Re: Power seat cable?

Posted by HH56 On 2021/12/5 23:06:50

I would agree with O_D about it being for the cigar lighter in the ashtray on the seat back. That wire is spliced to the body feed wire above the center pillar and would drop down and out the hole at the bottom where the black inline connector would join it to a wire coming out of the seat frame.

Seatwise, unless it is a 54 it would have had the hydraulic power seat but there would be two wires going toward the front and joining a loom coming from the rear windows at the tunnel edge. For the 54 4 way seat a single wire usually went under the front carpet over to an opening in the sheet metal at the left kick panel area. An underseat heater is also a possibility but that should be on the passenger side and a smaller wire.

To have that much damage you may find a dead short where the wiring has been damaged or pinched or the socket became shorted. Very possibly the element in the lighter became melted and could be stuck in the socket. After 48 the body feed wire was protected by a self resetting circuit breaker on the back of the instrument cluster rather than a fuse. A short would cause the breaker to trip but after a few seconds it resets and the cycle starts over. It will keep tripping and resetting until the wire opens, the short is fixed or the breaker fails. With the automatic reset and intermittent power to the shorted wire over a period of time damage can be substantial.