dangercraft

Hello everyone,
I just bought a 1998 Cherokee last week for cheeee-aaaap because the owner was tired of all of the "short-circuits". So far just by searching on the this forum, I've fixed been able to fix the following:

Slight sputtering/High idle, weird shifts, hard to start - Cleand IAC and replaced bad TPS
Cluster not working - Cleaned and shimmed the back connectors
Airbag light and horn - New clock spring

I don't know if anyone has had this problem so I figured I'd post it up in case anyone can benefit:

The drivers seat was making some creaking noises and overall felt crappy, so I decided to take it out and see what was going on. The seat had all of the rear welds broken next to the beads where the tubes met the sheet metal base that bolts to the slider. Further the front left bolt hole on the seat frame that attaches to the slider had completely ripped out. I made some gussets out of some .125" stock and rewelded/reinforced the whole thing. So... this is kind of a safety issue that doesn't take any time to verify, so I figured I would put it out there in case anyone else has similar issues.

Frank

Cherokee_of_Tennessee

Somebody, anybody, please advise me on how to proceed.

Situation: I rescued a 1998 Jeep Cherokee Sport from my father-in-law for $3000 about 2 1/2 years ago. The engine runs great. Body is in decent shape, no major dings but is going to need a new paint job soon. I have a 2" lift that my father-in-law did without changing shocks or transmission alignment. I changed the shocks to travel the extra 2" and repaired the broken shock mounts in the rear, as well as added the required spacers to drop the transmission enough to line up better with the drive shaft and rear differential. I have changed the powersteearing pump, air conditioning compressor, and a few other small items. So, I am obviously invested in this baby and already have fond memories and do not want to ever leave it.

So now I have the rusted floor pan issue. My feet would be dangling like flintstones if I did not have the carpet still in place on the driver's side. Also, the drivers seat front left bolt flops around like it is not attached to anything.

Question: Is the seat frame bolted to the floor pan and thus causing my "loosey goosey" seat due to rusted out floor pan? Can I repair the seat mount without replacing the floor pan? I have seen several floor pans for sale at various websites so I plan on eventually replacing the floor pan, but in the near term I need to get the seat anchored properly. I have not pulled the carpet out yet to look and see cause I want to be able to get all my issues fixed in a one shot weekend deal so I really don't know how the seat is anchored to the body underneath there.

Also, It appears that there is some kind of cross member that the front two seat bolts are attached to. Does anyone know if that is separate from or part of the floor pan??

Im a brand new poster here, but have been lurking and reading here for about a year now. Many thanks in advance for your kind advice and guidance.

Oh yeah, my cruise control quit working and I think the on/off switch and clock spring are ok, what to check next???

philthycoder

@Cherokee_Of_Tennessee,
The crossmember that the front of the seat bracket bolts to is NOT part of the floor pan. I just went through this with my driver's side floor replacement. I ordered the part through Parks Motors. It's the part called "Reinforcement, Front seat mount Left" at the following URL: http://www.partswebsite.com/dcjparts...magecallout=13

If your seat is rocking and your floor is rusted out that bad, it's a fair bet that the floor pan under the front crossmember has rotted out badly enough that the crossmember has become at least partially detached. Mine was badly rotted and didn't have enough good metal left to weld to anything, so I had to get the replacement piece.

There is a thin crossmember that runs under the floor pans that the rear seat bolts get attached to. This crossmember seems to survive mostly intact even in cases where the floor pans are badly disintegrated. It could potentially be a source of seat rocking though, if the floor pan sandwiched between the seat mount and this underneath crossmember has rotted away.

If your floor underneath the front seat crossmember is gone, there's really no way to securely mount the seat any more. The crossmember will just be held to the transmission tunnel and inner rocker by a few metal tabs with spot welds.

Probably not what you wanted to hear, but hope it helps!

philthycoder

Here's a picture of my new front crossmember mounted after doing my driver's side floor repair. I just made my floor repair pieces out of sheet steel, so the crossmember required some modification to fit right, but if you use one of the pre-formed replacement floor pans the reinforcement should drop in and line right up. As a side note, when you get the replacement crossmember, the front seat bracket mounting holes will be un-threaded, and you'll have to cut threads with an 8mm x 1.25 tap.

Cherokee_of_Tennessee

Thanks a ton philthycoder. I suspected I was in for trouble. The right front seat bolt still feels solid, so I am guessing that the left front is moving (about 2" travel up and down) because the floor pan is so rotted that the front reinforcement mount has separated from its weld on the left, or worse. Thanks a lot for posting the pic. Clears up a lot of the mud. I also saw a thread that said most of the pans rust because of a bad seal around the heater core. I will research that and fix it as well if I can.

Now for the fix, is it better to order the long floor panels that go from the pedals all the way to the rear seat, or is it ok just to get the "front drivers side" only? I guess it would be best to pull the carpet up and see just how bad the damage really is, but this is my primary daily driver and cant afford much down time. Maybe this weekend I'll tackle that. I'll see if I can't post a picture of it and let everyone on here advise me as to what would be the best thing to do. I would also like to know what everyone thinks about pop-riveting vs welding the floor pans. I have seen several threads on here about floor pans being sealed and then pop-riveted. I am currently stationed at fort polk, louisiana and have been vehemently warned to beware of body shops off post in the surrounding area. So most of this repair is probably going to have to be done by myself with the assitance of the autoskills center DIY garage mechanics on post.

Anyone with any advice??

Cherokee_of_Tennessee

Oh yeah, another thing, I looked at the floor pans they had on partswebiste.com. It looks like it is the entire front floor from driver's door to passenger's door including the transmission tunnel. Not really what I would need is it?? Does this website sell just the left and right floor pans?? I cant seem to find them on there.

philthycoder

Really no way to know what you're dealing with until you get that carpet up. Just brace yourself for the worst. If there's one thing I've learned with Jeeps and rust, it's that the picture never gets rosier as you peel layers off! Sounds like yours is probably in bad enough shape that pop-riveting in a patch isn't going to cut it.

That site I linked sells factory parts, so they just have the full pan. The replacement pans can be found at quadratec.com or rockauto.com. http://www.quadratec.com/products/pr...X0X,72608.8X0X

For the rockauto pans, you'll have to search for a year prior to 1995 to find the floor pans under the body-exterior section. I'm not sure why rockauto doesn't list the pans for all years, it's not like they changed, ever.

good luck!

Khyren

I recently pulled my diver's seat apart because it was REALLY bad.Had to go get a new seat from a ZJ so I could swap out the bottom seat frame. Took about 45 minutes total working on it and couldn't be happier because my seat is now stationary.

Cherokee_of_Tennessee

Yeah, zombie thread I know, but I am just now getting the time and money to fix my floor pans.


Questions:
1. Is it better to cut out the entire old floor pan that will be replaced, or just the rusted spots when I weld in the the new floor pan?
2. Will it be ok if I pop-rivet the new floor pan to hold it in place, seal it with some liquid nails, and then have a welding shop weld it up for structural integrity? or will the welding process burn off the liquid nails and start a fire?


Many thanks in advance for the answers.

CCKen

You do good work mate. Thanks for sharing.

I had a busted drivers seat that I had to pop rivet, then weld, back together.

Definately a SAFETY issue.

foreveryoung001

Others may weigh in with different opinions, but here's my take... and keep in mind, I am not a professional, or all that experienced with jeeps.

1: Any time you put new metal over old, you should cut out as much of the old as you can, while still leaving a small overlap to attach new metal to. The reason behind this.... Unless you have surefire way to prevent moisture from getting in there, you are just creating a breeding ground for more more rust.

2: If pop rivets are all that is available, then I would prefer those over liquid nails, but welding new metal in, is always my first preferred method. With that said, the '96 xj I bought had the floor rusted away down both sides, and the PO had pop riveted some panels in there as the "fix". When I tried to remove them, to fix it correctly, they were a major pain in the butt to get out. Since they were so difficult to remove, I'd say they were secured in there very well, and if he had done the whole floor that way, rather than a little patchwork, I may have just left well enough alone.

spy1988

nvm

Cherokee_of_Tennessee

So i finally got over to the local welding shop and had the floor pans i ordered from Quadratec welded in. I was not happy with the craftsmanship at all. All the guy did was drop the pan in on top of the rusted metal, tac weld about every two inches around the edge, and called it good. NOT what i wanted for my $200. Oh well, live and learn. Won't go to that place again. But hey, at least I'm not dragging my toe nails in the mud any more. So my plan is to raise it up at the MWR Auto Skills Center DIY garage here on post and cut out all the rusted metal, then squirt some seam sealer in the cracks to make it water tight and keep out the cancerous rust causing moisture. Anybody else got a better idea? Short of cutting the entire thing out and having someone else do it right?

93civEJ1

anyone know where we can currently order these seat supports??

JeepStephie99

As in the square mounts that go from side to side? If so just use some square tubing. It's what mines made out of.