GMT 900 Manual Front Seat Recline Mechanism - Broken Handle and Mating Star Gear ?

I have a friend with a 2012 Tahoe with manual recline front seats, last 8 VIN CR163343

The manual recline lever on the front driver seat broke and he went to replace it. But...the gear it connects to within the seat frame is also broken, so when he went to replace the flimsy plastic manual recline handle, there is nothing for it to connect to. WTF.

I called local dealer for him who is saying the entire seat back frame needs to be replaced to replace that little gear (P/N 22-85-69-07), however thats NLA anywhere. So I called another dealer and they said there is a "seat recline bracket" that needs to be replaced, but they couldnt confirm if that had the star gear on it or not. They just wanted him to pay for it, order it in, and see whatever they get. No thanks.

Has anyone else dealt with the gear mating to the front seat manual recline handles on GMT900 before ? Is it really supposed to be plastic ? And what can be done if it breaks ?

Any help with this is appreciated. I might make new billet front seat manual recline handles for GMT900 to complement the all the other seat gears we already make for GMT900 at GruvenParts.com , and I may possibly make mating metal gears if those really are plastic.

Reply, email me or PM if you can or want to help. I will likely make some billet pieces for you to try out. I know the flimsy recline handles tend to break alot but those are so inexpensive you could buy 10 of them for the cost of a billet version. Still, I wonder if people would want billet versions both for looks/cool factor and the fact that it wouldnt ever break again. But I wouldnt want to mate that nice billet part up to a sh!tty plastic gear. Thoughts / emails appreciated...

Paul at GruvenParts dot com

Time for a pick and pull? There's so many of these GM trucks there's practically guaranteed to be one in a junkyard nearby.

And I think billet stuff is cool but buying a $100 handle is not my cup of tea.

Wouldnt be a hundred but prob 70 .. also, the billet handle could be machined in any shape, with chevy logo or something to make it look cool / less like a handle off a Yugo.

Anyone else ? surely someone has dealt with this before if it really is a plastic gear under that handle.

no info huh ?

jatkinson8755 said:

no info huh ?

Click to expand...

Guess it hasn’t been an issue for very many folks. I am in my 4th NNBS vehicle and have a combined total of around 300K miles on them and never had an issue so never looked into it myself.

Sorry - Maybe another bump will catch the attention of someone who has dealt with this.

Thats a fairly rare failure. I would suggest getting a replacement seat from a salvage shop.

Jeezus get a whole new seat ? Does anyone have a scrap laying around that could send me the gear or section so I can make it out of metal ? If its just a plastic star gear in there its gotta be failing. Surprised no 1 is seeing it...

I can get you a manual seat back. Send me a message.

You can't just replace the gear- its an integral mechanism. Complete seat frame is easiest to work with and then put your foam and trim on the frame.