Stripped Seat Height Adjuster Gears

Howdy,

So I've been doing some digging into how to address the most pressing bits of my new to me 2013 Yukon XL and doing some more digging into the seat adjuster failure, it looks like GM has taken a page from the old Ford power window motors with plastic gears that eat themselves. There is an existing thread on this but it left off in 2020 so going to make a new one with an up front reference.

There appears to be a new style of gear that uses a roll pin vs. the original epoxy attachment method on eBay. Seems worth a shot for ~$25 vs. about $400 for an intact seat. Anyone have any hands on experience with this new style of repair gear? Should I proactively replace the other adjuster gear since I'll be mucking about in the adjuster?

Thanks

Someone has ordered gears from an overseas supplier and discovered they were completely incompatible only after their seat was apart. Research carefully.

Gruven parts has these

I used Guven gears. It worked but…

Thread here:

I didn't want to take the seat tracks apart to install the Gruven gears. Saved up and bought new seat tracks instead. Old ones are worth $200+ each on ebay even with broken gears.

Thanks for the info George B. That’s cool you gave Gruven a heads up about the issue. I hope they can duplicate it and remedy what’s going on or potentially figure out what’s cooking with yours.

Feedback on the eBay specials... Don't fit the height adjusters, the bore is too small. Güven gears sets ordered as I took both adjusters apart and the second was starting to come loose.

Now I accidentally cut the steel washer on one of the adjusters when it stuck to the the plastic gear you have to cut off. It's an oddball size that I'd have to McMaster in, I'm guessing it's a thrust washer/bearing for the plastic worm drive housing?

CTX-SLPR said:

Feedback on the eBay specials... Don't fit the height adjusters, the bore is too small. Güven gears sets ordered as I took both adjusters apart and the second was starting to come loose.

Now I accidentally cut the steel washer on one of the adjusters when it stuck to the the plastic gear you have to cut off. It's an oddball size that I'd have to McMaster in, I'm guessing it's a thrust washer/bearing for the plastic worm drive housing?

Click to expand...

May be you can have eBay gears bored to size needed on a lathe or just drill and ream to diameter needed.

I only bought a single for $12 so worth keeping for a spare but not worth trying to bore out on the mill as the worm gears were also starting to chip. It might fit the slide adjuster but I don't feel like pulling that one apart just yet.

Ordered a pack of 25 of the shim/washers (16mm ID, 22mm OD, 0.8-1.0mm thickness) from McMaster which should be here roughly the same time as the gears so I can put it back together and get it inside to drop the exhaust and trans pan for a TECHM overhaul.

All back together and working great. Gears are a bit noisy at first wearing in but now are no louder than the nylon gears.
A comment on the assembly; from the factory there is a lower thrust washer on the lead screw side and a button block for the ball end of the shaft on the other side. There’s enough room in the housing to add another thrust washer on the ball end side of the gear so since I had the 25 pack from McMaster I did. No idea if it does anything but makes me feel better than if I messed up the gear location on the shaft the gear won’t try to chew into the plastic housing.