Finally I have finished the temporary repair of my car's damned driver's seat! The mechanism was damaged in the rear end collision and the seat was loose and sliding back and forth, without any way to adjust it or stop it from moving. I had tried wedging a propane tank behind the seat, but it still lurched back and forth when driving. The problem was that the electric motor controlling the seat was broken, and the accident broke loose the frozen position in which the seat had been before the accident. It served me fine for three years without the motor working, because it was in the right position for me. But no one can drive sitting on a sliding seat!

So I took the seat out and began the dissection. It turned out that one of the curved magnets surrounding the armature had broken into small pieces, which shorted out the entire motor, then froze the commutator solid. When I removed the motor, pieces of broken magnet were everywhere, and it had that characteristic burnt electrical smell, which probably means the armature is fried as well.

I called the dealer, and I was told the price of a new motor is $425.00!

That's highway robbery, and in any case I am not about to pour my own money into fixing something which wasn't broken because of any fault of my own, so I started to wonder how on earth I might perform a temporary repair. I noticed that the armature is integral to the shaft of the whole mechanism, and is slotted at each end. When it rotates, it turns two long screw shafts which move the brackets which hold the seat above. So, I removed the cover, then using a hammer and a screwdriver, pounded out the armature from the motor housing, then carefully loosened the long screw shafts and hooked up each end of the armature shaft, so that the armature alone occupies the same position as did the motor. Then I put everything back together and reinstalled the seat.

Here's how it looks under there:

It's fine for a temporary repair, except it would take a very coordinated person about a half an hour to change the seat position.

(Not the world's most comfy "armature" -- but it's a lot better than slipping and sliding.)