Power seat lift motor

I posted the following on the Camry forum, but I would imagine the
power seats on Toyota trucks are similar to those on the Camry. My 89
PU has a manual seat so this will never happen to it! If someone has
the same problem, this may or may not be the fix but it's worth
looking into:

The power seat lift motor stopped working on my 2000 Camry. The fore/
aft and recline motors both still work. I tested the switch and it is
OK. I put 12V to the lift motor and it still didn't work. I called
Toyota to ask how much a lift motor would be. I didn't think it would
be too expensive given the size of it, but I got a real surprise.
The
parts person said that they did not sell any of the motors separately,
and the seat assembly would be $1,100.00. I said no thanks, and
started thinking about finding one in a junkyard. Then I figured,
what the heck, it doesn't work now, how much more can I screw it up? I
brought the seat into my workshop and removed the lift motor. I
pried up the little tabs holding it together and took it apart. The
tiny brushes still looked fine, but I noticed a very dark ring around
the armature. I took a pencil eraser and polished it up. I
reassembled it and found that it works again! An hour total and I
saved a bunch of bucks. Not too bad for a retired person with some
time on my hands.
Larry D.

Hey!
Good tip! This also works with many other "brushed" motors. You can
evan revive many old low voltage electrical contacts with this
procedure. Switches, relays, remotes, keyboards - Just be gentle with
the newer stuff. Remember distributors with point sets?
ZaXXoN

On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 07:31:09 -0800 (PST), LarryD
<larrydykeman.DeleteThis@yahoo.com> wrote:

>I posted the following on the Camry forum, but I would imagine the
>power seats on Toyota trucks are similar to those on the Camry. My 89
>PU has a manual seat so this will never happen to it! If someone has
>the same problem, this may or may not be the fix but it's worth
>looking into:
>
>The power seat lift motor stopped working on my 2000 Camry. The fore/
>aft and recline motors both still work. I tested the switch and it is
>OK. I put 12V to the lift motor and it still didn't work. I called
>Toyota to ask how much a lift motor would be. I didn't think it would
>be too expensive given the size of it, but I got a real surprise.
>The
>parts person said that they did not sell any of the motors separately,
>and the seat assembly would be $1,100.00. I said no thanks, and
>started thinking about finding one in a junkyard. Then I figured,
>what the heck, it doesn't work now, how much more can I screw it up? I
>brought the seat into my workshop and removed the lift motor. I
>pried up the little tabs holding it together and took it apart. The
>tiny brushes still looked fine, but I noticed a very dark ring around
>the armature. I took a pencil eraser and polished it up. I
>reassembled it and found that it works again! An hour total and I
>saved a bunch of bucks. Not too bad for a retired person with some
>time on my hands.
>Larry D.