164 power seat switch: UPDATE

[Doug Gould <wdgould@domain.elided>]

My current 164 has never had power seat problems (touch wood) however, my 
previous one did.

I removed the seats from the previous 164 and disassembled the 
motor/gearbox units. The screw that is visible at the rear of the motor 
unit is connected to a plastic bearing cup that locates the rear of the 
motor armature. My hypothesis is that as the motor wears, the resultant 
slop in this bearing cup allows the armature to drop and lose contact with 
one of the motor brushes. (this is why tapping the motor sometimes gets it 
to work again) I found that adjustment of this screw is quite critical. Too 
tight and it binds up the motor, too loose and the armature is not 
correctly located.

My first (and easiest) suggestion, is to  try doing this screw up tight (to 
locate the armature) then progressively unwinding it too see if there is a 
point at which the motor will work again.

If this fails, its actually reasonably easy to remove the entire seat then 
you can take it all apart, set the seat where you want it, have a look at 
the motor, clean it, etc.

Doug Gould
Melbourne, Australia
1985 White GTV6
1991 Blue 164L
1959 Blue VW Beetle (From Grandma's estate - 43,000 miles)

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