front heated seats

the heated front seats in our 1996 duetto don't seem to work.anyone any ideas? 

Heated front seats in a 1996 Duetto were never a standard fitment, are you sure that you actually do have them? Assuming that you do have them, then the next thing to check would be fuses / relays and you will get the location and rating from the driver's handbook.

good point.we have the switches and they light up when switched on but maybe the seat aren't actually wired up.  is there an obvious wire that would tell if they were? 

The passenger seat doesn't work. They are disconnected because of the swivel option but the drivers seat should be OK.

I confess I had not considered the effect of the swivel on the heated passenger seat.
Certainly, on our 1996 Duetto, the seat both heats up and swivels.

Whilst heated seats were never standard, they could be specified as an option. The swivelling passenger seat (as already mentioned) should not be a problem and so I say again, if they are not working, the most likely reason is a fuse or relay.

Sorry, but I no longer have the driver's handbook for a MK4 or 5 Transit, so you will have to consult your own copy (assuming that you have one) to find the relevant fuse, or have a patient trawl through the fuse panels in the van, looking at the legends written on the fuse panel lids for all the fuses, or get a copy of the Haynes manual for the Transit. It can't be very difficult to find the fuses as they will be a Ford fitment and not an AS part that they have hidden away somewhere.

On all the heated seats that failed on various cars I've had, every single time its been the actual seat element that's physically broken, I put it down to the constant compression & bum movement that eventually breaks the wire.
If you're up for it, the seat can be stripped, the break found & usually quite easily repaired, but a but of foam cutting will be required.