[W126 Coupe] Broken Power Seats/ Seatbelt

[Joshua Holley]

Hello,
My name is Joshua Holley, and I am a twenty year old college student, and
proud owner of a silver/grey 1985 MBZ 500 SEC. I paid $750 for the
car, which I though was a steal for such an amazingly high-class vehicle.
Unfortunately, the car has more than its share of problems, as its previous
owner failed to provide the proper upkeep for a car with almost 183,000
miles. However, since I am a fairly intelligent and mechanically
talented individual, and since I am so enthralled by the sleek shape of the
car and the smoothness of its engine I have decided to work with it, rather
than try and make some profit off my purchase by parting it out. I have had
the car for a few months now, and have already replaced the ancient and
crumbling distributor rotor, put new plastic tubing on the vac system, fixed
a minor oil leak, and repaired a leaky fuel injector, to name a few
projects. I am poor and in college, and so lack the proper budget and amount
of time to fix many of the more expensive problems, (i.e. massive amounts of
rust removal, new fender, paintjob, new transmission). The fact that she
averages about 12 MPG also tends to keep my restoration attempts in check,
especially since premium is approaching $3.50 now days.

Yet, I am determined to restore this car to its former state of luxury, and
ideally to fine tune its operation to the point that it will be viewed by
all as the luxury sports car that it is. To accomplish this I will need to
call upon the knowledge and past experience of this community on a regular
basis, but for starters in need help with these issues:

1. One night I moved my seat all the way back and the passenger seat all the
forward, and since then both seats have stopped moving at all. As the fuses
are all intact, something tells me that something has come un-plugged. I
assume the best way to fix this is to take out the seats and search for the
motor and its connections to the seats. Basically, how do I take out the
seats, and where will I find the motor?

2. The driver's seatbelt has never worked, the unit in which the metal clip
plugs in is cracked and doesn't look repairable. Since i rarely have anyone
riding in my backseat, I plan to take one of the backseat buckles and switch
it with the driver's. Will this work and what is the best way to do this?

3. I know that these cars were built in the economically bountiful days of
the 1980's, but gas isn't 85 cents a gallon any more and the 5
liter V-8's need to guzzle gas is seriously limiting my ability enjoy the
car. Does anyone know of any minor tweaks or cheap modifications that I can
attempt to get better mileage?

I am confident that in the near future I will have the kind of cash to give
the car the overhaul it needs, but for now I just want to be able to keep
the car in good shape, make some minor improvements, and hopefully not have
to sell it because driving it is too expensive. I hope someone out there
knows how to help.
Sincerely,
Joshua J. Holley
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