ZJ electric seat to XJ manual seat write up

**COLOUXJ** · 01-19-2010, 06:52 PM

Alright guys ive seen many write ups on this swap but this one is a little different. I was talking to a guy who put the manual recline in his WJ seats, but the write up was kind of lacking and did not have many pictures. I like Pics when im doing something so heres my write up for swapping the ZJ Seats into the XJ.

This write up will render the electric recline useless. The motor on my drivers side seat was toast anyway that is one reason i did the swap. There is some additional info on still keeping the motor in the post below.

The leather seats came from a 98 limited.

The start of the write up is only going to be the front for now as i have not done the rear bench yet but that is to come in the near future.

This will be a step by step write up of what I did.

ZJ 2 XJ SEAT SWAP

1) remove the seats from the donor vehicle

It is easiest to do remove the bolts that are going to the floor, i had to bend and twist into some unconfortable positions to get the back bolts.

If you can i would recline the front seats as far back as possible. This will help you farther down the line.

2) remove the seat completely from the rails that have the motors attached.

It should look like this. Just with the leather seats not the cloth as shown.

3) take the plastic cover off of the side to expose the motor for recline.

4) Remove all the wiring, you can cut it all off or unplug it like i did just to make it clean.

this is where if the seat is reclined all the way it will help out a ton and you can skip to step 10.

if the seat is not reclined all the way back one of the bolts is blocked to remove it, the only way i figured out to make it so the seat goes back is to do a demolition. This will make the mechanical seat inoperable. So if you want to keep the seat mechanism you will have to figure something else out.

here is the bolt after i have done the following steps.

6) there is one screw that is silver on the electric motor that you can get to. Take it out.

7) now grab the motor and twist and pull till the whole thing breaks off. Make sure that the screw that is attached to it comes out as well.

8) then there is a spring that needs to be removed it is big and white. use a screw driver to lift it off the little peg that it is connected to.

you can see the peg in the middle.

9) next you need to release the gears from keeping the seat locked into its current position. take a big screw driver and a big hammer and hit where the metal plate and the plastic piece and connected. once the screw driver is a little bit aim it down and start hitting hard. eventually a screw piece should come out after messing with it for a little bit.

The screw looks like this.

10) once the screw is out recline the seat as far as possible and it should make the bolt easy to access. also remove the forward most bolt on the bracket.

11)now bent the seat all the way forward, like folding it in half and undo the zipper, it helps if you use a paper clip.

12) pull the fabric up until you reveal the two bolts shown below.

13) take those off and the the mechanism should be free.

14)take out the seats from your xj, you might want to vacuum around the base as its hard to get to some spots that you cant get to with them in. mine had dirt all over the place

15) repeat the above steps with your seats to get the manual bracket off.

16) on the leather seats you need to cut the seat to open up one of the bolt holes for the manual seats. here is a pic of it done.

17)bolt the top two bolts on to the back of the seat. It was the last two that you took off in the dismantling process.

18) fold the seat like this.

19) and zip the zipper back up. If you do not do this before bolting to the bottom it will be almost impossible to zip it back up. (ask me how i know)

20) bolt the two bolts remaining back on.

21) reinstall the cover from the manual seat, the screws should line up perfectly with no modifications needed.

22) install the manual rails on the new to you leather seats.

22) install the seats back in to the Jeep and enjoy!

now for my questions.

there is a wire on the manual seats that is just on the drivers side, i did not see this when taking it out and pulled the wires out of the connectors. It goes into the seat belt

What is this wire?

it did not set off the seat belt light or the air bag light. is it something that needs to be fixed?

This was my first write up. Let me know what you guys think.

hubs97xj · 01-19-2010, 07:20 PM

That wire at the belt is for the seatbelt dinger.

At the main wiring connectors on the ZJ seats, if you put 12V on the red wire, and ground the black, the power recline and lumbar functions work. No need to wreck the power gear unless you just don't want it. That's all the modification needed.

I ran the ground to one of the old airbag module mounting studs under the driver's seat, and ran the power wire to the fuse panel. Maybe 10' of wire, a handful of terminals, a fuse holder, and some heatshrink tubing. Works great, easy to install/remove (leather's a bit cold in the winter. I put my stock seats back in).

Also, if you need the seat reclined when they're not in the vehicle, you can make some jumper wires, and connect them between the battery/charger/old PC power supply and the terminals for the motor (seen here at the bottom of the motor- the black one- white is for the "memory" function, I think). Again, you don't need to destroy the seat unless you just want to.

**COLOUXJ** · 01-19-2010, 07:33 PM

thanks for the addition, i wanted to just keep the manual partly because i like it better and also the drivers side motors were fried and did not work.

hubs97xj · 01-19-2010, 07:51 PM

Ah, well there you go. I see seat threads pop up repeatedly on numerous forums- someone who hasn't done it yet will appreciate the info/effort.

**koolaid5** · 01-30-2010, 02:06 AM

Nice write up. I need one for WJ seats into a '92 XJ though

Do you want to come do it for me, so you can do another write up?

**COLOUXJ** · 01-30-2010, 07:52 AM

from what i have heard the WJ seats are almost identical, but i believe there might be one bolt missing to do the manual seat swap and all you have to do is drill it.

Next time i go to the junkyard i will try to get some pics and ad it.

**koolaid5** · 01-30-2010, 01:35 PM

Yeah, but with my '92 its not a direct bolt in, so I'll have to add some angle iron to the floor for the front front seat mounts or something. I'll figure it out. I'm not at that point yet. The floor pans were ordered last night, so I still have to get rid of the rust, put in new metal, and THEN get the seat mounting worked out. I'm just doing my initial research right now

Pacifier · 02-18-2010, 08:09 AM

What did you do for the back seat?

L8RBRA · 04-30-2010, 07:20 AM

I wonder if the WJ seat is similar in construction to the ZJ as far as the recline mechanism. I guess i will find out soon enough.

Medic22 · 04-30-2010, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by koolaid5

Yeah, but with my '92 its not a direct bolt in, so I'll have to add some angle iron to the floor for the front front seat mounts or something. I'll figure it out. I'm not at that point yet. The floor pans were ordered last night, so I still have to get rid of the rust, put in new metal, and THEN get the seat mounting worked out. I'm just doing my initial research right now

When you're replacing the floorboards, why not replace them along with the 97+ seat rails?

**koolaid5** · 04-30-2010, 12:46 PM

I guess if I had some 97+ seat rails I could do that. I was just going to make my own mount though. I'm only replacing the passenger's side floor.

L8RBRA · 05-01-2010, 03:45 AM

Wouldn't have done the swap without this write up. Even though i had to do a few things different, It still turned out great.

Thanks. Its like my xj is a whole different rig with the comfy leather seats!

**COLOUXJ** · 05-01-2010, 11:07 AM

Did you put in ZJ or WJ seats?

**Apostle** · 05-01-2010, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by koolaid5

I guess if I had some 97+ seat rails I could do that. I was just going to make my own mount though. I'm only replacing the passenger's side floor.

the rear holes may line up, but if i were you instead of getting rails for a XJ, get the rails for the ZJ and make those fit. more grands on in the junkyards then xj so seats would be easier to come by.

also, can use 1/4" angle iron for the front rail. the zj/xj/wj seat rails have a downward facing tab mount on front

**koolaid5** · 05-01-2010, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apostle

the rear holes may line up, but if i were you instead of getting rails for a XJ, get the rails for the ZJ and make those fit. more grands on in the junkyards then xj so seats would be easier to come by.

also, can use 1/4" angle iron for the front rail. the zj/xj/wj seat rails have a downward facing tab mount on front

I'm not 100% sure what you're saying. I have the full WJ seats with rails and all. For the front mounts......that's what I was talking about further up when I said about welding or bolting in some angle iron to mount them to. If the holes anywhere else don't line up I'm just drilling new holes for the mounts. I'll seal up any extra holes and spray bedliner over them.