Remove passenger seat

remove the whole seat assembly
tip upside down and remove the retainers from the slides and pull the seat of the slides
get new seat slides and reverse the assembly procedure

Take the whole seat out of the car. Take it to a shop that does car upholstery.

There's probably something in the way. Get under and behind the seat with a flashlight and check the back end of the rails to see if something is there.

Remove the storage tray from the back of the driver and passenger seats. This can be a trick in itself. You have to squeeze together some body style clips with needle nose pliers going in from the bottom where the tray section meets the seat fabric. When you get the right and left hand side clips free the tray panel should just tilt out at bottom. Then just slide the whole tray panel up and then you can pull it out. Now you can get to the head rests. From the inside of the seat you can see the 2 head rest posts that connect to the cushion portion of it. Follow the 2 posts up until you see the black plastic sleeves they slide in. Take some channel locks and grab the black sleeves and turn them (they only turn one way) until the cut outs in the bottom of the sleeves are facing the front and rear of the van rather than the right and left sides. Once these are turned you can easily lift the whole head rest out.

Pain but fixable. Sounds like the linkage is not connected. Even a mechanic will have to remove the door panel and fight with it. If you can remove the rear seat from the drivers side side door then you might have room to remove the passenger side door panel to fix it. Usually clips are the first thing to break on door handle/latch linkages

2010 Equinox drivers side won't recline.
Found the cable popped off recline mechanism.
Pulled back the lower seat panel near the recline lever after removing one torque screw located on said panel which is on the back of seat. Works great now. By the way, Freedom Chevrolet in San Antonio, Tx, without diagnosis, wanted to charge my girl friend $860 to replace the whole assembly.

SECTION 501-10: Seating 1998 Escort/Tracer Workshop Manual REMOVAL AND INSTALLATION Seat —Front Removal
NOTE: Driver side seat shown, passenger side seat similar.

1. Slide the seat to its rearward position.

1. Remove the front seat track to floor front bolts.

1. Slide the seat to the forward position.

1. Remove the front seat track to floor rear bolts.

1. Disconnect the safety belt warning indicator switch electrical connector.

1. Remove the front seat.

This is not necessary...as many have stated...use a hammer with switch in reverse position. Hammer the seat back...it will catch...

I have had the exact same problem , the actaual cause of the seat not sliding back is due to the small cable retaing clip which fastens at the underneath of the seat this is a very common problem and is very trickY to get to as you say the rear panel appers to need to come off , it does not, you axs the small clip from removeing the liners at the very bottom of the seat where there is a footwell light , when you axs this area you be able to get to the clip or the actaul cable ,to which ever is broken,,

Sounds like a cable problem. There is a Y cable that runs from the inner side of the passenger seat behind the plastic trim. This is a single cable. Goes under the seat and splits to go to each side. When the seat is folded forward it pulls this cable and releases both sliders. Toyota Part Number 72210-89105. It is about 30 dollars. check out these pictures: http://www.yotatech.com/showthread.php?t=101496. If you have anyother questions let me know.
Conenopka.