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Old 12-23-2022, 02:23 PM   #1
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Question captains chair will not recline

I have a 1999 Winnebago Ultimate Freedom, 38'. It has 8 way powered seats. The passenger seat works fine. Everything on the driver's side works EXCEPT the recline. It will tilt forward but will not recline. The switch appears to be good. Is there any way to manually recline the seat? We are in Florida for the next 2 weeks and I tilted the seat forward to get it to rotate around. It is really a bit too far forward to be comfortable for the 700 mile trip home (very near to 90 degrees). I really don't want to try to take it off the pedestal while away from home so I'm looking for a fix just to get us home.

thanks,
Bob
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Old 12-23-2022, 05:20 PM   #2
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First, I need to admit that I'm really short on info on the seat! That leaves me very much doing some guessing and you may find it totally wrong---just the best idea I have until somebody might come along with better experience on it?

What I would expect, but total guess, is that there would be a 12VDC motor which runs forward or back when the polarity of the power changes.
If you are able to get the switch out to look at the rear, it may be easy to spot if I am near right!

Since it works to go forward but not back, I would guess the power is getting to the switch and from the switch to the seat fine but not when the switch is pressed to reverse the power. Most of the wiring and motor are good, just not when it should reverse.

Whether you can get the switch out and see the back side may make a big difference in whether this is something to try or not!
Back pain from driving or back pain laying in the floor??

What I think is likely is there is a set of six contacts/lugs on the back of the switch and inside it. Rather than the motor wiring failing, I would guess it more likely the switch contacts are not all good.

This is what I might think you would find looking at the back of the switch, based on guessing!
If you've been a model railroader, this will sound familiar as a track reversing switch!!

Click image for larger version

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When pushed to recline, the center contacts with positive and negative battery on what I've labeled 2 and 5 are making connection to the motor and it turns one way to recline. Pushed to the right as drawn here.

But a DC motor of this type runs in reverse when we change the positive and negative feed to the motor.

To go the other direction, you need the positive and negative to go to the motor but reversed! I'm guessing that contact is not getting made for both wires, so if you take a small wire or anything metal to connect the two center lugs to first one set of outer lugs and that moves it forward, try connecting the center to the other outer lugs to see if that won't make the seat move the other way?

Warning! This WILL blow a fuse or breaker if you touch the wrong lugs together!
So maybe a safer way is better-if the connections are right?
If they are push on connections, it is much safer to find the two wires that go to the motor, pull them off and reverse just those two wires. That will leave you able to set up but not recline, if my guess is right.
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Old 12-24-2022, 08:21 AM   #3
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Thumbs up it works now!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Your diagram got me to do some more checking. First, let me say that this is the first real trip in our RV so I had never tried to incline or recline the driver's seat. I checked for incoming power but my meter didn't register any. I knew that had to be wrong since the seat would incline.

I remembered that previously I had to turn over the controls on the other side of the chair to get the other adjustments (forward/back, front up/down, back updown) in the proper orientation. That told me that the previous owner had been "messing" with the controls. I realized that 3 feet away was another chair that had the controls working. I pulled that switch out and compared the wiring. I found 2 of the wires, blue and violet, were switched (they were diagonal to each other). I moved them on the driver's chair and now ALL IS WELL! That makes sense since that would be connecting one side of the motor directly to the incoming power.

Thanks again for the super fast reply and the great tip.

Bob
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Old 12-24-2022, 08:46 AM   #4
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Sometimes it just takes getting there and trying to sort what has to happen! Glad my guesses were of some value, even if not the real solution.

I often throw in ideas and figure it may not help but sometimes my brain needs a kick to get it started so if my idea is worthless, I figure it is easy to ignore as I'm not standing there at your elbow insisting you do it my way!!

I used to do wiring at a model railroad club and it's really hard to get everybody to agree on how to do things! Your previous owner may have had his own "secret"!

Carry on and enjoy the trip back!
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Old 12-27-2022, 12:35 PM   #5
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Got it fixed, great!

Every time I rotate the driver chair when parked, the wiring harness plug comes loose and I must make sure it is pushed in tight before the controls function.. Just saying.
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