colton

found some leather seats for 150 bucks and i just finished putting them in. i looked all over the internet trying to find out where the power seat wires ended on trucks that werent power from the factory, and i ended up having to find it myself. everyone always says "well you should have the plug in under your carpet" but i havent found a single person who actually did. on mine it was the black and green wire behind the plastic under the glove box. it had a plug in on it, the black wire continued, but the green one stopped right there. i ran 10-15 feet of wire around through the dash, then under the carpet to the seat. had to cut off the plug on the seat and solder it to the wires i ran. just in case anyone who was thinking about a power seat swap wanted to know that. it sure would of saved me a lot of trouble. ill upload some pics in a minute

colton

under the glove box, under the seat, and a few pictures of the seats. its too bad my sub box doesnt fit anymore. it fit perfect for the fold-down backseat, but my new one folds up.

Sforza

So I found the plug and the wires where you said they would be. Is this power fused at the fuse box or did you put an inline fuse in the power wire to your seat? If it is fused at the fused box, what was the number of the fuse? Was the fuse number empty and you had to add a fuse to the fuse box in order to get power to your seat?

colton

it was at the fuse box, already installed from the factory. i talked to someone i know at a ford dealership and he said some trucks came with it, some didn't. i cant remember which number it was, but ill figure it out and post it later this evening. Its in the owner's manual on the list though i think.

Sforza

Thanks!

I just got done wiring up my replacement power driver's seat. I found the plug right where you told me it was. Like you said, coming out of the plug the black wire continues but the green wire ends. I unplugged the plug that had both the green and black wire in it and cut off the plug so that I could get at the green and black wire that I needed to power the seat.

In my electronic owner's manual I found that it said that the driver's power seat for my 97 was #18 in the fuse box in the engine compartment. It is a big thirty (30) amp fuse.

And I know that is the correct one too because I messed up and shorted out the wire and blew that fuse and had to go buy another one. So the driver's side power seat power is definately the plug you stated and it is definately the #18 in the engine compartment fuse block.

I have the carpet out because I am replacing that while I replace the seats, so I followed the path that the seat belt indicator wire follows from that plastic panel under the glove box along the door jam to the back of the cab (I have a regular cab) back down the other door jam and then it hangs a right under the seat. I hooked up just the green wire and the black ground and the seat worked just fine. There are some other smaller wires in the power seat plug with the green and black wire but whatever they do it cannot be too important.

Thanks for the write up and the pictures. Like you I read a lot of threads about where to find the power for the seat, but I did not read anything that was very helpful until I read your thread.

colton

yeah i looked everywhere and couldn't find a bit of help. i was hoping itd come in handy for someone else looking for the same thing someday, i know a lot of people are probably interested in a power seat swap. i did it cause i wanted leather, and i could only find leather on power seats. maybe the other wires go to other functions that our power seats dont have, but some models do?

looking back at this thread, i dont understand why i put the last picture of my sub box in? it has nothing to do with power seats, and i have a perfectly good pic of the leather seats without it there. i must of accidentally clicked on it i guess. hmm.. haha who knows

Sforza

That third picture down was the money shot. Looking at that picture and seeing that the right wire was part of that bundle of wires that had the two grounds made it perfectly clear to me what wires I needed to use.

It was a big help to me and I am sure that it will help others trying to do the same thing. I will try to get some pictures of my wiring job and leather Lariat Captain seats and upload them to help other guys who want to do the same thing. The new seats sure a lot more comfortable than the ones I pulled out.

colton

same here, my old ones were falling apart inside, and full of holes on the outside. these new ones are great, but the seat cover was ripped in a few places. im trying to find a good deal on the replacement ford leather, but its tough to come by any.

Sforza

Here are a couple of pictures of me taking the power from the spot under the glove box and running it to the seat along the wires to the seat belt wires. There is a lot of crud in the area, which is why I took the carpet out to replace it.



This is how I ran my wires.

Sforza

BTW, make sure that you leave the black wire alone and only use the green wire for the power seat. I cut off the black ground wire and used it along with the green wire to power my driver's power seat and it worked fine. But when I tried to use my third brake light and my bed lights I was having all sorts of problems with the lights not working like they should and with them being dim and the dome light coming on when I pushed the brake pedal. It turned out that the black wire that I cut is the ground wire for the third brake light and bed lights. Everything worked fine when I ran a ground wire from the black wire I had cut off at the plug to one of the ground screws right there in that same area under the plastic panel by the passenger's feet.