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

Moderator edit: due to the Photobucket fiasco, all images in this post are unavailable. But thanks to member ridged, we have a link to a pdf file that still has all the info:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_rfj98mktAPd2pZVDhzWGlacnM

Edit 2 to add a link to a Youtube video:
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One of the seat pulleys failed while mine was in warranty and was repaired under it. That was about 2 years ago. The other side failed and I was out of warranty.

Although this post http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/showpost.php?p=554138&postcount=387 and the one referenced in it were very helpful, I decided more pictures wouldn’t hurt. Having read the various posts and purchased the aluminum replacement pulleys, I decided to install them on 2/6/2011 and document the job in photos. The entire job took about 45 minutes and would have been shorter had I not stopped to take photos.

This is the start of the job. The passenger side bar was not retracting

Here’s what the replacement pulleys look like

I’ve done some looking and found replacement pulleys at the Honda Club Store here http://www.hondaclubstore.com/ridgeline/pulley.htm
I also found them advertised on Ebay at http://stores.ebay.com/AUTO-INTERIOR-KITS Look under the “Other” category.

Put both seats in the up position and note that there are 6 separate trim pieces at the bottom that need to be removed. The middle one is two separate pieces of trim. This is a photo of the start

This is the passenger side with the first trim piece removed.

This is the driver side with the second trim piece removed

Next remove the center trim pieces. There are two parts

After the center trim pieces are removed, this is what you have

There are 3 bolts at the bottom of the seatback that need to be removed. They are gold in color. You can see the middle one clearly in the picture above. While the middle one is visible after your remove the center trim pieces, the two side ones are hidden behind the 4th and 5th trim pieces that are to be removed. This is a picture of the driver’s side trim piece after removal. and this is a closeup showing what you will see when the trim is removed

This is a picture of the center area showing the bolt and the casings for the pulleys - sorry for the blurry picture, too much coffee

Now put the seats down

Note at the top of the seat on each side are two small covers. Remove them. One removed is shown here
These enclose two hooks at the top of the seatback. Here a picture of one

Get into the back and at the center of the seatback lift upwards and the hooks on the seatback will come loose and the seatback will naturally fall into this position

Move the seatback forward to this position so it is out of the way. Note, you don’t have to remove the seat belt. I did it in two steps shown here

Now you can see and have access to the casings for the two pulleys

Pry the casing cover off. This is where I screwed up and broke some of the plastic holding the two parts together. There was enough left when I put it back together to hold them in place. If there hadn’t been, I would have put some glue on it since I doubt I’ll ever have to take them apart again. This shows one part of the cover.

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