TE Rear Seat Will NOT fold

[MotardMan]

89 300 TE. To my horror I discovered when trying to fold the rear seat backs, that they are jammed. When I say jammed, I mean they will not unlatch from the upright postn. They do move a bit if you really thump the heck out of the seat back, but they will not fold down flat or even tilt forward more than a few mm.

I noticed there is a plunder mech located in the door slam, that locks the seat in the upright postn when the doors are closed. This plunger is connected to the seat interlock somehow, and is free moving on both sides of the car, so i am pretty sure it is not jammed and subsequently lockiong the seat back in the upright postn.


Of course, you cannot see the mechanism as the seat is on top of it! This is really frustrating as I need the facility to fold the seats, it is why I bought the damn estate car in the first place!! :?

Any help from you guys would be great, I have tried flipping the catches using screwdrivers etc, and before I use a sledge hammer or angle grinder to cut the car up, I need to know how it works. Any line drawings or photos of the mechanism would be really good. My wife is NOT happy with me for buying a car we cannot use fully, and you would be saving my marriage!

Best,

Jim

 

[Leylandp76]

Jim,

I sympathise completely. I had exactly the same problem with my 87 300TE. I took the whole right side apart to work it out and it is actually quite simple if you know how it works.
The mechanism works like this: The plungers inside the doors lock the seat backs in place when the doors are closed. They release when the door is open. In addition, there is a rod which is actuated when the seat base (squab) is lifted forward to release the mechanism. So basically the door needs to be open and the squab lifted for the seat back to fold.

BUT you say, it's still stuck. Yes, the mechanism is quite finely adjusted and seems to get difficult with age. But you can adjust it once you get the seat back down. There is a steel loop on the seat back which locks into the lock mechanism. If this loop is slightly too low it affects the angle at which it pulls such that the mechanism will not easily release. I adjusted this through the simple mechanism of putting a large adjustable spanner on it and bending it up about 3mm. This changed the angle such that it released freely in future (obviously this is trial and error).

To free the seat back: If you have the door open and the squab lifted there is no obstacle really, but you need to apply sufficient force. Be brave :wink: Climb in the rear of the car, lie in your back and give it a really hard kick with your feet. This should do it, trust me it is very strong and should come free with a hard enough kick. You can then adjust the mechanism as I have described. If this fails to work (it shouldn't) you may have to pull away the linings on the inside of the wheel arch and behind the seat back enough to get in there with a long screwdriver and 'trip' the mechanism. This is a real pain and should hopefully not be necessary (it's how I did it before working out the 'kick' technique which I used on the other side).

best of luck,

Alistair

 

[MotardMan]

Thanks!

To all of you who have helped, Alistair and Mike. I have tried kicking the seats but as I am only 9.5 st (60kg), I was not having much effect

I also tried flipping the interlock on the RHS seat using screwdrivers but it is like the seat is not only latched by the loop at the top of the seat, but also somewhere else? Is this the case? Is that the rod, and the plunger you merntion? If all else fails, I am going to use a length of wood and reverse the damn car at the house to push the seat back down!

Mike, the car is not taxed ATM, so when the 106 has sold, I'll tax it and let you throw your weight at it!

Thanks again for your help, this forum is invaluable.

Best,

Jim

 

[Rog_E]

I had similiar problems with my TE.

I found that, after folding the squabs up, lifting the rear up helped it unlatch (no need for brute force in the back!).

There is also a logical order:

1. Sqaub(s)
2. RH backrest (single seat one)
2. LH backrest/dog'n'gargo guard/load cover

Hope you get it sorted, the car is well worth the teething troubles in my opinion (just spent £230 and four hours changin fuel pumps!!).

 

[MotardMan]

I had similiar problems with my TE.

<snip> lifting the rear up helped it unlatch (no need for brute force in the back!).

<snip>Hope you get it sorted, the car is well worth the teething troubles in my opinion (just spent £230 and four hours changin fuel pumps!!).

Thx Roger,

Do you mean fold the squabs, then lift the seat back somehow, perhaps lever it from inside the passenger compartment? I'm compiling all these ideas to try tonight/this afternoon. Thanks everyone, keep them coming!

I am amazed at how common this problem has been. It is good to know that none of you were defeated by it though.

Best,

Jim

 

[Rog_E]

Hi Jim.

Difficult to describe but I'll give it a shot!

Fold single squab up then place right hand under back rest where squab was (on the pivot line of the back rest).

'Lift' the back rest towards the car roof whilst pulling the back down with your left hand.

This, on my car anyway, seemed to do the trick of disengaging the lock!

Also make sure the plunger on the door frame is pulled OUT and keep trying.
Mine now folds without difficulty.
If you don't have the owners manual you may not be aware of the need to remove the rear headrests. These should be placed in the folded up squabs (you will see the holes for this).
The load net/cargo cover can be removed when the backrest is folded down by sliding it to the left of the vehicle (left from driving position).

Hope you succeed!

Br.

Roger.

 

[njpumphrey]

I thought I had this problem with my last car. It turned out to be that the lever was stiff and I wasn't pushing it far enough down. Halfway released the first latch, allowing the small movement you describe, and then I needed to stand on the lever, pushing it into the carpet, to release the seat fully. If the bar is bent slightly, you may have more joy with the lever on one side of the car than the other.

 

[Leylandp76]

Yes, it's hard to describe, but lifting the seat back 'up' to release would make sense. Jim there is only one lock point, the one you can see. I'd post a digital photo but some *$#! stole my camera recently.

I think the hinges may drop a little with age, which means that the steel loop attached to the rear of the seat which engages the lock sits too low on the lock, and therefore cannot attain the very small amount of leverage required to release the lock. Hence my solution of bending the loop up to counteract this, once you have it undone.

If you can't get it free by any method described above you will have to try the screwdriver method. You need to:

- remove the door frame edging bead
- lever up the carpeted wheel arch lining from inside the bead at several points and prop it open with blocks of wood or something (screwdrivers, whatever). It is quite strong material and you need it out of the way in order to reach the lock mechanism
- once you can see the lock mechanism, push at it with a long screwdriver in order to manually open the jaws on the lock (it is similar to a door lock)
- at the same time gently pull on the seat back until it comes free.

I have to say this is a tedious bit of work to do, it requires strong hands and a long but quite slim screwdriver. Once you can see the lock (a torch may be necessary) you will see how it undoes. If you have to go to this effort to undo it then you definitely need to adjust the loop upwards so it's easier next time.

good luck


Alistair

 

[MotardMan]

SUCCESS! And failure......

Firstly, a big THANK YOU to all of you guys for helping me out. Unfortunately I did not read the post from njpumphrey in time to prevent me from destroying the inboard hinge on the smaller squab.

I got the seats down in the end. The root cause was that the release arm in the base of the seat, on the floor where the squab folds down, was rusted solid.. :x I "persuaded" the seat down using a length of planking and by reversing the car towards the house! :idea: :cry:

After folding the seatbacks, I noticed that one of the release levers was in the down or "locked" position, the other one in the up position, and free moving. I have now got the choice of finding a replacement LH hinge for the smaller squab, or having the hinge repaired by someone with a MIG welder. At least wifey is happier now, she even forgave me for breaking her new car

Thanks agasin to all of you for your help.

Regards,

Jim

 

[Leylandp76]

you're a braver (and crazier) man than I... :lol: