1957 dial-o-matic power seat overheated

[BarretHC1]

Dial-o-matic brothers and sisters, I pulled the seat a couple months ago to clean and paint, and today I put it back in. When I did so, its went smooth and straight forward with the exception of after about 30 minutes, the DC motor for AFT and FORE, was red hot and started smoking and heating up the foam cushioning above it. It was in the AFT position all the way back against the hard top when it did it. What the heck is up with that?!?!?!? I have pulled all three wiring harness from the motor while it was in position 6 (second to last from full AFT). Obvs the power seat doesn't work but I am correct in thinking the seat wll not move right? If I pull the motor completely will it shift back and forth? Still trying to figure everything out....

 

[Tater Salad]

I'd look for a short. Those motors need quite a bit of current to move. Im not familiar wth those electric motors, but id check for any burnt wires under the dash as well. The seat motor is supplied power from a red wire under the dash from (what I think) a 30 amp circuit breaker between the steering column and radio. Check those back to the switch for any shorts.
Disclaimer. Im speaking from being under a 55 not 57. But I don't think the wiring colors changed. I'll post a pic of the wiring diagram of a55 in a few minutes




Again, this may not pertain to 57. But I can send coordinate pics if that helps. The quality is kinda low

 

[BarretHC1]

I'd look for a short. Those motors need quite a bit of current to move. Im not familiar wth those electric motors, but id check for any burnt wires under the dash as well. The seat motor is supplied power from a red wire under the dash from (what I think) a 30 amp circuit breaker between the steering column and radio. Check those back to the switch for any shorts.
Disclaimer. Im speaking from being under a 55 not 57. But I don't think the wiring colors changed. I'll post a pic of the wiring diagram of a55 in a few minutes


View attachment 16296

Again, this may not pertain to 57. But I can send coordinate pics if that helps. The quality is kinda low

Thanks, I am gonna try to hunt down a short in the harness that supplies power from the starter selenoid (since it happened when the key was not even in the car).

 

[Tater Salad]

Yellow goes through firewall to ignition switch. Red leaves ignition switch goes to circuit breaker mounted under dash from there it's black wire with white stripe going to door switch

 

[74 Harley]

Ok, before you go chasing wires for a short that doesn't exist, let's hit the basics. There is always power to the power seats (even with the key off) so that you can move the seat back without having to get in the car. Think of a 6' guy getting in after his 5' wife parked the car.
With that said you need to check the switch that moves the seat fore and aft. It's probably getting sticky and held the power on after you let go. So reconnect your wires and move the seat forward about an inch, see if it creeps.
That is if the motor will still work.

 

[BarretHC1]

Ok, before you go chasing wires for a short that doesn't exist, let's hit the basics. There is always power to the power seats (even with the key off) so that you can move the seat back without having to get in the car. Think of a 6' guy getting in after his 5' wife parked the car.
With that said you need to check the switch that moves the seat fore and aft. It's probably getting sticky and held the power on after you let go. So reconnect your wires and move the seat forward about an inch, see if it creeps.
That is if the motor will still work.

Tomorrow I am going to pull he seat and make sure all 3 wiring harnesses were connected properly and right. I am also going to check the relays, ad circuit breakers with my multimeter, and grease the tracks to make sure there is no binding of movement.

 

[74 Harley]

I think the only switch you need to check is the forward- aft switch.

 

[BarretHC1]

SOLVED*** THE *** PROBLEM*** So, even though I have read this over and over and over again, I finally zeroed in on the problem. At some point someone changed the ram to the horizontal motor (fore/aft) to the ram that was originally used for the up and down motor (the one with the plastic sleeve). Because of this, I believe the up/down ram with the plastic sleeve and square block at the end, does not have the travel or number of spins as the correct straight silver looking (non-sleeved) fore/aft motor. So, when I set it in position 1, it was fine, however the list switch was not stopping it when it traveled back to position 7 because the screw and ram was not traveling as far..... Now that I figured it out, I actually set, or calibrated it in position 7 and now it works fine. As long as you don't go to position 1, which isn't a big deal because I am 6' tall. Now I just have to find out why the circuit breaker didn't trip......!!! THANK YOU ALL!

 

[Don landers]

Thank you for posting your results! I am happy to you have figured it out.

I have heated that when reinstalling that seat the ram has to be screwed all the way down to avoid confusion between the switch and motor FYI just in case it was over looked I have that seet in my 1957 Thunderbird cool option but can leave you pulling you're hair at times