recliner broken in your Ranger?

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I've seen a few threads about the recliner for the seat back not working becasue of a broken stud/shoulder bolt in the recliner mechanism. I went to the Ford stealership, parts man told me that the bolt was obsolete. NAPA parts counter monkey told me I would have to buy a brand new seat, imagine that.
I went to a auto upholstry shop for ideas. He suggested that I go to the Honda motorcycle shop next door , "they have nuts and bolts for everything". I decided to try that since no one else was able to come up with a solution
Low and behold, the parts man came up with a bolt that was a direct fit. Only differece was the head was a 10mm instead of a torx head. Went home, removed the old threads, and installed the new Honda pieces. fixed


parts# number on the bag is as follows

90111-ZB5-000 , in small letters underneath this # M9C18

Thought I would pass this along to those in need

 

mine was broken also but I used a "junk yard seat" to steal bolts from

 

Hey could someone please show me pictures? I have my passenger seat stuck in "slight ghetto lean" because of what must be the same problem. But I don't even know which bolt it is or how to get in there to fix it.

 

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I had to pull my seats apart when I reupholstered them. It was intimidating at first but it was actually very easy. The only bolts that are on the seat are the ones that hold the bucket to the track, located underneath. Then the other bolts that hold the reclining section to the bottom base, i think there was two on either side. Go on Youtube and look up Ranger seats/assembling or something. I had found a video that gave a break down of it. When I get home I can search for it.

 

I have a 201 Ford Ranger with a broken seat reclining mechanism. It happened on the freeway at 70 mph. I pushed against the steering wheel to stretch my back muscles and BAM the seat reclined to full back. The next thing I know I was looking at the ceiling, still going 70 mph! Talk about a product liability nightmare for Ford!

I read through some of the posts on this forum and decided to fix it myself. In my case, the two bolts that control the recline snapped in two simultaneously. I'm a rather large guy (220) but geez, I'm not THAT large! Its definitely repairable if you have basic tools. I had to completely remove the seat and disassemble it.

I found the two bolts that snapped in two and I smell design flaw. The bolts are 1/4", and in my opinion, too narrow for the force that it placed on them. I would have designed at least a 3/8" bolt there. Also, I can tell by the sheared bolts that they are a weak alloy. Somebody allowed substandard bolts to be installed in a critical application, probably at the factory. I'm surprised there hasn't been a class action yet.

I couldn't find replacement bolts, it being Christmas Eve, but I found 1/4" bolts that closely matched at Home Depot. I sheared off the extra length with a cutter and used a washer to get the correct spacing. It was a real pain to get the new bolt, washer, and screw aligned. You may need someone to help you, mostly holding the upper reclining seat in position while you carefully get everything aligned.

Lessons learned:

1. When unbolting the seat push the seat all the way back and remove the front bolts FIRST, and then push the seat all the way forward and remove the back bolts LAST. The reason being if you don't do it in this order, the slide spring will be under strong tension when the seat is removed and could suddenly snap back on your fingers as you're jiggling around with it.

2. Do the repair inside on carpet or cardboard. You'll be moving the seat in all kinds of positions during the repair, and it will get really dirty if you do it in the driveway or your garage.

 

I wonder if that is what is wrong with my seats, as they will only lock in one position, and that is leaning back too far??