I recall that the seat back in my 380SE was reclined way back when I first looked at the car, and it was upright when I purchased it from the second owner, but the switch never worked right. The guy I bought it from told me that he unplugged the connector and somehow polked around the female plug with a length of wire until he made the connection that turned on the motor to bring it back up. When I eventually got around to checking out the problem, there were 2 breaks in the seat springs that had chaffed the wires, causing a short and an actual break. Everything worked fine after I fixed the wiring. Perhaps a broken wire or short is causing your problem too. I'd try using a jumper wire to move it forward/backward to get at the bolts, remove it, and do a thorough examination on the bench. Worse that could happen would be a blown fuse, which mine did every time I tried using the switch.

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1986 560SL
2002 Toyota Camry
1993 Lexus