So a couple months ago I was looking for new front seats for my 96 XJ and found out Grand Cherokee seats from certain years will fit correctly. So today, before going and finding some new seats, I thought I'd give a shot at removing them since the bolts were pretty rusty. All went pretty smoothly and then I decided I'd give a shot at switching the seats (left to the right and vice versa).

Reason I want to change my seats and tried switching them is because the previous owner was a bit overweight and my driver seat makes me lean to the left when I'm driving. First of all it's annoying because it's not as comfortable as the other seats but also because in the long term, it makes my back hurts.

So basically I found out I can't really switch them, even after trying and switching the rails. So my question is simply, is there still a way this can be achieved, or should I just forget about it and wait till I go get new seats? The passenger side just doesn't fit in the bolts while the driver one does, but it is then impossible to close the door / adjust the seat.

Thanks!

 

just swap out new seats out of same yr cherokee or similair seat. Save u headache and guess work, and its direct fitment.

 

Yeah that's what I figured out. If I don't get any suggestions I'll just forget about it. Thing is, I won't go look for new seats soon, so it would've been a nice temporary fix.

 

My drivers seat did the same thing, I bought some flat polyfill from Wal-Mart for $5 and stuffed it up under the seat covering to fill in the lean.

I can't tell it's there, it feels as good as the passenger side.

 

Just so you know seats can be completely disassembled and bent back can be replaced then reinstall padding and covers..

 

You didn't say if the seat frame/mounting brackets were bent, or if it's leaning because the cushion has gone flat.

It would take a hefty guy to bend those brackets.

 

I had a lean in my driver's seat and finally figured out what was causing it after removing the covers and cushions. It had a few broken welds. A buddy welded them back and now good as new.

I didn't look at the original date of this post....sorry.

 

In my 1996 XJ driver's seat all of the metal support and stuff started breaking around 2007 or earlier. I think my top weight ever has been about 250, usually around 230 or less.

Found a pretty good leather electric seat from a 1999 (I think) GC. Unbolted the four 13mm(?) flanged nuts from under it (keep those) and left the rails and electric stuff in the GC. Could not find the a connector between the side switches and the electric gear body, so had to cut the wires.

When I removed the old seat, every weld in it was broken and it looked like it was in a fatal accident. The back laid all the way back. Once one bit started breaking years ago, the rest joined in. The holes for the mounting studs and nuts were ripped wide open. The seat could come right out without removing any nuts.

Those four mounting holes line up perfect on the 1996 XJ manual rail. The trick is getting them all to line up. The center of gravity will fight you all the way. The nuts from the GC have more flange too. I added the largest fender washers that would fit (two per stud) on the nut side of the rail and used the GC nuts instead of the XJ nuts.

All is well for now. Need to check on occasion that the nuts have not backed off.

 

Report for flogging in the morning!