Patent ID: 7255398

Claim:
A seat reclining apparatus, comprising: a seat cushion; a seat back rotatably supported to the seat cushion; a forward reclining biasing means for biasing the seat back to a forward reclined position side; a reclining lock mechanism shifting the seat back between a lock position locked at an optional position in a reclining range and a lock release position releasing the lock, and exposed to a lock biasing force toward the lock position side; a forward reclining lever shifting the reclining lock mechanism to the lock release position, in which the reclining lock mechanism is shifted to the lock release position from the lock position by operating the forward reclining lever to a forward reclining operating position, and the seat back is shifted to the forward reclined position by an biasing force of the forward reclining biasing means; and a neutral position returning means holding the forward reclining lever operated to the forward reclining operating position at the forward reclining operating position in the case that the seat back exists in a forward reclined side from a predetermined neutral position set within the reclining range, and not holding the forward reclining lever in the case that the seat back exists in a rearward reclined side from the neutral position; wherein the forward reclining lever comprises: a releasing lever fixed to a shaft shifting the reclining lock mechanism between the lock position and the lock release position, and integrally rotating with the shaft; and a forward reclining link lever associated with a forward reclining operating lever provided in an upper portion of the seat back, shifting from a standby position to a lever rotational position against a biasing force of a lever biasing means when the forward reclining operating lever is shifted from the standby position to the forward reclined position, and rotating the releasing lever together therewith during the shifting process so as to shift the reclining lock mechanism from the lock position to the lock release position, and wherein the neutral position returning means comprises: a cam plate capable of shifting between a lever rotation allowing position allowing the rotation of the forward reclining link lever and a lever rotation inhibiting position inhibiting the rotation of the forward reclining link lever, when the forward reclining link lever exists at the lever rotating position; a cam biasing means for biasing the cam plate to the lever rotation inhibiting position side; and a cam releasing means for shifting the cam plate from the lever rotation inhibiting position to the lever rotation allowing position against the biasing force of the cam biasing means when the seat back is shifted from the forward reclined position side to the predetermined neutral position, and holding the cam plate at the lever rotation allowing position when the seat back exists in a backward reclined side from the neutral position.