Practicool

Up front no, not at all. I might sit a little higher, I really dont even notice... But I'm 6'1 and am very comfy in there. In the back I lost some head room. I did mount mine a little high on the frame rail to give me more cargo space below the seats, so maybe that would be different if you mounted them closer to the floor. Still 100,000X more comfy than the park bench in the back seat.

All in all, I drilled 3 holes in the floor pan... you would want to drill 4 max. I did most of my drilling in the WJ brackets and the frame rail right below the seat (is that even what it's called? That metal piece that sticks up and runs cross the front of your under-seat cargo area). I had to take out the release mechanism's from under the bottom side of the rear WJ seats with a 25 Torx bit, and cut the plastic bottom to fit the XJ wheel wells. In the above pics, the "40" portion of the 60/40 split was actually not in yet, just posing for a pic, so it sits even more flush now that its mounted up. It's a squeeze, but oh so worth it. I'd say a man with half a brain and the right tools could knock it out in 8 hours or less. Probably less. I did mine over a span of a few days. Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any questions. I gave $200 at a local JY for the whole set! Got them cleaned and conditioned yesterday, and will follow up with another cleaning and conditioning here soon just because they were exposed to the elements in the JY.

bmrrwolfe

Awesome!! Thanks for the pics!
I found a set of black leather heated power, locally for $200, pass seat has a tiny cut in the leather, but I am going to pick them up tonight!
How did the rear fit width wide? I've had a few people tell me its not doable since the WJ is wider..
Will hopefully get pics of the seats tonight

Practicool

Sweet man! Get some pics up. It's tight in the back, but mostly because the wheel wells are shaped differently. I cut the plastic bottoms with a dremel tool and it fit flush afterwards. You will just have to unscrew the latch mechanism with a torx bit (4 screws, you'll see what I'm talking about). That is right in the path of wheel well. Just cut a little at a time and test fit. I must've run back and forth 10 times before I got it right. I'm sure it wasn't totally necessary to do that, but I got it right eventually.

bmrrwolfe

Thanks!
Do you have pictures of the mounts for the rear? I haven't even tried mocking them up yet, so I have no idea whats its going to take.

Also in the fronts you said you used the XJ brackets? I was hoping to use the WJ brackets to keep the power and maybe attempt to hook up heat, but it doesn't sound easy..

9XJSPORT7

The only way to get the power seats is to find xj power seat bases as the wj seat will bolt right to them...then you can wire the wj seats to them to get the full power...the wj seat brackets are completly different and require alot of fab work to even get them to maybe fit...as for the heated seat part in the wj seats you cant wire them up without issues....in a wj they are controled thru the body control unit and putting 12v to the heater elemts will cause them to get way to hot and they might even burn the seats or worse....I looked into this alot as I wanted to do this swap but then I got really lucky and found a set of power and heated seats from an xj and just swaped them in....If you really want to get the heat in the wj seats I would say find a good upholstery shop and have them install universal heater elemnts into the seat and have them wire up the switches....

Practicool

I could take pictures of mine, but I'd rather just send you this link. This is the write up i used, and my rears look nearly identical as far as mounting to this:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=996662

I feel like a traitor posting a link from another forum, but it's the best I found.

bmrrwolfe

So has anyone used a WJ seat base in an XJ??
I would really like to maintain the pwr seats, and know I will never find pwr XJ seat frames..

I am okay without the heat, knowing that it runs through the BCM, although I wonder if there is a way to wire it in to only run it for a select period of time, like 3-5 mins?

99 Purple XJ

Just use the xj seat frame a power xj seat rail is pretty common thing i find at the junk yard and for the heat part from all the trouble you have to go through you can just buy an after market kit for like 50 bucks and its like 2 wires

bmrrwolfe

For now I am just going to use the XJ base for the WJ seats, I didn't realize I can maintain the recline and lumber power, I thought the seat was stuck without reclining if I used the XJ base....
If your ever at the JY and can find a power/heated seat base from a 97-01 XJ let me know! Not sure what they cost at a JY but it cant be more then $25and I would be more then happy to purchase them from you, as well as shipping and a few dollars for your trouble

I can barely find a 97+ XJ at the JY and when I do they are ususally SE or Sports and picked over fast..

Practicool

X2 on the hard to find 97-01. Glad you went ahead with the XJ brackets. It's well worth your time. I've got mine super soft after a good cleaning and conditioning (or two). Aaaand I topped it off with a Yankee Candle leather air freshner.

bmrrwolfe

Well seats still arent installed, I removed the old frames, cleaned them up and painted them, and while the seats were out I decided to check under the carpet..
Unfortently I found some soft spots, so I spent the day doing some floor patch work..

Practicool

I need to paint my brackets too. Unfortunately I was kind of in a hurry to get them installed. Post some pics of those seats man!

fedx95

Fabbing up custom mounts isn't too difficult for any seat. I had durango seats in my old one. I am currently installing them into my new one

orange 88 xj

okay i am attempting this swap also... i have a 88 xj that the seats are just tottal crap and none of them match and im sick of it. so i got some all leathr seats from my buddy from a 2000 wj for free no rips or anything so the front i want to put in with the electric movements so i have to weld or bolt on a nother bracket and soe other good stuff no big deal but the rear is where im lost.. has any one had experiance with somthing like this in a older jeep as mine or have any inks for older post i can take a look at? any help would be great!

nimitz68

Hi,

I am about to do this project as well. I have a XJ Limited 01, with heat/power and obtained a near perfect pair of WJ (00 or 01) heat/powered (8 or 10 way).
Anyway, I think I have a clear road on the wiring (ANY HELP WOULD BE GREAT), but, one of my main problems is the seat belt buckle. Currently the buckle is attached to the XJ seat frame which I have removed, no problem.... BUT.. the WJ seat frame does not come with the same angled piece of metal to anchor the buckle to (the WJ attaches the buckle to the tranny hump - dont know the techy word). How would someone attach the buckle to the side of the seat on the WJ seats if these are normaly mounted on the XJ seat frame? I hope my question is clear LOL..)

The picture is NOT my seat base, but, a great example of an XJ base with the buckle attached... How to make this happen on the WJ seat base? HEEEELLLLPPPP