putting in a factory power seat need help

Ok I have a 97 XJ Country (Limited) that came with everything except leather seats and a power driver seat. I found a guy at the junkyard recently pulling a seat out of a 97+ XJ with a power seat base and I told him how jealous I was and he said he would sell me the power seat base if I traded him the manual seat base out of mine since he didn't need the power seat base.

My question is will the connector be there for me the plug in the power seat and I just add a fuse to the empty spot in the fuse panel? Or am I going to need to run a power wire from a constant 12v source and secure a ground?

You may or may not have the needed wires under the carpet. It will be about the same work to just run a fused wire with 12 volts constant (or switched with a relay) from the battery, as it will be to pull up the carpet and then find nothing.

When I added the power seat to my 2000 the wiring was there up to under the passenger seat (00/01's where available with power on both sides). I snipped the vehicle side plug off the harness and just made my own up to drivers seat. Installed the fuse in the DPC (on the passenger side foot well) and was good to go. Also when I snagged my power slider I also grabbed the plug from the vehicle side off the donor as well. Was pretty simple really. Keep in mind if you trade with this fella you will also need to trade the switch panel on the side of the seat. Also you will find the power seat goes back further giving you more leg room as well.

My '96 Country had the seat power wire for the driver's side with the harness that fed the lights in the console. I have a power base from a '95 Country, and it plugged right in, Now I have power leather '95 ZJ Limited Buckets (at least the driver's seat). I've never seen power on the right, not since the early '90s XJ Limited. I also did a power driver's seat in my '92, but had to run a new wire.

Well I got lucky as hell! My Jeep is, like I said, a Country or "Limited" model so the wiring harness for the Jeep should have been prepped at the factory to receive every option available and it was! I pulled the seat and lifted the carpet and there it was the wire for the power seat! It was just an empty plug sitting there. The power seat base I acquired from a local guy managed to cut the wire after the connector so it still had both sides of the connector and some wire left to splice in as the connectors were different probably since it was from a different year. I cut my old plug and spliced in the new one and voila! I tested the wires before I went through all of this to make sure they had power and my volt meter read a solid 12.43 volts. One thing that confused me though was when I checked my owners manual to see which fuse belonged to the seat in case I needed to put one in, it didn't list a fuse for the seat. Makes me wonder if it just runs to a constant un-fused source. Either way it works and I love having it! This was one of two options that this Jeep did not come with and now when I re-do my seats and put in leather this Jeep will be fully optioned!

Thanks for all the info you guys were a big help for me to know where to start looking for the wires.

No unfused wires. It just isn't listed, as most fuses will run more than one thing. Just for grins, what is the leather coming out of? I think the leather from '95 on is a little bland. I've got '95 ZJ buckets, and am re-upholstering the back seat to match. A little different...

I am planning on having a local upholsterer recover the seats with a custom leather pattern. I like the lines but I am going to go with a darker brown tan overall and a matched tan inserts to match the factory tan interior. I have been thinking about this for a while and that is what I have come up with. Since tan is the more rare color of the two offered I have not been able to track down a good set of used leather seats. I looked into pre-made replacement covers from katzkin and others the like and the cost was around $800 and up and that was for one solid color. This guy quoted me $800 with the custom colors and that includes repairing the foam in my front seats as they, especially the driver seat, are pretty worn out. I saw some of his work from other things he was working on at the time so I trust that it will be money well spent. I looked into the Grand Cherokee seat idea but I didn't like the look of many of the GC seats I feel like they look out of place. I know GC seats are a way cheaper route to go but I am willing to save up and spend the extra money to do something custom and different.