1977 Town Car Electric Seat

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wkerfoot
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1977 Town Car Electric Seat

Post by wkerfoot »

The driver's seat on my Town Car won't move and unfortunately it is stuck in the forward location making it impossible to drive. I took the armrest apart and found a melted switch (pictures attached). Any thoughts as to where I can locate a new switch?

Bill Kerfoot
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Seat Switch 2.jpg
Bill Kerfoot
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George W
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Re: 1977 Town Car Electric

Post by George W »

You may be able to carefully clean it to remove the soot and then clean up the switch contact points with 1000 or 2000 grit wet or dry sand paper. What you’re seeing is typically caused by worn or contaminated contacts inside the switch which causes the contacts to overheat. Frequently the contacts can be cleaned and are able to function normally. If you’d rather not take the chance you may be able to find a new one from one of the usual Lincoln vendors listed. John Brewer or Arthur Apple, both in the Denver area should be able to help you.

The only other concern is that the seat mechanism may be jammed, but hopefully it isn’t.
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TonyC
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Re: 1977 Town Car Electric Seat

Post by TonyC »

Normally I'm all for repairing what you have if it can be repaired...but the cooking that switch assembly went through looks beyond repair. Maybe some components can be cannibalized and kept for spares, but the assembly itself looks toasted to me. You'll need a replacement.

But that's not the only thing you need to replace; the harness has also been through the same cooking, and I can tell you from experience with Bessie that you can't hope that cooking to be inconsequential. You need to replace that plug harness, possibly even some of the wiring that goes into it. That is the sort of thing that the Usual Suspects normally don't think of offering (although they probably could if asked, and if they happen to still have organ donors to gut out). So, you'd need a new (used in a relative context, of course) switch and harness, and for good measure a good length of wiring segments to replace any cooked wiring you have, which I deem likely. Cooked wire will cause resistance to current flow, resulting in an overload and a consequential repeat of the problem you have now. Splicing the wires is not a complicated matter, but it must be done properly and with the proper hardware and tools (all of which are attainable at parts stores for fair prices).

You can check with the Usual Suspects about getting a harness and switch, or you could check all the automobile graveyards in your local area for organ donors and possibly save the wait time and shipping charges (depending on what they charge for the parts). That actually would be my first recommendation; I personally prefer self-service yards if you have any. This ought to help out if experts on the '70s verify the guess I'm giving you now: It's very likely that the seat controls remained the same from, at minimum, '75 thru '79, so that means you will not be limited to only one year...maybe not even only one model, if the Marks used the same setup for their seat controls. So, assuming my guess is accurate fact, that gives you a much broader range to search for, meaning a better chance of finding what you need.

Now, this is very important: That is not the sort of thing that normally happens; something is out of place that caused that near-fire incident for you. Once you have repaired that damage, or maybe while you're repairing it, you will need to look around for the cause of that. That will involve backtracking down the seat circuitry all the way to the power source, looking for anything that looks out of place. That will take a lot of time, but you really don't want to have to replace your replacements because the same thing happened again. Hopefully the problem is purely electrical and not caused by a jammed mechanism...but my experience with jammed seats has always been that, if the mechanical adjustment has jammed somewhere, somehow, it still would not cause an overload to the point of nearly catching the controls on fire. If you have or can acquire a wiring schematic for your year and model (in that regard specific model and year are important), that ought to make the hunt a little easier. Maybe Dan can help you with that...if you're up to paying a little bit of donation for the Forum. As Ron Baker used to tell me when I asked his advice on exploratory diagnosis, "Happy hunting."

---Tony
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Re: 1977 Town Car Electric Seat

Post by frasern »

Was the seat running slow before? I'm thinking the California heat has dried out the grease in the mechanisms, and the increased drag caused the switch to heat up. Also, years of dirt etc. in the tracks, it may just need a good clean up and lube. After you fix the switch, of course. Any one of the dealers mentioned can help, or E Bay. Compare both sides to see if they are the same. If so, a right side switch from a parts donor will have had less use.
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Re: 1977 Town Car Electric Seat

Post by 78_towncar_460 »

Wasn't there a sticky for a power seat/power window upgrade on 1970s era cars that involved using a relay as to move the seats and windows through the relay instead?
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Re: 1977 Town Car Electric Seat

Post by TonyC »

I don't exactly know the setup for '70s seats, but the '60s seats already had their own relays built into them. I would think that remained in practice into the '70s. You are probably thinking of a popular conversion for '60s front windows, which involved installing relays to their respective wiring. Those who have done that say it works wonders for their front windows (the rears were already relayed at the factory).

---Tony
Last edited by TonyC on Fri Dec 23, 2022 2:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Don't believe everything you read on the Internet, just because there is a picture with a quote next to it." (Abraham Lincoln, 1866)
"Question Authority!"

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Re: 1977 Town Car Electric Seat

Post by mlj427 »

70’s Lincoln’s have a issue with fires from the seat switches. They always have power to the switch so it can burn anytime. I believe that a switch from a newer Lincoln will improve the problems I think 80 to 97. On Counting Cars he bought a gold Mark V that had a fire drivers door and dash that they rebuilt.

Google it there are several videos about it.
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