps the actual part for) the front tilt actuator for the driver's seat on a '00 D II?

The thing I *don't* have is a parts catalog, so I don't know exactly what part that is; is there a parts catalog PDF available for that year, as the shop and electrical manuals are?

 

Nevermind; spupilup, unsurprisingly, has a complete set up for $70.

Should I assume that I should replace all 3 motors while I have the seat apart? That approach is a good idea... oh, about 80% of the time.

 

I would not replace a motor unless it is burnt out. The seats come out pretty fast so that is not really a big deal.

 

Has the extra added advantage that if the other seat throws a motor, I have a 2/3 chance of having it.

Are there lots of those reverse Torx bolts on the truck? Or do I only need the one size socket -- and if so, what size is it, do you know?

 

Well, the motors came in (actually, more parts than were shown in the eBay pic; thanks Paul) and to the right address, even though I wasn't sure I'd had it set right on the buy. And in only 4 days. Nice.

I am, though, having quite a bit of trouble finding the reverse Torx sockets locally; any suggestions? And what size is it (see immediately above... ;-)

 

Sears or harbor freight have female torx sockets, I'm not sure the exact size. I will be working on the truck later so I can check then.

Edit:

These sets have the correct torx socket (either e14 or e16):

http://www.harborfreight.com/20-piec...set-98331.html

http://www.harborfreight.com/16-piec...set-36562.html

 

It is, in fact, an E-14, and it's a *very* snug fit; if the top of the bolt is at all banged up, you'll have to tap it on a bit.

AutoZone stocks a 10-piece E-socket set for $20 from Great Neck... which aren't the best tools in the world, but what the hell; they were down the block. :-)