Seat Switch Repair

On a recent trip back from I can't remember where, my lovely wife's seat back in the Big White Bus (BWB) would no longer move into the "upright position" as the Sky Goddesses often tell us to do. I suspected the switch was acting up. The kids sit over there and are often "adjusting" the seat. It's more like playing with the seat.

I fiddled with it as we drove down the road. She asked me to stop when she was nearly completely reclined. "Just stop, 'trying to fix it'," she said. I said fine, and went about rearranging my daily schedule to accomodate another repair.

I pulled the seat adjust levers and popped the cover off. The switch still had the silver tape seal intact. So it seems this was the first time this switch had failed. I took the switch out of the Rover and into the garage for closer inspection and the repair. As I walk to the garage I held the switch up to my ear and shook it. The tell tale sign of a loose ball bearing echoed back.

I laid out a towel to work on the swich. If you loose any of the springs or ball bearings you are most likely buying a new switch. The ball bearings you can get at Ace Hardware but the springs are another story. So the towel is a good surface nothing rolls on it and if anything lands on it, it most likely will not bounce.

After I cut the silver tape I removed the screw from the plug side of the switch. I next set to carefully trip the tabs to allow me to remove the switch cover. The cover doubles as the race for the top ball bearings so you need to be careful opening the switch. The switches are very simple. Basically a lever with two ball bearings, one on top and one on bottom with a spring in the middle of each pair, housed in a plastic channel on the switch lever.

As I suspected there was a loose ball bearing. I found the switch lever that was missing it's bearing and placed it back in the channel. I got some silicone grease and sprayed it inside. Then it hit me that this switch had never been cleaned. So I endevored to clean the contacts.

I disassembled each lever seperately and one at a time. This minimizes the confusion of which one goes where when you put it back together. I took a small file out of the tool chest and scraped each contact point until the black was gone. I wasn't overly ambitious but got all the black off. On the Difficulty Scale this is a 1. There are some tricky places you can loose a screw if you aren't careful. A pair of needle nose pliers and a screwdriver are all that are needed. If you intend to clean the contacts you should use something like a very small file. You can see the file in one of the pictures along with the needle nose pliers. I was able to get some of the carbon off with a simple wooden Q-tip with some lubricant on it.

Thanks for reading and happy Rovering with your seat in a comfortable position.