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Replacing a power driver seat with a manual passenger seat?
My power seat recently crapped out, would only go up/forward but SOMETIMES it would go down (sounded awful doing it). I took it apart enough to figure out that at least one of the gearsets is FUBAR, and you can't really fix the thing (if somebody knows how, I'm listening).
Went to a junkyard and found a manual seat track from a passenger seat, now I'm wondering what's the best way of converting it? How hard are the seatbelt mount studs to move? I know it'll mount up to the car just fine, but I don't want my seatbelt on the wrong side and I'd rather have the tilt handle on the correct side as well.
I tried searching for other threads on this and didn't find any, but the search function seems.... less than stellar.
They Did Offer a Manual Seat Track For The Drivers Side. You Would Need Side Shield & ***** To Convert. If You Were Going New The Cost Difference Between Power & Manual Are Nill & Then You Still HAve To Get The Extra Pieces. So My Advice Is Bite The Bullit And Buy Another New or Used Electric Track. Or You Could Search for a Drivers Manual Track. Be Advised Usually The Side Shield is Destroyed When Removing So Be Extra Carefull if You Want To Save That.
As an FYi Here is The New Listings. The Tracks Are The Same From 07-14 The 05's Being Different Wiring You Did Not Say What Year You Had! Hopefully not 05! The 06's Are Split With The Wiring. You Vin Would Show Which Style You Had on The Parts Link Cars Built After 06-2006 Have The Available Later Track!
The Good News Is You Can Search For Used Parts on Later Cars up To 14!
Anyway Here is Some info To Gleen From & Make a Decision. Tracks Have Been Swapped in The Past But it is Not a Fun Job! Seems To Me It Was Drivers Power That Got Swapped To Passenger Manual Back in The Day Though!
There is a Gear Kit For Height Adjustment From Ford
I think it would mount right up on the passenger side, but it's probably not going to be easy to swap the levers to the other side .... I think your better off looking for a driver's side seat, than trying to convert the passenger side
Well, between this thread and my (bad) luck at nearby junkyards, I think I have a game plan.
I'm gonna try my best to make this passenger track work for the driver seat, then I'll be able to drive the **** thing while I tear into the power track and try to fix it or at least figure out exactly what's wrong. That way I'll have something besides a 30 year old diesel dually to run around in LOL
Unfortunately, whether the switch is bunk or not, the power track definitely has some mechanical issues that a switch won't fix
Would anyone happen to have a link to info on tearing down the power track? I already know it ain't easy...
Make One Call to Parts Farm & See What They Want for a Power or Manual Track! I Have Seen The Kind Of Cars They Get and Many are Super Nice Cars That Met an Untimely Fate! May Get Lucky Certainly Worth a Try! Many Times Suppliers Don't Have Everything Listed Online and a Call Can Be The Way To Go!
I Have an Old Track i Have Used For References on Posts & It is Just a Nasty Tough Thing To Fool With! Sorry I Don't Know of Any How To Convert Threads. There Were Some Early Ones Converting Driver Power Seats For a Power Passenger Track But A Lot of Our Earlier Threads Were Lost in a Forum Hack Back in The Day and The Pics Are Either Gone or The Dreaded Pictiger No Longer There Message.
For What it is Worth Here Are Some Exploded Views!
Take a Look At The Manual Seat Track Bar You Pull To Move Seat Front To Back. The Odd Shape May Not Play Nice on Drivers Side! It Has A Unique Shape On Outside Edge To Clear Bracket
Certaily as a Temporary Repair You Can Short Cut all But The Basic Features and Get Seat Positioned For Your Use Only. So I Would Look at it From That Point of View Other Than a Complete Conversion if Later Trying To Repair Your Track is Your Aim. I Will Tell You I Have Repaired Earlier Cars Tracks & They Were Far Easier To Fool With. I Had A Member Ask For Help on Trying To Get the Motors Apart on The Power Track & Tried on My Test Track and Man Those Bent Over Tabs are MURDER to Try & get Apart! So For Now That is All I Got!
Update: do I lose my SRS airbag sensor (AKA it won't deploy) if I don't plug this in? I would have to take the entire harness from my old seat to plug it in, since the connectors are totally different. And no I'm not gonna rewire it, that's asking for trouble...
Early Part Number 2005-2009
Disregard The 2005-2012 Nomenclature That is General Listing. By Looking at 2005,2009 2010 and 2014 Found Useage of Switches!
This is What I'm Seeing So Far with Info Provided. Will Later Harness & SRS Play Nice or Will You Have To Swap Wiring. Don't Know at The Moment. Switches Look Like They Bolt On The Same all Years I Guess Just Have Different Plug in.
Mine's a 2008, the other one I'm not sure but it did have a seat airbag (which had been used).
The only thing I kept from the junkyard seat was the frame, backrest and seat pad are from mine (which has the airbag unused). Plug for the sensor looks the same on both harnesses.
Would I be fine without the sensor then?
Here's the manual plug, the power sensor, and the power plug.
Sorry, mine DOES have an airbag. It just hasn't gone off like the other one.
How important is the seat position sensor? I also just realized the seatbelt sensor would have the same issue though; it's on the main harness too, and I was planning to just let the car think I'm not buckled in. But would that stop the airbags from going off?
Last edited by tmaaan54; Oct 23, 2025 at 07:31 PM.
I Think With The Airbag Resistor in Place It Will Take Care of Any EXTRA Plugs Which May Exist. You Will Get an Airbag Light if any Failures are At Large!
I Think Any Missing Plugs Etc. Will At Least Defeat Some of The Airbag System. I'm Thinking Better To Be Safe Than Sorry & Pull The Wiring. Let Me Show The Wiring System on The Seat if I Can Find it!
I Believe You Will Get a Chime Noise As Well If Everything is Not Correctly Hooked Up! DING DING DING! i Know You Won't Like That!
Unfortunately that's beyond what I trust myself to do with wires lol
I slept on it and decided to just move the sensor and harness from the old seat, which would just leave the seat controls unplugged (movement and lumbar). But I'll have my original seat sensor/airbag and my original plugs. Oh, seat belt buckle and its sensor too!
If I truly haveto make the wiring harness perfect, I'll have to pay someone.
Last edited by tmaaan54; Oct 24, 2025 at 12:00 PM.
If You Have Everything as it Was Except For Plugs Controlling Movement of Track and All The SRS Plugs are intact I Think you Will Be Fine. Make Sure and Use Your Seatbelt Buckle as The Donor Car Has Likely Deployed Pretensioner in Donor Buckle if That Was a Factor!
If Any Faults Occur You Will Know Soon Enough. I Think it is Also a Bettter Idea To Have All That Stuff Plugged in {With The SRS} Anyway as it Could Cause an Issue in SRS Module. I Have Seen Where Mods Were Done in The Past & Other Modules Lost Programming Due To Half Plugged in Items. There Again The Power Seat Stuff as Far as Movement I Just Don't Believe Would Affect Anything Else. Dealing With Two Separate Systems!
