3rd row electric seat back won't elevate.

[rpasetto]

I did a conversion to a power motor driven third seat system. After looking at all the posts in various threads here and in other Explorer forums, I decided to make a plan. First off, let me thank those who posted methods of removing the old plastic gearbox; the hammer-and-chisel method worked best for me. [now I need to buy aq new chisel ]

I also want to thank those who posted solutions involving cutting the shaft and fastening a hex nut or socket to the cutoff shaft. I took that to the next level and looked for a 12v reversible motor/gearcase and a pair of shaft couplings. I found motors on eBay; shaft turns slower than the OEM one but looks like it'll get the job done. Other motors with shaft-outputs around 100-150 RPM should work as well...

I took some pictures and video clips as I did this. Below are pictures of the motor I used and the modified motor in place. Now working on a YouTube video.....

 

[Mart1n]

Coooool. Keep us posted on the video!

 

[rpasetto]

Here's the URL for the YouTube video:



I'll be interested in comments.

 

[Mart1n]

Nicely done.

 

[Explorer_PL]

Rich -

Now you posted it after I replaced my seats !!!!!!

Nicely done, why Ford could not come up with a metal gear box ?........oh, I know: it would cost $ 0.86 more per car.

You are very handy

 

[rpasetto]

Rich -

Now you posted it after I replaced my seats !!!!!!

Nicely done, why Ford could not come up with a metal gear box ?........oh, I know: it would cost $ 0.86 more per car.

You are very handy

There are a lot of right angle drive 12vDC gear-motors out there. This one's rated at 190 RPM at the output shaft (I should have said 'around 150-200 RPM' in my earlier post.) The Ford gear-motor output is around twice that speed if I recall, so I am hoping that this one stays working. I do not know if the gears in this one are all metal; didn't want to take it apart if I didn't have to.

There was a lot of cutting, mostly with a cutoff tool which 'ate' a few cutoff wheels. The rest of the fabrication was making the support for the motors out of a piece of pre-punched strap steel, a short piece of thinwall conduit, a bolt, some washers and nuts with a lot of trial-and-error. I don't go thru it too much in detail in the video, as it pertains only to that particular type of motor. Basically it's an "L" bracket bolted to the floor by the seat brackets,; both motors are bolted to it via their mount ears which can be seen in the part of the video before the bracket is installed.

"Engineering" the design was time consuming, since I was looking for an angle drive with an offset so the motor on each side would below enough to clear all the interior plastic trim. The lower gear ratio will put less strain on the motor but perhaps more strain on the gears themselves. So time will tell about durability. THe key here is that the motor is more easily replaceable.

 

[rpasetto]

Rich -

Now you posted it after I replaced my seats !!!!!!

Nicely done, why Ford could not come up with a metal gear box ?........oh, I know: it would cost $ 0.86 more per car.

You are very handy

There are a lot of right angle drive 12vDC gear-motors out there. This one's rated at 190 RPM at the output shaft (I should have said 'around 150-200 RPM' in my earlier post.) The Ford gear-motor output is around twice that speed if I recall, so I am hoping that this one stays working. I do not know if the gears in this one are all metal; didn't want to take it apart if I didn't have to.

There was a lot of cutting, mostly with a cutoff tool which 'ate' a few cutoff wheels. The rest of the fabrication was making the support for the motors out of a piece of pre-punched strap steel, a short piece of thinwall conduit, a bolt, some washers and nuts with a lot of trial-and-error. I don't go thru it too much in detail in the video, as it pertains only to that particular type of motor. Basically it's an "L" bracket bolted to the floor by the seat brackets,; both motors are bolted to it via their mount ears which can be seen in the part of the video before the bracket is installed.

"Engineering" the design was time consuming, since I was looking for an angle drive with an offset so the motor on each side would below enough to clear all the interior plastic trim. The lower gear ratio will put less strain on the motor but perhaps more strain on the gears themselves. So time will tell about durability. THe key here is that the motor is more easily replaceable.

 

[rpasetto]

Just posted this in another thread. It's not the only solution but one which keeps it motorized w/o getting the expensive and frail Ford part.

One of the flaws in design is the worm-gear driven plastic sprocket, which is not replaceable w/o removing entire motor-gear-bracket assembly.

I was also looking at the various manual methods; it looked like one would either requiring building a different type, lever-operated seat bracket or using something to turn the OEM shaft. I decided to look for a motor to turn the OEM Acme-thread shaft with a sturdier and more readily replaceable motor. The youTube video below shows the solution using a motor sold in numerous places incl. eBay and Amazon. There may be better motor solutions and if these motors go maybe another better motor will be known.

 

[rpasetto]

I posted this in another thread a while ago. Check out post #6 of this thread. It uses a different readily available power seat motor. Once the mod is done motor can be replaced w/o taking out the whole seat bracket...
Replaced my 3rd row power seat with a manual one.

 

[D Hook]

Thinking about tackling this project next. Found motors on ebay for much less than dealer costs. (6L2Z-7861383-AA 2006 Ford Explorer Limited 4.6L | eBay) Of course, no guarantee they'll last any longer than the FoMoCo ones.

Also, thinking about 3D printing a replacement gear out of material stronger than original. Any thoughts? I haven't looked inside one of these motor/gearbox assemblies, other than the pictures posted here.

 

[BrooklynBay]

You could use nylon filament with 100% infill & 100 micron resolution.