Oh!!! I didn't know that....... I forgot to ask what that actually controlled.... Oh crap...I wonder if I messed up the calibration when I unplugged and moved the seat.
You can only mess up the calibration if you remove the potentiometer from the spline (or the potentiometer is broken).
Finally, some good news. I'm going to reassemble everything tonight and pull the seat out to prep for the new connectors which are arriving on Friday. Gonna recondition the leather while it's out too. I'll look at the pot to see if it's broken or not...
The fault may not be visible. The ball and "clawed" socket can have the wrong friction. It's meant to grip fairly tightly, but I believe it should slip if the potentiometer runs out of travel before the seat hits the endstops. A possibly better check would be to simply monitor the resistance of the pot wires during seat travel to see if you get any anomalies.... before you remove the seat. You do have to partially remove the pot to take the cover off (I believe) for repair and inspection. I don't know if you can mess up the calibration by doing this.
I think the problem is in the splices, but you're right, it may be in the pot itself. It could be getting jostled when I'm handling the spliced connections. But I think I remember just applying light pressure on the spliced connections which caused the issue. I guess after I replace the connection and run the seat is when I'll find out.
I really don't know what the issue is. As I said, I disconnected my potentiometer plug and my seat worked (with the seat switch). Note that the grey/yellow power and black ground wires are spliced into the passenger potentiometer wiring. That's what the splices are for.
A theory: Unplugged entirely might be different than part of it being plugged in while other wires lose connection. If not all the wires are connected at the same time, that might trigger a fault and stop the seat from moving. Maybe?
Next time I'm at my local Ferrari indy, I'll ask him about it. He has an SD1 tool and has probably done the calibration procedure many times, so there may be some clues there. During the calibration, I believe you run the seat fully forward and fully back (to the endstops) using the seat switch. The SD1 tool either sets these values in a non-volatile memory with perhaps a buffer or perhaps you set the buffer manually. But I thought these values were only used for roof operation to either stop the seats hitting the endstops every time or to move the seat to an ideal position for roof folding. Disconnecting the pot simulates an infinitely high resistance/zero current signal at the ECU. The high resistance should be interpreted as a (beyond) fully forward seat position. You would think that this would stop the seat moving forward. Did you say you still got intermittent operation with the plug disconnected?
This makes sense (when using the roof switch). If disconnecting the plug simulates seat fully forward, then it's ok for the top to go down/up.
In the case of small signal wires (pots, sensors etc.), when installing new connectors, I always crimp and solder the wires (the part that protrudes out of the crimp) to the pins. I recommend this method.
Look here if you need to repair the pot. https://www.ebay.com/itm/145995250058?itmmeta=01JM7SB3Z4AFXBH2N8TPSXQR4C&hash=item21fdfeb98a:g:TCIAAOSwvXxm1Lus
Nice! I'm not sure what's wrong with it yet as I haven't had time to get a good look at it yet. I had a little gap in events this weekend so I yanked the seat and put it on the living room floor. What's the first recommended step? I normally just take things apart and figure them out myself, but I've also learned to not reinvent the wheel and ask what the best order of operations is since it's been done before.
Update: just got a chance to look at it and it just came apart..... Gears look ok. Not sure what I should do here .... Lol Image Unavailable, Please Login
Update 2: bad connection found from crimp connector. This is probably why my seat motion was intermittent. Image Unavailable, Please Login
After taking a look at everything, I noticed nothing was broken so I figured I'd try to see if it would go back together. And it definitely just "snapped" back! Now to put a new connector on and see if all is right with the world again. Image Unavailable, Please Login
It's hard to tell from your photos what is broken/missing. Did you see see the white socket and circular clip? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Good... Probably too late, but did you turn the potentiometer? (Hopefully not or you will have screwed up the calibration)
I did but just a tiny bit back and forth to see if the gear was tight or loose. It was tight. I have a feeling it may have spun freely when the seat was moving anyway because it doesn't look like the main gear was engaged with the worm gear. Hard to say for sure or not.
What position was the seat in when you pulled it out? Fully forward? Fully aft? Or somewhere inbetween?
If the potentiometer moved at any time with the seat out, you may have to pull the cover off the potentiometer and set it up for "fully forward". To do this, you will need to check the resistance on the plug pins (after you have repaired the wiring). But check the resistance first before pulling the pot apart again.
