1966 Lincoln Continental 2 door circuit breaker location

[qcable]

UPDATE
After several months I have been able to return to working on my nephew's 66 continental 2 door power window problems. I sent all the window switches to John Brewer in Denver and he did an excellent job of rebuilding them. Now the front door windows work great. The electrical circuits to the rear windows are good; however, one side has a bad motor and both sides have mechanical problems. I leave the mechanical issues to my nephew.

My next project on the car is the power seat. It has a 6 way bench seat with controls on the driver's side only. Nothing works on the seat. 12 volts from the circuit breaker is good. If I connect 12 volts straight to the motor connector then the motor will run (In either direction), turning a shaft into what appears to be a coupling box of some sort. There is no output from that box. I call it a coupling box because I don't know the proper name for it. It appears that outputs from it should drive the seat in forward and reverse.

Any information on this type of power seat will be greatly appreciated.

[Dan Szwarc]

While activating the seat switch, gently tap the transmission housing with a hammer.

The solenoid mechanism needs to be cleaned and relubricated. There are a few threads here on how to do that, but if you take it apart and take pics, you can figure it out.

[TonyC]

Unless the motor actually spins but the seat doesn't move. Such symptoms are usually accompanied by a very loud whirring or grinding noise. That tells you the transmission has stripped an internal gear and needs replacing. Being that, per Dan's input which I also agree with, the transmission needs to be taken out anyway for disassembly, internal cleaning, and re-greasing (use PTFE grease for that, BTW), inspect the gears for damage, and be prepared to replace one. Luckily, some of our Usual Suspects may be able to hook you up with good gears.

As for that window, are you 100% sure the motor is what's bad? More often than not, the cause is something other than a bad motor. Being that you're talking about a rear window (or quarter window as it's a Coupé), there is something else to check...well, several something-elses. Do you hear relay clicks in both directions of the switch? If not, you have a bad relay or two, or bad wiring to the relays for that side. The rear windows of all cars of that year have two relays per window–one to control opening, and one to control closing. If the motor is seized, you'll still hear the relays click from the rear shelf. If you don't, your problem is one of those relays (or both if you don't hear anything in either direction, but both failing at once is very unlikely). If the motor runs but the glass doesn't, that's a bad gear head in the motor, not the motor itself. The gear head is a replaceable piece separate from the motor (despite being installed in it); in fact, most new motors are sold without a gear head included, so if you buy a motor when the problem was the gear head, you just spent money for nothing. Tell us the symptoms of that one window, and we can tell you whether that is a correct diagnosis.

---Tony

[Lee]

At least on my '62, the common problem is that the motor whirs, but nothing happens because the solenoids get sticky and won't pull in. I rarely change the seat position, so it really wasn't a big deal to whack it with the palm of my hand if I ever needed to do it. I redid the upholstery maybe 8 years ago, so I went through at that point and cleaned and lubricated everything. And it worked perfectly for about...two years. And I'm too lazy to pull it out and do again for something I need so rarely, and still responds to percussive maintenance.

[frasern]

I did this on both cars last fall, Re lubricating seat tracks under Body, trim and Interior. My solenoids were working fine still, but one plastic gear was broken in one transmission. Either way, you have to take it apart and inspect it. I also cleaned up the commutators on the motors, but the brushes had lots of wear left.

[qcable]

Thanks for all the replies on both the rear windows and the seat. The seat has been remove by the owner to be upholstered so that problem is on hold at this time.
The rear windows problem: One motor checks open with a continuity check. The other motor checks good and tries to move the window when switches are activated. the window will move up or down about 1/2 inch and no more. I disconnected each of the motors from the relay outputs and connected a voltmeter to their input connector. The 12 volts coming from the relays is present at the connector when either the window switch or the master switch is depressed. Therefore, the relays must be good. The vehicle sat in the elements for several years, so I think the mechanisms are just rusted up.

[Dan Szwarc]

12V from the relays doesn't mean they're good unless you're drawing the motor load. Open circuit voltage isn't enough if the contacts have high resistance. Jumper the motors direct to battery in both directions to test them.

Bad continuity on a motor could mean open windings or terribly worn brushes.