Steps to Fix: Rear Seat Support (Bar or Leg) Won't Retract (Stay Flat With Seat Up)

.23097 · Mar 2, 2011

I just ordered the pulleys for my Honda Ridgeline even though my backseat is working fine. I want to put these in so then I will be problem free for the years to come in my Ridge. Great posting of how to insert the pulleys. How do you remove the plastic pieces right at the start though? I don't see anything connecting them from the front. I only see the clips on the other side of them once their removed. Thank you :act035:

cwelk87gn · Mar 2, 2011

Kevint105 said:
I just ordered the pulleys for my Honda Ridgeline even though my backseat is working fine. I want to put these in so then I will be problem free for the years to come in my Ridge. Great posting of how to insert the pulleys. How do you remove the plastic pieces right at the start though? I don't see anything connecting them from the front. I only see the clips on the other side of them once their removed. Thank you :act035:

Hey Kevin- I just replaced mine Saturday and it was a breeze. Getting those trim parts off take a little time and patience. If you don't have trim/clip tools, what you want to do is find something like a flat blade screwdriver (if you use a metal screwdriver be careful!)preferrably a hard plastic stick and wedge it under one end and give it a good yank. It most likely won't just come off on the first try and you're going to think it's about to break. If you can get your fingers under it, give it another good sharp pull. It has several clips holding it on and a few will stay attached to the truck and you will have to pry them out and slide them back on the part. It's really not too hard to do, and once you do the first one you will get the hang of it. I would advise buying a trim tool, you will use it again.

rollinhonda · Mar 2, 2011

Note also, that after you install the pulleys and while seats are still up and before installing the floor trim, look underneath at the plastic shells that enclose the pulleys. You can make sure those shell halves are well snapped together all around.

rickdlong · Mar 9, 2011

Excellent post! I took printed copy of these instructions to my local body shop with the new machined aluminum pulleys. It took 1 1/2 hours at $40 per hour labor rate to replace - - no problem! The $60 was well worth it to save me the frustration of broken plastic clips, etc.

I'm now once again a happy Ridgeliner with "limp" back seat brackets. :act024:

Insert Name · Mar 11, 2011

Any update on availability? I need to order a set....

Rich · Mar 12, 2011

Brian posted today they are available again!
Go to the club store to purchase.

.23097 · Mar 13, 2011

Just got my pulleys in the mail today. A buddy from work is going to help me install them in my Ridgeline when we both have time. The pulleys are very high quality. I'm glad I made the plunge to get a set. I see their selling quickly as well. He's currently down to 21 from the 30 he just put on ebay. Thanks again everyone for the input.:act035:

mstephens · Mar 18, 2011

Performed this fix on my newly acquired '06 RTL tonight. Relatively easy, and very nice quality aluminum pulleys from Seatz.

One of my pulleys was broken, and the funny thing is that there were two of the red washers on one side (the broken one) and none on the other, which tells me that both had been replaced at least once before.

Does anyone want the good plastic pulley? I'll send it for postage cost, which shouldn't be more than a couple of stamps. I have no need for it, and thought someone who doesn't want to pop for the aluminum replacements might be able to put it to use.

Sparkland · Mar 18, 2011

Just ordered a set of pulleys from Brian last night. Hoping he still has some left. I, like a few others, am just purchasing before they break.

rollinhonda · Mar 18, 2011

Sparkland said:
Just ordered a set of pulleys from Brian last night. Hoping he still has some left. I, like a few others, am just purchasing before they break.

And you will be glad you did!

It's a nice feeling knowing you can use those seats as you want and not worry about pulleys breaking.

RobertD · Mar 26, 2011

Thanks for the post with the photos. I was able to fix the issue in about an hour.

.23097 · Mar 30, 2011

Thanks for the post with the great photos. Me and my buddy got it done in less than an hour and the new pulleys work wonderful. Glad I'm rid of the plastic ones. Couldn't believe how flimsy the plastic ones felt.

Thanks Brian also for having these available for all of the Ridgeline owners. Keep making them as long as you can.:act035:

zimster · Apr 23, 2011

Thanks Meng for the great instructions, and Bryan for offering the aluminum pulleys. Both of my plastic pulleys were broken. Getting the molding off around the pulleys was a bit of a pain, but I eventually got them apart without breaking anything. The only other problem I had was when I tried to slide the aluminum pulley onto the shaft, it wouldn't fit. I was ready to start calling Bryan names before I noticed that the edge of the shaft was beveled out the whole way around - apparently from when it was originally installed. Both of them were like this. After getting rid of that lip on the shaft with a Dremel, the pulleys slid on perfectly. Nice to have the legs retract again!!

tyronescott · May 16, 2011

One of my seat pulleys broke and the local dealer wanted to charge $400 to fix it. Thank you for saving me a lot of money.

nottonite · Jun 11, 2011

Re: Rear Seat Support (Bar or Leg) Won't Retract (Stay Flat With Seat Up)

meng said:
Here's the rest of the posting.

Here is what the broken pulley looked like

Here’s the new one mounted in place. You’ll find out why there is a slot on one side of the pulley when you go to install it. And, you’ll also find that there’s an up and down side to the pulley. In other words it will slide onto the shaft one way but not the other.

At this point, check out to see that the bar is retracting properly as shown here

When I took the cover off on the driver’s side I saw that there was a black mark on that pulley. I knew the pulley was good but decided it best to replace it while I had everything in pieces. This is the one that had been done on warranty and the mark is to show where the cable attaches (remember above I said there was an up side and a down side and that’s the purpose of the mark). Don’t worry about marking yours, if the new pulley won’t go onto the shaft, rotate it 180 degrees and it will.

And, here’s the new pulley on the driver’s side.

Now just go in reverse to put everything back together.

This is all a one person job except when I was putting the bolts back in for the seat back I needed some help to jockey the seatback a little to line up with the bolt holes.

I paid big bucks to get mine fixed, and it broke again -same side. Now I know why, and I also know I will try to fix it myself this time. I hate anything that's unreliable. DSW and I just fixed the tailgate with help from another post, and I took pics like yours I will try to upload to this site. Thanks for all the help. As a girl, I never thot I would voluntarily do "truck work" but it's a better option than paying again and again for the service department to fall short of my expectations.

nicholdance · Jun 12, 2011

thanks for the excellent post - I'm a new member as of today, based on the first class how-to here - my teenage son opened the back door yesterday and pulled up on the bar, thinking that was the way to get the seat down - and that's all it took - I see the person selling the replacement pulley wheels also has them on ebay for the same price (I won't even bother with the dealer - but I will write to Honda telling them this plastic part is not up to Honda standards!) - so, until I get the new pulley wheels, here's my solution...

nicholdance · Jun 12, 2011

here's a little preventative maintenance on the unbroken side, for the occasional helpful rider...

rollinhonda · Jun 12, 2011

Hopefully your communication with Honda will be more effective than others have. It will make a poor statement about Honda quality if they still use the plastic pulleys in the next model year.

DrMike · Jun 20, 2011

I just ordered the two cable guides from my local Honda dealer, P/N 82139-SJC-A02 for a whopping total of $26.60. The attendant service bulletin 10-068 said that both trim covers need to be replaced for an additional $75. I just used the old ones and it worked fine.

freddyp · Jul 9, 2011

Meng -- thanks to your post with all the great pictures I was able to replace both broken pulleys in about 45 minutes. Would have been faster but I kept double checking to make sure where clips were. In fact, with your warning I did not break any of the plastic covers that go over the pulleys. I did find two sharp edges and had to take 5 minutes to put a band-aid on :act014:

A big thanks also goes out to Brian (Seatz Manufacturing) for the great replacement pulleys. They are so much better than the factory plastic!

There's no doubt the ROC has saved us lots of aggravation and grief in maintaining our Ridgeline.

Steps to Fix: Rear Seat Support (Bar or Leg) Won't Retract (Stay Flat With Seat Up)

.23097

cwelk87gn

rollinhonda

rickdlong

Insert Name

Rich

.23097

mstephens

Sparkland

rollinhonda

RobertD

.23097

zimster

tyronescott

nottonite

nicholdance

Attachments

nicholdance

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rollinhonda

DrMike

freddyp

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