'96 K1500, 60/40 cloth seats: can I swap the seats onto a power seat frame/mechanism?

[DennisT]

Continuing to improve my high mileage '96 GMC K1500, my seats are the cloth 60/40's with non-working electric lumbar. I don't care much about the lumbar, however, being older and having some back trouble, a full power seat would be appreciated by me and especially my spine. Not easy to find great seats in wrecking yards. My cloth material is good - no tears, etc. Foam mostly OK I guess, but with the lousy manual adjustments I have it's hard to get things just right. Roughly comfortable, but no improvement to be made with what I have. So......
1. Can I take a good working full power seat from a similar year truck, pull the seat cushions, etc., off and drop my cloth set on???
2. If so, what model years are compatible?
3. I was told the two-wire connector for my electric lumbar is the same power feed I need for full power seats. True?
I'm watching wrecking yards for a decent full seat set that doesn't require all this, but most of of them are rough - the fabric and foam, etc., are bad.
Thanks, Dennis

 

[95light]

Just got done doing this exact thing.

Not sure when GM redesigned the interiors (95 or 96) but I have a 98 and used a power 98 donor. Four bolts removes the track assembly from the seat frame and cushion so that's easy. The wiring is the same but you have to splice in the power seat switch in which is also straight forward. You will have to unclip the left side upholstery and remove and swap the metal plate (four screws I believe) that the power seat switch mounts to.

 

[Georgiabigfoot]

Just got done doing this exact thing.

Not sure when GM redesigned the interiors (95 or 96) but I have a 98 and used a power 98 donor. Four bolts removes the track assembly from the seat frame and cushion so that's easy. The wiring is the same but you have to splice in the power seat switch in which is also straight forward. You will have to unclip the left side upholstery and remove and swap the metal plate (four screws I believe) that the power seat switch mounts to.

Hello, what’s involved in splicing in the power seat switch to a mechanical sliding electric lumbar connector on the body side ? Does the power seat have both a lumbar connector and a power seat connector ? I assume you take the newer lumbar connector and attach it to the body side lumbar connector and then cut the connector on the power seat side and splice into the existing body side wiring of the existing lumbar wiring ? Can you attach a photo ? Thank you

 

[DennisT]

I might need to know some of that as well. Thank you both for reviving my thread.
Dennis

 

[Georgiabigfoot]

Success!! Just installed and wired in a full power passenger side seat in place of my mechanical passenger seat in my ‘96 K1500 chevy burb. I used 18-24 gauge crimp connectors. I show everything I did here, hope it helps someone. Short of the long the connector on the body side is a 2 wire, always hot lumbar connector. I clipped off the connector leaving ample exposed wire should we ever find out what model # of connector it uses so we can order one. Fortunately the donor seat had both sides of its connector. I determined the top 2 wires, 1 orange (positive) and 1 black (negative) matched up to the body side wires of 1 black and 1 red. The other 3 wires I assume are for the heated seat which after some tests I presume my heated seat switch is faulty. Based on looking at my driver side power seat which DOES not have a heated switch, the connector it has is completely different than the passenger side connector of the original mechanical adjust version or even the improved electric version. Now that I think about it I wonder if the additional wires coincide possibly with the passenger side airbag on later models. The 1996 Burb doesn’t have passenger airbags, only front drivers. One possible pitfall I encountered is the body side seat belt connector has a tendency to fall to the floor, and when you are installing the new seat the seat belt device may get wedged between new seat and center console making a weird rubbing sound, so just keep an eye on it. Hopefully this video I made helps a lot of people. I love my 96!! I figure the more people enjoying these OBS Chevy’s the better for all of us in terms of parts continuing to be offered. Good luck !! GB

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

 

[DennisT]

Very good information, bigfoot. Thank you. So you added a power seat on the PASSENGER side. Was your donor mechanism a "right side" seat to start with?
This is all really helpful.