[gto4evr]

okay, my memory's a bit skewed on "the spring" but it does work against spring tension.

my guess is one of two things. one, the pivot brackets are rusty and not allowing the flap bracket to return to the locked position with it's spring. I circled the pivot bracket in the first picture. When the solenoid activates, it pulls down on that bracket which pivots against that little arm with clear plastic sleeve on it and simulates pressing the release flap that the manual button pushes against. this pulls the inner bracket away from the catching edge allowing the internal slider to pull down out of the toothed edge (basically it works the same as a seat belt does)

so either those brackets are stiff and not allowing the spring on the button to push it back, or the spring is broken in that flapper. Or I guess a third possible issue is the flapper is frozen up on it's pivot rod.

Do you have the seat back and button off? if not, when you press the seat button in, does it feel like it has any tension beyond it's own internal little spring within the button itself?

Third picture, I pulled the locking slider out from inside and put it side by side so you could see what goes on. normally that piece with the rectangular hole slides up through the inside of the mechanism to be captured by the little angled shelf that the flapper normally pushes against to lock it in place when the seat's back (just like a seat belt buckle)

I think you need to get your seat backs off to see what's going on mechanically. it's gotta be a mechanical bind with some rust or something locking up either the flapper or the pivot bracket holding it in the open position. I guess the possibility does exist that somehow the solenoids pulled down and are somehow stuck but I can't see how. worst case if that is the issue, you can remove the solenoid from the bracket with the two screws and the mechanism will still function as a regular manual bracket.