I pulled the driver's seat out last night, unbolted the seat back from the seat bottom. I didn't realize until I did that the top frame and recline assembly are all attached together, presumably via the smooth head bolt that the the lever rides on. As far as I can tell the problem is the big gear's teeth aren't lining up with the lever's teeth. That is: lever's teeth are riding on the plate's edge, not the toothed area.
Question: In order to realign them you have to grind off whatever is holding the lever bolt on, thus allowing the whole recline assembly to come off the seat back frame (since the little gear rides along the teeth in the seat frame you can't spin it any farther then seat back can move) then I should be able to spin the gear back around like the second picture above, bolt it back together (hopefully with a bolt from the hardware store, is this the infamous bolt OTGS sells?)
Is this the only thing keeping the recline assembly bolted to the frame?
All this begs the question: how did they get misaligned in the first place? If the lever bolt is still attached via the factory tack weld (it looks like to Mr. Ignorant here) how could this have happened? Even if some gorilla cranked on the lever to the point where it's teeth got along side of the big gear/plate it still couldn't turn past the seat back's travel limits. Too much conjecture. I just have to get the bolt out and see where I'm at. Grind off the back welded washer thingy?
Looking at this pic supplied by OTGS, this would seem to be the "seat nearly upright position", as the seat back moves backward toward recline the seat frame's teeth turns the small gear and attached big gear clockwise, exposing more teeth (and associated recline position options) to the lever's teeth. At no time should I be able to see the big gear's teeth at the top and rearward (as I do now).
If the lever is held up and the seat pushed all the way forward, as in accessing the cargo, then the lever rides on the toothless area of big gear, right? Why my gear is only a partial circle with "cover plate" and thus different then the one pictured, I don't know. Looks like our set up would have the lever's teeth riding on the edge of the plate in 'fully forward, access the cargo position". Maybe someone put the seat forward with the steering column dropped and it spun too far forward? I don't know, if so, it should have gone back on track when the seat was tipped back again. Mine looks exactly like the other pictured (on wooden table background) although that is not mine but another member's as I have yet to get mine off the seat itself.
PS, sorry for long winded and generally MASSIVE number of postings, pushing 800 posts in one year and only owned a car for a few months, hopefully the majority are relevant, on topic and useful to the good of the order.....