03 Tahoe, 2nd row single seat won't fold

[tahoe4fun]

Recently I found my single seat behind the passenger seat won't fold down. Yes, I did push the bottom half down completely so the cable would allow the upper half to come down, but no luck.

I compared it to the other portion of the seat behind the driver that does fold down completely. I notice there are 2 cables underneath the seats. One cable runs from the lower half of the seat to the upper half, to a lever. The 2nd cable is shorter. When the lower half of the seat is folded down completely the cable pulls the lever which triggers the 2nd cable/lever and the upper half of the seat folds down. But when I tried folding down the upper half of the seat, the lever from the long cable didn't budge. When the bottom half of the seat pulls the cable the lever doesn't move, and it's tight. I tried to move the lever with needle nose pliers and wd-40 but no luck.

Help please?

 

[dohboyyyy]

my 04 does the same thing and i am at a loss!

 

[MO Viet Vet]

All those cables and levers and triggering locks for the seat to either release or lock in place. You have to follow each from start to finish and find the spot where normal operation stops. I know it sounds stupid but something like this will be a bitch to trace but likely easy to fix. May have to remove seat for enough access to figure it out.

 

[tahoe4fun]

Hey, thanks for the reply.
Not stupid because I already did follow it from the first cable to the last lever, it doesn't budge. I did compare it to the opposite side to make sure I comprehended how it functions. You're right, I do think I'm going to have to take the seat out because I can't get the angle and it's such a tight spot.

 

[MO Viet Vet]

Yea, if you can't tilt the head just right and hold your tongue just right when checking something out or repairing, then it will never be right.

 

[KS03Tahoe]

I found sometimes if the front seat is in the rearmost position the seat bottoms rest against the front seat back and not release the trigger allowing the rear seatback to fold down. By pushing the seat bottom forward it releases the lock.

 

[tahoe4fun]

Thanks but yes I have moved the front seat forward and pushed the back seat fully down, no luck :-(

 

[Riverbend]

Same problem with my '03 on the double seat. The cable has probably disconnected from the post that pulls forward from the tension created from the seat pulling up. Mine won't stay attached so I have to grab the post with a pair of pliers and manually pull it forward to release it. I know it's not a very technical description but hopefully this helps.

 

[Dirtroadkg]

My 2000 did the same thing. Check that the cable isn't broken near the end that attaches to the front of the 2nd row seat. Mine was broken. A band-aid fix is a length of bicycle brake cable and some jimmy-rigging without routing it where the stock one was. It should clear the bottom of the seat when put back into the normal position