Possibly, unless someone sends me $3800

 

What is the $3800 for?

 

Are you reading Major Rework..?

Someone needs to pay the man at the machine shop.

 

Yes, it is for the parts and machine shop, his labor is free in exchange for a load of work on his 1995 Chevy 2500 truck. We converted it from the TBI 7.4L to a Vortec 7.4L, but not stock.

 

After going through the diagrams to install the keyless entry system, I discovered that the 1996 Town Car left door module can talk to a left front power seat module. I went through my collection (one 1995 Lincoln Continental module, one 2000 Lincoln Continental module) the first is a spare for my Continental, the second came with the seats. Unfortunately the Town Car and Continental systems are quite different, the Continental left door module has the window switches built into it and communicates with the seat module through the OBD-II twisted pair, the Town Car uses a standalone system with a single wire to the OBD-II port for testing, also the light driver for the memory switch button is in the seat module.

As a result it was back to Pick and Pull to see what I could find, the same Town Car I got the door module from was still there and the seat was unmolested, can't say the same for the dash however. If I remember the way these work, the seat goes all the way back and down when the door is opened and it was there, loads of fun getting to the bolts.

Here is the module, tape is due to the case being split at the "hinge".



The Town Car has the seat switches on top of the armrest on the door, except for the backrest recline controls, that switch and a pneumatic lumbar support control are mounted on the outside trim on the cushion. Now I just needed some switches and a way to mount them. One row down and about 5 cars over was a 1996 Crown Victoria, loaded. It had keyless entry and separate front seats with driver's memory seat. Seat switches were up high on the door panels in mounting plates.



Here is a trial fit to see, color is almost right, just a bit too blue-green.



Now I have to figure out a way to add a "door ajar" switch to the truck latches. If I can I will ultimately put them on all four doors and see if I can find one of those neat 4 door graphic displays.

 

Wow! This is involved - but workable. Cool!

For the door-ajar switches, they make several different lengths of pin switches. Perhaps you can find a short one that will close when the door isn't fully latched?

 

I actually thought of that, my LeBaron had a pair like that, but those were on the door post, not in the door. What am going to try is something similar to the Ford ones, they are a plunger on the latch that is pushed in when activated (famous for sticking that position). I picked up a pair of microswitches at Radio Shack the last time we were in Salisbury. I have several spare latches to "play with" to see if I can find a suitable location for one that will activate on the half latched position.

 

Also, they make pin switches that have lots of threads on the barrel, so you can adjust it way in where it'll only make contact when the door is fully closed. Anyway, I think you can find something that will work. Good luck!

 

Well, the last couple of days the weather has been warm, but occasionally very damp (quack. quack). I took advantage of the weather and started first with the right side as that was only going to be wire in the door mounted switch. First problem, the door inside panel almost touches the inner skin of the door leaving no room for the back of the switch, and the best location puts the front edge of the switch "box" where the upright for the door pull pocket sits. It was hacksaw, snips and drill time to provide both an opening for the switch and retain the needed strength for closing the door.






Black tape is to protect the 10 wires on the switch from damage. Here is how the switch fits in the opening.



You can see where the wires run close to the taped area, the piece behind where it is cut for clearance, the cut section is folded in leaving a rounded area. Here is the finished product.



Works great, seat runs from the door and is much easier to reach the switch.

Left side is started, but I need to add 5 wires for the memory switch, I had wisely put the seat switch harness in when I did the keyless entry, planning on at least finding some door mounted switches.

 

Yipes, that's tight! But, it looks like it'll work. When are you going to add Blind Spot Monitoring? You'll have most other things a recent vehicle has.

 

Actually, I was looking at a fancy radio that has a fold up screen and is capable of having a camera input. Matt has one on his Excursion. The camera mounts on the top of the license plate on a pickup, but I may see about sticking one on the camper shell that can be aimed at the hitch ball area.

 

I think that would be a TREMENDOUS asset. I'm going to have to do something similar on Dad's truck.

 

Finally got the left side done. Even though I had pulled the needed 10 wires for the switch (power, ground and 2 wires for each of the 4 motors) I still needed some others. There are 4 to the memory switch. Set, 1 and 2 and a lamp drive for the LED in the memory switch. I also wanted to separate the power source for the low current controls from the 30 amp lock breaker (also used for the seats) so I added a white/purple wire to be fused with a 10 amp fuse later. Here is what the left door looks like now.



I still have to hook up the door ajar switch and a wire to the start circuit as I think those are needed for all the memory seat features to work correctly.

I have a question, if anyone, including ND, knows the answer. Other the the obvious difference on the key fobs, is there a difference in say frequency or maybe a pulse between a 1996 car and 1996 truck remote keyless entry key fob? Before I order a pair I wanted to find out, because if the truck ones will talk to the 1996 Town Car module I will just get the truck ones.

 

Looks good, Bill. Wow, there are a lot of "moving parts" for all those controls. Good job.

 

*To my knowledge* they are all the same, I remember asking about this kind of stuff with the 93 & 95 Taurii... IIRC the entire systems changed in subsequent years but looking at the Google pictures of the things, they all look to be of the same class and all should interchange from what I know.
Good luck getting a hold of ND to ask

Truck fobs won't have a pushbutton for the trunk.