Noob question: can not get 3rd row bench to latch down

[ard]

Hi,

I have a (new to me) '97 K2500 SLT. Really love it and all the heavy duty parts on it. The 4L80E in it is in great shape and the previous owner had put a nice Mag-Hytek rear diff cover on, but I digress.

I pulled the 3rd-row bench (without much trouble) to do some hauling and now, for the life of me, I cannot get the latches on the bottom of the bench to engage with the floor-mounted hooks to snap the bench back in.

Is there a special trick? I tried tilting / pivoting the bench slightly but no dice. Is it really a question of just applying brute force to snap the bench back in?

Thanks in advance.

/alex

[retired2001]

Welcome to the site! I have very little experience with this, but as I remember getting the "front" in the right place is the key. There are a lot Sub' owners on the site, so someone else may have a better answer. Good luck!

[Joeairforce]

Don't know how much my experience with the late '80's one will help, but once you have the front in how it's supposed to go I just kinda slam the back part down to make it latch.

[Crawdaddy]

Don't know how much my experience with the late '80's one will help, but once you have the front in how it's supposed to go I just kinda slam the back part down to make it latch.

Ditto for the 80s bodystyle that goes all the way up to 91. I'm pretty sure they used a different, but similar latching mechanism in the 90s bodystyle.

[vncj96]

If the front hooks on the third seat arent in correctly it will make it dificult to get the actual latch to click into place, i just slide mine along the floor and when the fronts catch, I lift the rear up and sort of let the weight take care of itself, and I dont ever have problems. I would flip the seat upside down and see if you can get them to latch using a thick screw driver and then play with the actual latch release, give them a good shot of WD-40 too