I've owned a Firebird and a Trans am and have noticed that in each car the clip on the back of the front seats that are supposed to let the seat fold forward are stuck and the seat can be pushed foreword without having to push on the lever. Does anyone else have this issue with their seat and is there a way to fix it?

 

Lol yes I have these in all my 3rd gens and none of them work. I know they were supposed to work but they get broken too damn easy.

 

Broken seats.

My 02 that has the same seats has always worked correctly because I've babied the car and not allowed fat people to sit in it. However, both of the base seats that came in my 91 T/A and one of the GTA seats that I bought to replace them are broken like that.

Would be interested to see a fix if anyone has one...this problem is driving me NUTS on my GTA seats. Even tried taking one apart to try and figure out a fix but got nowhere.

 

That is by design, the seat back go forward without the lever. However; I was told by the Dealer when my car was brand new (still own the car) the seat backs locks when the brakes are applied above a certain speed. You can try this yourself and notice the seat backs Do Not Move Forward under hard braking.

 

Sounds like a engineering brain fart, adding expense of a lever just for the heck of it.....

 

The lever is there so you can put the seat forward when parked on a hill.

 

The seats are supposed to have an "inertia lock" to keep them from moving forward on hard braking or impact. They should move freely under normal conditions. A description of how they work is in the attached files.

 

Umm.... The PDFs didn't load correctly. Let's see if these work.

 

^^ This is what I've always read. Now as to why the tabs are all broken off, you've got me on that one. Mine are broken off as well and I convinced myself that I would fix or replace the tabs for unlocking them when parked on a hill. Hasn't happened yet... Thankfully, it's not something I need regularly.

On another note, it used to be funny but now just drives me crazy that anytime someone tries to get in the back seat they scour for the tab at the bottom and don't figure out that the seat will fold forward if they so much as breathe on it.

 

Ahh it's a relief knowing that they're supposed to go forward without the lever in action. I was always hesitant of reupholstering my seats because I thought there was no point if they were broken. The inertia lock system is pretty cool

 

This, so much

 

Mine does the opposite, they won't let the seats move forward???

 

The 2002 seat and the 1991 seat may look the same, but they are not. The lever must be lifted to move the seat forward on the 4th gen cars. Your thirdgen seat is working properly. It should move forward without lifting the lever. That lever is there only to allow you to move the seat forward if parked on a hill (which would trigger the inertia lock). There are instructions in the Service Manual how to test the angle at which the seat inertia lock will engage to determine if it is functioning properly.

Lon