My husband accidentally snapped off the handle to the latch that lowers the back of the rear seat ('89 240 wagon). How difficult is this to fix? Is there an alternate way to lower the seat in the meantime?

Martha

You could always get another seat back from the junk yard. My local pic and pull would charge $13.

No help here Im sorry, but i have the same problem, and i manually unlocked the side latches with a screwdriver i believe, I could NOT find a replacement latch anywhere either,

SO I HOPE SOMEONE HAS AN ANSWER!!!

robert

Hmmmm... Did you hide it from your wife for two weeks, hoping she would never find out and then act surprised when she discovered the latch didn't exist anymore because she needed to put the seat down to bring home a crib for your unborn child?

No way, she found out right away...And as for our children, they sit in a car seat like they are supposed to.....NO QUESTIONS ASKED! sit still you little................

LOL (it was cold out when i broke mine)

wow... i'll file that in the "things to remember not to do".
if hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. what happens when bonus hormones are thrown in the mix.

i had the seat release lever 'disassemble' itself, as you've described. i asked an indie repair shop to fix it along with a host of other stuff. i figured the cost of the plastic piece couldn't be too much. i was right. what was the killer is the labor, as apparently there's a need to de-upholster the back seat to get access to everything. they charged me for nearly 4 hours labor to replace that latch alone. sad to say it wasn't the last time i went there either.

i'd see about getting the piece from the dealer, then be persistent about getting some info from people here about what's involved in replacing the broken one. I'm afraid i'm of no help there, but would love to know how to do it. or at a minimum, figure out what i can lubricate to prevent it from happening again. as i cringe everytime i put the seat back down now.
good luck.
link

I think my husband will too...

Do not EVER lie to a pregnant woman. Unless it is to tell her how hot she looks in the world's hugest maternity panties. Then lie, and lie often. It may be your only oportunity for sex until the kid is eating solid food.

Good tips though... I have to get an extender for the seat belt pretty soon, so I might as well make the trek to the dealer this weekend. My seat lever didn't disassemble itself, tho. The plastic handle part snapped off. Everything else is there, just nothing to grab. I know exactly what Steroid Man did to destroy it: He yanked it out, when he just needed to give it a gentle squeeze.

Words of wisdom across many facets of life, eh?

Same thing happened on our 89 245 while I was out of town doing some things for
the government. I guess I can blame that broken handle on my wife. :) Our shop in SLC made a nifty little replacement pull handle out of metal. I'll try to remember to snap a digital image of it for you tomorrow.

I liked the fact that they replaced the factory handle with something that won't have the same fate fall upon it. They did it for free too. :)


Cheers,

Ron
Wasatch Mountain Range
89 245 5spd 240K miles. Hoping to get 326K miles out of it. Just so our second owner miles will match the first owner's. I suppose we'll settle for putting 100K on it though. :)