Hello,
I'm new to this Forum and a new Cherokee owner. I just bought a right hand drive 1996 Sport for my work at the Post Office. It came to me with a partially broken down drivers seat. Now this is the RIGHT side seat, since the truck is Right Hand Drive. Manual seats also. I have been reading posts on here and another site about switching the left seat for the right, so I gave it a try today. Well ... no luck. I removed both seats from the floor, exchanged lower brackets left side to right side, and tried to install the old left seat onto the right side. No Good ... the seat lower frames are actually welded together with offsets to only be able to install them in the one factory position ... There is a LEFT and a RIGHT seat. I thought I had read that the seats were exactly the same, and you only had to change the lower slider brackets to be able to switch them .... WRONG. Not on my 1996 with Manual seats. Can anybody confirm that I have attempted this correctly, and can confirm that you CANNOT switch left to right on a 1996 Sport with manual seats?

Thanks for your help.
Fasts96xj

 

Left and right seats are not interchangeable on any XJ. However, you can get the right seat out of any XJ 1984-2001, MJ 1986-1992, or ZJ 1993-1998.

 

I used seats from the ZJ Grand Cherokee. $29 each at Pick-N-Pull salvage yard. Came with the sliders which I did not use, sold them for $25 each.
Direct bolt on to stock seat sliders/rails and offset like you already found out. More comfortable than the stock 1996 seats.

 

Dont WJ seats swap over too?

 

I'm unsure, haven't tried or heard of it being done.

 

Just swap the cushions...............

 

I would love to get lucky enough to find zj seats

 

I find them all the time. Problem is douchebags leave the doors open and nature's taken a **** all over them for months.

 

That's absolutely right. I could only find one good seat at a time and they are not a matching set, but close enough.

 

When i get my house next week, will drive to Pa to pick n pulls. Will finally know the fun people have since NY its just ask n buy

 

Pick-n-Pull does not have locations in PA but I'm sure there's something similar.
I suggest the YellowPages for your area, call up salvage yards and ask how many grand cherokees are on the lot.
And try this for used parts; http://car-part.com/
Then drive.

 

wj seats swap in also but not great for tall people

 

Could of swore i heard of pick n pulls in PA. As for NY, that what i usually do. Several of the better yards i go to, i check their inventory online then call to confirm they have it. Hence the ask-n-buy. More of the hands off approach

 

I thought the OP just wanted to swap seats from side to side because one was worn out. Am I missing something?

 

I believe that is what he wants to do. Figured maybe upgrade if he needs to replace them anyways