Seat back latch

Claim 1

A vehicle seat assembly comprising a seat and a seat back, a bracket secured to the seat, a support arm on the seat back extending downwardly into juxtaposition to the bracket, pivot means pivotally coupling the support arm to the bracket to provide for forward tilting movement of the seat back over the seat from an upstanding position, and coacting abutments on the support arm and bracket engageable to position the seat back in its upstanding position, wherein the improvement comprises: a latch mechanism for locking the seat back against forward tilting movement, the latch mechanism including an extension of the support arm having a cam surface thereon, the support arm extension extending, when the seat back is in an upstanding position, below the pivot means coupling the support arm to the bracket, a cam lock member pivotally supported on the bracket and having a cam surface complementary to the support arm cam surface, the pivot axis of the cam lock member being below the pivot axis of the support arm, the cam lock member, when its cam surface is in abuting relationship to the support arm surface, being effective to prevent separation of the support arm abutment from the bracket abutment and thereby to prevent forward tilting movement of the seat back over the seat, the coacting support arm cam surface and the cam lock member cam surface in engaged position lying between the support arm pivot means and the cam lock pivot axis whereby the cam lock member is placed under compression by any force tending to tilt the seat back forwardly, and operating means for pivoting the cam lock member to nonlocking position relative to the support arm to permit forward tilting movement of the seat back.