kishy's 1984 Town Car

[kishy]

Oh yeah, definitely. Plenty of room to do that either between the cover and foam, or between the foam and metal frame.

The entire thing has virtually no support in that area at all and I agree our seats tend to be not very good.

[BigMerc96]

^^Sure you could. Since the seat covers aren't exactly tight, you shouldn't have any problem adding a bit of extra foam to them. I'd also consider adding a strip of foam where the side bolsters would be if such a thing existed on these seats. With the pillow top seats it wouldn't even be all that obvious if you added some foam around the sides like that but it'd probably make a big difference in comfort.

Kishy, that failure mode is common for all '79-'02 seat frames. Its usually a result of the driver being.....heavy.. and putting extra weight on the hinges and since that side IS unsupported it'll eventually give up. The seat frames got extra reinforcement in that area with the '03+ design, but it still happens.

[gadget73]

I always figured it was large dude fishing out a wallet.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

I always figured it was large dude fishing out a wallet.

Or gangsta lean.

Always wondered why some cars at the junkyard had twisted seats, while others were still good. Now I know.

[kishy]

From this point forward I'm not planning to drive with the seat reclined at all, so hopefully the replacement won't break. Even it does have a mild bend to it, but nothing that really matters much. I'll probably begin collecting good ones. It is repairable, of course, with some added metal and well placed welds, and that will be the sustainable strategy for the future I suspect.

I am unsure at present if the seat bottom failure is the metal net breaking, some springs coming unhooked, or the foam having been fully squeezed through the metal net. It could be any of those things or a mix. I now have three spare, good metal net pieces so if the foam is intact, I can repair this. Further, if the foam is not intact, presumably I could put something under it to hold it up, or worst case scenario there's junkyard foam. I do have a donor car I'm eyeing and may buy the seat from.

[gadget73]

the foam does squish through the net somewhat. A sheet of cardboard will help if thats all it is.

[kishy]

Seat bottom diagnosis...

Yes, the foam is crushing through the net a fair bit. There is also a fair bit of ground up foam goodness on the carpet below. Additionally it seems like the pillow top padding is dead, which accounts for why it feels like there is essentially no cushioning in the seat. The pillow top is already flat and then it takes very little weight to totally flatten the foam against the net, so it's like you're sitting right on it. Firm and unpleasant.

There was a design change re: the automatic door lock seat switch. This change happened after 1984 and before or in 1986. The older arrangement is a longer switch mounted left-right in the seat, and the newer arrangement is a shorter switch mounted fore-aft in the seat. The plastic mounting clips changed to accommodate this change in orientation. The design of the switch and its mode of operation are otherwise the same as is its pigtail and normally-open nature. It is not clear to me how much the bottom of the seat foam was altered with this change but at least some foam had to be taken out to make it happen I think.

I had an idea about that, since the car loves to lock me out. The way it works is: if key is currently in run, and reverse light circuit has gone active at any time during the current "key in run" session, and all doors are closed (door open light is off), if there is sufficient weight in the driver seat, the doors will lock.

In human speak this means the car is running, all doors are closed, driver is present in the car and the car has been taken out of park.

I had the bright idea to use the seatbelt warning switch instead. Some of you will immediately see why that's no good.
I made a little pigtail that joins the seat switch connector (vehicle side) to the seatbelt switch connector (seatbelt side).
Tested it out and it works great, except for one little issue: the seatbelt switch is normally closed, and opens when the belt is attached. Therefore the car would continue to lock me out unless I buckle the belt before exiting the car. Back to the drawing board. It's just unhooked for now.

I tried putting cardboard between the foam and metal net, on the premise that having more foam be located above the net would add a feeling of more padding. Didn't help much and now it makes unfortunate noises. Looks like new seat foam time. I might just swap the whole junkyard seat I just got in and do that for a while.

[DerekTheGreat]

Oh yeah, what's the code to punch in to get the autolock feature to work? I think mine quit purposely. Congrats on POTM by the way! I haven't even voted on that stuff in over four months. Bad Derek.

[gadget73]

If you swap the keyless entry module for a later one, you can disable the auto-lock. I don't know when that change happened, but my Mark VII will do it. The 84 Conti will not. The modules themselves interchange as far as I know. Also can't recall what the key press sequence is to turn it on/off but its not mentioned in the 84 book and using the instructions from the 91 does exactly nothing. Since the system works properly I've decided to just leave it be. If the module dies I'll seek a later one out.

[DerekTheGreat]

Was it only '89 and up? Ashley's old '89 Townie had the auto-lock feature. I can't remember if mine worked and stopped or never worked. I'm going with never worked.

[gadget73]

I honestly don't know when it changed. The auto-lock was standard with keyless entry, but being able to disable it came later. I've gotten used to it, but it still annoys me when I go to grab something out of the car on the passenger side and the door is locked. I use the trunk popping function more than anything else.

[kishy]

Orrrrr...unhook the seat switch. It will never auto lock the door if it doesn't know you're in the seat.

I like the auto lock feature in general but I don't like how unreliable the seat switch is. It constantly locks me out. I'm looking forward to improving that.

[DerekTheGreat]

Where is this switch and do they go bad? Could be what happened with mine, although now I that I'm thinking about it, her owner's manual had a page detailing how it worked and mine does not. Meh. I drive the thing like once a month nowadays at best. I do like being able to pop the truck, so at least that portion of it still works properly.

[kishy]

Where is this switch and do they go bad? Could be what happened with mine, although now I that I'm thinking about it, her owner's manual had a page detailing how it worked and mine does not. Meh. I drive the thing like once a month nowadays at best. I do like being able to pop the truck, so at least that portion of it still works properly.

The switch is under the seat, sandwiched between the wire mesh/net and the seat cushion. You can see it if you put your head in the rear footwell. In your car I expect it runs right-left and is made of metal and plastic, about 7 inches long. 2 wire pigtail to a connector ziptied to the power seat wiring. Unplug that connector and you lost auto-lock but all other keypad functions continue working as normal.

The switch does not "go bad" in the traditional sense but can be "made to become bad" by the condition of the seat, I guess. It's supposed to have a springy tendency that makes it sit in an arch shape with no pressure on it. If the seat cushion is kinda crushed or the switch has lost its springyness, the switch will lay flat. If switch is flat, it is closed, and the module will lock the door because it thinks you're in the seat. If it is not arched, it's an issue.

[DerekTheGreat]

It's like an airbag sensor before airbags. I'll stick my head up under the skirt next time I'm down there.