F4DZ-5461705-A

F4DZ-5461705-A? What the heck is that?

It's the part number for the seat track for a '93 Ford Taurus SHO. A part Ford no longer makes or stocks. A part my dealer could not find. Well, kinda.

They found a listing for the part at a dealer in Iowa. When they checked with that dealer directly, it turned out that they didn't have one.

They did a search of used parts places and turned one up in Oklahoma somewhere. It would have cost $300 in shipping to get it here and there was no way to know what sort of condition it was in. It was coming off of a vehicle with 300K miles on it, more than twice the mileage on my vehicle.

The lack of this part does not make the care unsafe. It can make the care impossible for me to drive, if I can't move the seat back far enough for me to get into it.

My car is rapidly approaching the point at which it can not be repaired if something goes wrong.