ZJ seat install, front and rear. Write-up and pics.

Nice right up. I was trying to decide what seats to swap in the front since mine is my DD at least in the winter and now I know I'm going to my friends junkyard and pulling some ZJ seats. I'm curious, if I get rails from a 95 or newer XJ will that make this a direct bolt in for my 94 XJ or is the truck mounting side of the rails different between 94 and 95? Just curious what I should all look for when I go to the yard.

With the rear seat do you just loose head room or do you loose leg room too? I'd love to swap both but my kids are still little and in bulky car seats so they already don't have much room between their car seats and the front seats.

Thanks for this write up.

Early and later floor pans.
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showpost.php?p=243702056&postcount=96

There's a thread showing simple solutions for that around here somewhere; I've got a bunch of threads bookmarked, but not that particular thread. Search a bit and you should find it.

edit- Google search using these terms: late early seat swap site:naxja.org

Thanks. I have no problem fabbing something up to make it work I was just curious if it was worth the effort to pull some newer XJ rails and it looks like there is no point to do that.

The seats are in and they're great. The only thing I had to trouble shoot was the driver's seat would not operate until I swapped in the memory box from the Grand Cherokee tracks.

A coupla questions, please:

- The seats used were from a '97 ZJ. Is there a given range of model years
that are the same/will swap in the same?

- Higher resultant seat position was mentioned...and seemed to reference ONLY
the rears, and NOT the fronts... Is that correct? i.e. the front seats come out
at the same height position as originals....??


Thanks.

hubs97xj said:

Early and later floor pans.
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showpost.php?p=243702056&postcount=96

There's a thread showing simple solutions for that around here somewhere; I've got a bunch of threads bookmarked, but not that particular thread. Search a bit and you should find it.

edit- Google search using these terms: late early seat swap site:naxja.org

Click to expand...

Thanks, that helps a lot!
I was worried they had changed the whole floor pan or something. Plenty of easy fixes for the differences shown.

XpedientJ said:

A coupla questions, please:

- The seats used were from a '97 ZJ. Is there a given range of model years
that are the same/will swap in the same?

- Higher resultant seat position was mentioned...and seemed to reference ONLY
the rears, and NOT the fronts... Is that correct? i.e. the front seats come out
at the same height position as originals....??


Thanks.

Click to expand...

Both the fronts and the rears sit higher. A friend of mine had a solutions: take the seat bracketa, cut em down and reweld them. Sure worked out! I'll be doing the same thing.

So whats up with the false floor ? Doesnt look deep enough to keep much hidden .

muddypunk said:

So whats up with the false floor ? Doesnt look deep enough to keep much hidden .

Click to expand...

Looks like stereo equipment for the most part. I'll be he can easily fit tools, tow strap, etc. I like the look of that hidden floor!

I got me some seats now too, gonna take sum pics of install.

Do the front seats sit higher or lower than stock? I'm 6'8", and I've been looking for a way to gain a few more inches of headroom...

sumofatguy said:

Do the front seats sit higher or lower than stock? I'm 6'8", and I've been looking for a way to gain a few more inches of headroom...

Click to expand...

Slightly higher

This is a GREAT write-up! Thank you so much!

This is one project for my XJ that my wife is even excited about! Because, in case you all are keeping track at home, stock XJ back seats don't have headrests. And, if you're like me, and you sometimes have to drive your kids around in your XJ, "the rules" say you gotta have headrests until the little brats are . . . oh . . . what are they saying today? 18? Something like that. SO, if you want to have kids in the back that are too big for infant seats, but not big enough to sit up front . . . guess what. You're out of compliance with the letter of the law (at least where I live) if you don't have headrests for them.

I haven't completed it yet (though I picked up my ZJ seat(s) yesterday), but this mod seems A LOT easier for someone like me than another one I've seen where you can weld ZJ headrests into your stock XJ seat. Me no weld. : ( But me can grind, screw, drill, hacksaw and/or bolt with the best of 'em. So here we go.

My kids are going to be soooooo excited! (Not really. But they will arguably be slightly less prone to neck injury in the unfortunate event of a roadway collision.)

As an added bonus, this scores me wife points! : )

I cut a inch out of the factory seat sliders and everything has worked perfectly so far. But mine is a 93 so I've also had to weld a forward seat mount in. Pictures coming soon.... hopefully

I'm reviving this thread in hopes to get some viewable pictures, I found a set of seats but photobucket has turned all douche baggy with this 3rd party imaging thing. I just comprehend better with pictures an instructions and I want to do this in my 93 xj

Wow! I haven’t been here in three years...time flies...my ‘96 crapped out on me- wouldn’t idle hardly at all and shook and clanked if it did. A week at a Jeep specialist shop and $700 in labor later, and 3 different Jeep mechanics couldn’t figure it out. So, it got sold for the body parts to another XJ’r.

Good luck getting some pictures. These seem to be going extinct. The last one I saw was Saturday, and it was on the back of a flatbed wrecker!

Can't believe it's been 7 years since I did this install. Glad that it's still providing useful info! Sorry the original pictures are gone, I searched my HD and couldn't find them so they're probably lost in a photobucket account I don't remember the login to. Anyways, you're lucky I will never get rid of my XJ so I took some quick pics as I was running out the door. Let me know if you need more detailed photos, but I think you'll get the jist of the install through these pics.

https://imgur.com/a/0qG87

I have some after pictures in my build thread.

Didn’t take much during the install.

I used this thread for the original thought processes.


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This is incredible and extremely helpful. I have been looking all over the internet for this seat swap. This is by far the best site for Jeep XJ’s. Thanks so much for posting this information.

Revival! I just did my first search for the topic this morning. Thinking of doing the rear seatback only, for the headrests. I've read it's plug 'n play but sounds here like a new hole or two might be needed behind the rear seat?

Have access to a ZJ in cloth but not sure of condition or whether power.