So bought a 01' XJ Limited the other day and am currently in the "tear down and see what needs fixed" mode. Amongst many things, the seats were not functioning properly and they went up but never back down in some areas (bummer). I took both seats out and disassembled the motors. Initially I only found one stripped worm gear but should have looked closer as I later (today) realized two more had gears with cracks in them and one motor was pretty weak, bringing the grand total to 3 bad worm gears and one suspect motor.

Does anyone know what the compatibility is for XJ vertical motors and worm gears? I can get all I need from twomenonegarage for $210 but was hoping a junk yard might contain what I need for a far bit less. Unfortunately, XJs with powered seats are not always easy to find so are there any other vehicles.. say ZJs that would work for this application? I'm pretty sure they will but wanted to see if anyone had experience with that before driving an hour to my local junk yard.

It's interesting as the P/N on my motors are 5709790 and those are the same listed as vertical seat motors for 99-04 ZJs here:
http://www.2men1garage.net/Jeep-Gran...004-Parts.html

The other thought is to spend the $100ish dollars to buy the parts to convert them to manual seats so I don't worry about this mess again. Then I got to get my arm all sore from moving the seat like a caveman .

Thanks!

I ordered I repair kit from ebay and the gears are made of brass not plastic , all you do is install the new gear on the shaft and pin it to the shaft . The kit comes with the drill you need to pin it in place . I fixed both front seats and it works like new now .

Thanks! I’ve seen those but some of the reviews made it sound like the APWR instal wasn’t all that straightforward (e.g. machine shop trip). I see that Vanos makes them too and if it’s anything like the vanos seals they make I would imagine they’re quality. Do you remember who you bought from?

Ya I found the seller I got mine from
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Two-1996-20...item1ca81ef59f
All I did is removed the plastic gear and installed the new gear , I didn't have any problems .

Awesome! Might give this a go, sounds like a more permanent fix.

I have power seats in that I put in my '00 XJ. I was able to score a 3 driver's sides and 2 passengers sides. All in various conditions. I determined what worked and what did not and was able to piece together two working bases.
Looking at shots on ebay on want to say they might. I mean the ones from WJ's listed on Ebay look very similar. But.....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1999-2004-J...temCondition=4

I was aware of the repair kits that mchulse posted but have never seen these before. Good to know.

If you do this you should do a quick write up.

Couple shots of my refreshed bases.

Wow, looks great! Yeah the ZJ seats you posted from ebay look exactly like what I pulled out of the XJ. I'll certainly do a write up if I decide to take on the brass fitting as I've heard you have to lathe the hard edge of the brass gear down to make it fit properly but Tech sounds like that wasn't necessary. I also found these while poking around the interwebs last night:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GM-Truck-Br...frcectupt=true

Comes with a brass spur and worm gear; it says it's compatible with the motors I pulled but I might email them just to double check before pulling the trigger. I'm starting to get the feeling that the plastic gear (not the full assembly) is the same for many cars across many manufacturers. I'll update once I figure out how I'm going to proceed on this one.

Thank you. I spent a little time on them.
That link is from a WJ not a ZJ. And one of the things I think might matter is that is a no memory one.
That first think with the brass gear was new to me and my first thought was I wish the little gear was part of that set up.
I would be real curious about the Ebay one you found with both.
My seats work and I still have some extra parts in case they stop working. So I might be able to fix them with what I have on hand if and when.
Also I still have my manual seat bases if push comes to shove.
My point is trying these is on you. LOL.
I am going to keep an eye out for your write up.

Ha! No doubt, I usually don't like to be the one figuring it out for everyone as I typically find all the wrong ways to do it along the way. Should make for a good write up as long as I can figure out how to add images here (manage attachments seems to be disabled for my Mac)

I have done a couple write ups for things. Nothing ground breaking. More a my experience in doing it thing. A couple begin with "Right or wrong this is what I did". LOL.

Well just got the brass gears in from Gruvenparts after confirming on Friday they will work for my application (5709790). I can confirm that these are not a plug and play option. As others have suggested, the gears are too thick and would need lathed to fit the housing. Well... guess I’ll just return these and buy some new plastic gears. I’m sure you could make them work if you were willing to put in more money with a machine shop but they are already so expensive that’s not a great option.

Damn and I had high hopes for this.
Which one are we talking about?
This one?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/123079685535

or this one?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GM-Truck-Br...frcectupt=true

This one looks to be a little smaller than the one I got in so it might fit.Tech confirmed it worked for them.

This was the one I got in yesterday and confirmed it was too large to sit in the gear housing properly. The brass worm gear would have worked well though.. too bad they don't sell the seperately. Hoping they don't charge me a 25% restocking fee...

Well now I can take that off my Ebay watch list anyway.

Wow I guess I got lucky with the ones I ordered