Hello. I have a 96 XK8 convertible. My driver side (LHD) power seat switch assembly is loose. I’ve read the forums but most seem to deal with just a broken tab on the housing. My problem is the housing itself is in tatters (it’s been shattered). See pic 1. Am I correct that I’d need to find a replacement housing and pull the seat in order to replace it? This doesn’t look like a Velcro or small wire fix to me.
pic 2 - this is the seat switch for the same seat. Does it look intact? There is some residual JB Weld from when #%+! prior owner tried to glue it back in place. I’m unclear whether there should be a tab of some sort at the end with the arrow. Many thanks.


Busted seat switch housing

Was there ever a tab at this end of the seat switch?

 

No, but you may find some small barbs under the JBWeld if it will come off.

They're meant to locate in the clip in the housing:



...which may well be missing from what you have as they're 'less than robust'

They are available second hand, but not cheap. No need to pull the seat, as far as I know.

 

Well here is what I did to address my broken seat switch housing. We shall see if it holds up over time.
First word of wisdom: if your housing is missing the clip that frequently breaks off, and your seat switch unit is flopping around, the sooner you fix it the better. I had let my seat switch flop for at least the last 3 years. What I did not realize until I took it all apart is that the switch unit actually offers support/strength to the housing. Without it in place my fat *** getting in and out of the car over time is what ultimately fractured the housing. It was in three large pieces when I finally took it out of the seat.
I failed to take a picture of the housing when it was in pieces so in the first pic I’ve highlighted where the cracks were. You can also see that there is nothing left where the two screws attached the housing to the seat.
My first step was to superglue the pieces back together to see what I was dealing with. I didn’t think that would be part of the final solution. I assumed I would use some sort of epoxy. But after reading about using epoxy and seeing how easily i could peel off the old jb weld I decided not to use it.
What I ended up doing was fashioning a plate out of a sheet of aluminum to replicate the back of the housing. See pics. My hope is that the metal carries the brunt of the force holding the housing to the seat and that by returning the seat switch to the housing it will go back to supporting the pressure that previously caused the housing to crack.
The only residual issue is that in order to remove the pieces of the broken housing, I had to pull the staples that attached the upholstery to the housing. I thought that the seat switch unit would hold the upholstery in place but it is not. And there’s no way I would try to re-staple into that housing.

Red lines showing where the housing was originally cracked into 3 pieces. You can also imagine where the screw holes used to be.

My aluminum plate

The plate in place in the housing

The seat frame where the housing gets attached

The housing back in place

The seat switch unit back in place. I used the Velcro method vs the wire hook

 

Glad you got there The OEM designers of this particular item were clearly having a bad hair day.
My Irish friends would use a succint description which broadly translates to 'sub-optimal'.