Powering seats without battery connections?

Went to remove a set of seats from my car that is mid-engine swap. Need to slide the seats to get a couple of nuts. Normally, not a big deal, just put 12v to the battery cables, and away we go. However, the battery cables were removed when I took the engine out. I tried making a jumper connection directly at the seat, but could only get them to go up and down. A few hours later, I'm thinking that by putting power to the aux post and ground, I should be good. Thoughts?

That should work. Other things may come on, and make sure there aren't any shorts.

You're powering the wrong motor if they only go up and down. Find the right motor and you'll be able to slide them back and forth. Standard caprice/impala power seats have three motors, one front up/down, one rear up/down, and one forward/backward.

sherlock9c1 wrote:

You're powering the wrong motor if they only go up and down. Find the right motor and you'll be able to slide them back and forth. Standard caprice/impala power seats have three motors, one front up/down, one rear up/down, and one forward/backward.

Thanks, Joel. In other breaking news, the sky is blue. lol

jayoldschool wrote:

Thanks, Joel. In other breaking news, the sky is blue. lol

Not trying to sound like a wise-guy, I'm just wondering why the forward/backward motor couldn't be powered directly? The trickiest seats I've had to deal with are the Bonneville 12-way seats, where if you don't get the jumpers exactly right, the seat moves in multiple odd directions at once. The standard 3-motor seats never gave me problems.

In any event, yeah, the aux post is a good place to start power-wise; I'd make sure no errant positive cables were draped down and touching things before powering the aux post.

If you power the car's electrical system, the seats do not know the difference. Use the seat switches just like the seat is installed in the car.

It getting late, and light was fading. I tried as many different combos of power on the under seat connectors as I could. I'm sure if I kept going, I could get it eventually. I'll power up the AUX post and report back before I dig in the FSM further to see exactly which wires move it forwards and back. Took a quick look last night but couldn't find the right diagram.

Try the tan and light-green. I think you're tall like me; if all else fails, remove the bolts you CAN get to and then lift that end up; it'll make it much easier to see the motors and wiring.