Ok, I folded up the rear bench seat in my extend cab Ram and I can't figure out how to get it to fold back down? I tried the levers used to fold it up to fold it down, but it isn't unlocking the mechanism to allow me to move it? Am I missing something? It may be broken, I have 209,000 mile on it and I know the driver's seat has an issue with going back and forth.

Thanks

 

I have the 01 ram and the lever that is used to lift the bench up also is the lever that lowers back to the seating postion. The lever must to be unlatching something to lower it.[sm=helpout.gif]

 

that sounds similar to me, but my front seat. it has a problem with leaning back and forward. 209,000 miles is probably around the time where something like that would break.

 

Yup on my 01 the levers you use to fold it up also unlock it to fold back down like Ram4ever said.

 

OK, I figured it out. I had to really pull on the lever to get it to unlock the seat. I was tugging on it lightly like I did to raise it, but to lower it, you had to give it more force to "break" the release free. Thanks all.

 

There is an easy fix for what you are experiencing, but you have to take the entire back seat out of the cab (not actually a big deal). I recently removed my back seat (extended cab) completely out of the cab. It actually comes out really easy and only took about 30 minutes to take it out, work on it, and put it back in. There are 2 bolts in the floor on each side of the seat, then you just lift up (because the back hooks down) and out of the cab.

Once the seat is out, on each side there is a little black cover that is held on by 2 screws. Removing these screws and cover gives you access to the spring and cable inside that control the handle mechanism. It's hard to explain with typed words how the mechanism for the handle works, but it is really simple and very straight forward once you have the seat out and the little black cover off. I'm 90% sure you could fix your problem by simply adjusting the cable a little, or getting a tighter spring (home Depot). Your spring is probably just weakened because of use. You can also take a second to re-lube the mechanism, and that will help it work a lot better too.

If you want me to discribe it in more detail sometime, send me a PM and I can give you a call. I had my seat out to install a underbox storage compartment (it uses the seat hinges as part of it's mounting, so I had to take my seat out and put complelely new hinges in that were designed to go with the seat storage box). It was really easy. Hardest part was lifting the seat out of the cab by myself (mine's an extended cab, so I don't have a third door to make it easier to lift out).