I R/R one of my middle row seat hinges with the reclining hinge today. I only did the driver's side due to the fact that my reclining hinges are gray color and I have oak/tan/brown interior. I'm going to take the OEM hinge down to the store to match the paint color.
I noticed a few things about the hinges. The US OEM hinges only have about 3 teeth, which is used to lock the seat in one single postion (upright) while the JDM hinges have a lot of more teeth on the circular gear, allowing it to have 5 recline position.
FWIW, only the first recline position is usable if the rear seats are folded up. If the rear seats are removed or lowered, all 5 reclining position will work. The first reclining position makes the middle row seat more comfortable on the long trips. It was something my wife has always wanted in the cruiser. As an added benefit, when a child/infant seat is attached to the middle row seat, it is easier to enter into the rear row seat by lowering the middle row seatback. The person only has to climb over a lowered middle row seatback to get to the rear seat instead of over the upright seatback.
I also notice that my rear row seats have 2 reclining positions in addition to the upright postion, for a total of 3 seatback settings (not counting the folded forward positions).
Picture: The reclining hinge is on the left and the US non-reclining hinge is to the right.
John
