2000 Cadillac Escalade 2nd row seat troubles-SOLVED

[Atom]

Hello all-

first post to this forum-
I got a 2000 Escalade for a song. I am really excited to be able to sleep in the back of this thing on fishing trips! The 60 side of the 60/40 folding seat in the back has a broken pull strap. I was able to grab the cable the slot in the bottom cushion of the seat with a pair of pliers to release the seat and fold it forward.....once. I tried again and the cable just continued to pull. Now it wont release the seat. The cable is obviously broken. My question to all you fine folks is-how the hell do I get to the release mechanism? I cant get to it from behind the seat, and under the seat seems to be unlikely. Any ideas? Can I unbolt the seat without folding it to get to the bolts? Does anyone have a spec sheet for where the bolts are? I need to release it just one more time, then I can fix it. But I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get to the mechanism. any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Atom]

Hello everyone-

 

[Atom]

Hey all-

I'm asking for a couple minutes of someones time, if I may. Can someone with a 2000 escalade post a picture of the locking bracket that locks the seat bottom in place when down? I need to reverse engineer this problem, and need a starting point. Does the Torx bolt under the bar that the mechanism locks to hold that bar in place? If I were to unscrew that bolt, wold the bar release, thereby allowing me to raise the seat base?

 

[t.stimpson]

this thread might help. http://tahoeforum.com/showthread.php?t=7251

 

[Atom]

Thank you, but I do not have a slit in the carpet behind the seat. I suppose I could easily enough make one, but would prefer not to if I can avoid it.

 

[Atom]

Just thought I'd share how I solved this problem for others needing help; I went to a junk yard and reverse engineered a solution by futzing with a working seat-

if you look in between the seat belt fasteners with a flashlight, you will see the ring end of a coil spring attached to a lever. push the lever down (toward the frond seats) with a flat head screwdriver and viola! seat unlatched. I learned the hard way that unscrewing the torx bolt that is holding down the fastener bar is not the solution-it is welded.

Now to figure out how to replace the pull loop cable!