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Bucket Seat Back Lever Stuck


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I'm assuming you've tried pulling harder? Mine are pretty stiff. I'd try taking the levers off to see if there was anything sticking the recline mechanism in place. I don't think you can get to the guts of the recline mechanism without taking the cover and foam off, but it's worth a shot.

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I assume the lever pulls upward to unlock and move the seat back? I've pulled the crap out of them but didn't want to break anything. 

 

This thread sounds like I'm an idiot, but I've never used these levers before since I'm the only driver and never tried to adjust the seat back.   :dunce:

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Well, that was pretty painless. Pulled the plastic lever off, put a wrench on the rectangular shaft and slowly rocked it back and forth until the linkage broke free internally. Then used a can of WD40 Dry Lube with a long extension on the nozzle and douched down the control rod bushings across the seat back. Can lift the lever and adjust the seat back now with one finger. Both sides too. Wish they were all this easy.     :thumbsup:

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Sounds like you got it done Don.  I have a pass bucket seat from a 1984-86ish 2 dr XJ.  It's already stripped down so I snapped some pics.

 

Glad to hear it was so easy, the ones in my XJ are stiff too.  They have the "rocking" bases so I haven't felt the need to mess with it.

 

 

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Sounds like you fixed the problem.

 

Side: When I first swapped the bench for buckets I unknowingly got some rocker bases.  I am not a BIG guy.  Like 5'11" 185#  The rockers were intolerable.  I felt like Herman Munster in a Miata with the top up !!

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Sounds like you fixed the problem.

 

Side: When I first swapped the bench for buckets I unknowingly got some rocker bases.  I am not a BIG guy.  Like 5'11" 185#  The rockers were intolerable.  I felt like Herman Munster in a Miata with the top up !!

 

I've meant to do a write up on the rocker bases but have many projects in front of it.  IIRC, the rocker assembly/tracks are taller, and the XJ mounting bases/brackets are correspondingly shorter to make up for it.  The rocker bases also use their own specific plastic trim.  A guy could swap the tracks/rockers onto MJ bases, but they would be to tall.  There may have even been a left/right offset to account for also, but it's been to long since I looked at them to remember.  

 

Anythings possible, and it just might be worth it, since the bases pivot, you can actually get into a "reclined" position without the seat back/headrest going to far back.  I think they would be great in an MJ if done correctly.

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Sounds like you fixed the problem.

 

Side: When I first swapped the bench for buckets I unknowingly got some rocker bases.  I am not a BIG guy.  Like 5'11" 185#  The rockers were intolerable.  I felt like Herman Munster in a Miata with the top up !!

 

I've meant to do a write up on the rocker bases but have many projects in front of it.  IIRC, the rocker assembly/tracks are taller, and the XJ mounting bases/brackets are correspondingly shorter to make up for it.  The rocker bases also use their own specific plastic trim.  A guy could swap the tracks/rockers onto MJ bases, but they would be to tall.  There may have even been a left/right offset to account for also, but it's been to long since I looked at them to remember.  

 

Anythings possible, and it just might be worth it, since the bases pivot, you can actually get into a "reclined" position without the seat back/headrest going to far back.  I think they would be great in an MJ if done correctly.

 

I'd love to see your writeup when you can get to it. I can see no problem getting them low enough; the problem would be the front-to-back real estate. I'm a hair over 6' but most of that is legs, so I have to have the seat way back so my knees don't hit the steering wheel. This means the seat back has to be tilted forward too much. A tilt column would mostly fix that, but I haven't been able to find one with column shift, which I want to keep.

 

Anyhow, I'd like to get a couple of the rocker bases to play with.  :yes:

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I had the XJ rockers in my MJ (on my stock MJ bench floor brackets).  I had to have the bases rocked almost the whole way backward to get in or out, because of the limited space between the seat bottom and the steering wheel.  Once I got in and my leg under/across the wheel, I could then rock the base forward to a more comfortable seating position.  It was kind of a PITA.

 

The seat back also hit the back of the cab, too.

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Don,

 

Nice write up.  What about putting it in the DIY section?  Most, if not all, the Comanche/Cherokee bucket seats I tried had the same tilt lever sticking problem.

 

Schardein,

 

I would also like to know what your find with the rocker seats.  Especially the part about a lower pedestal?

 

Funny thing is that I have not had that issue with a couple of pairs of Grand Cherokee seats that I have used in the Comanche.  I seem to be able to better adjust the seat back recline and have more leg room with the Grand Cherokee seats. Installed the fold forward mechanism from the 2 door Cherokee/Comanche buckets on the GC seats and I am happy (for now).

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We all know XJ seat bases don't work in an MJ?  I am guessing that those who are mounting the rocker seats in their MJs are drilling out the rivets, removing the seat tracks/rocker assembly, and bolting them to the MJ seat bases?  If so, they would be sitting higher.  Exactly how much I would have to calculate, but obvious from the comments, high enough to be unusable.  I do have a pair of rocker bases in my workshop.  I just have a lot going on at work and projects at home right now.  Eventually I will get to it.

 

If one could modify the MJ bases to accept the rocker style tracks at the correct height, I think it would work.  Would it be with the effort? I don't know.  It would require "sectioning" some height out of the MJ seat bases, I guess by cutting and then welding them back together at the correct height.  I've got some standard XJ bases, so I could measure the difference, and then use that number to take out of the MJ bases.  Should end up with the seats still sitting at the factory height. 

 

Not sure if that makes sense.

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Are your seats actual MJ buckets or did you have to modify XJ (or another vehicle) buckets.  I ask because my bud had to modify his XJ buckets to fold forward and in doing so, screwed up the recline option.

 

How did he mod them to fold forwards?  I'm having no luck finding early 2dr seats and want to mod mine.

 

 

 

I did swap a rocker seat into my old MJ with the MJ brackets, and it sat high/goofy. I don't know if the XJ brackets for them are equally shorter than normal XJ brackets, I have a feeling the front one might have been even shorter than the back one.  I suppose I could look at the ones in my XJ and the spare seats I have, I might be able to tell.  Either way, I wound up raising the back bracket when I had them in my MJ, so the seat just sat high in general, it was nice for visibility while wheeling, but it felt odd because of the loss of headroom.

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I took a look at the idea of rocker seat bases a while ago since I was flirting with the idea of doing exactly that. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like you could cut enough height from the MJ seat pedestals to make up for the added height of the rocker mechanism, even if you cut the rear legs down completely. The MJ seat pedestals are about the height of the XJ pedestals with rocker seats, and the non-rocker XJ pedestals are much taller. There's probably enough height in the front, but the rear legs of the MJ seat pedestals are very short due to the slope of the MJ's floor.

 

You might get the seat far enough down that it would be bearable, but it will still be taller than stock. I decided not to pursue it any further since I like the stock driving position and didn't want to sit any higher. I'll be going to a junkyard that to my knowledge has a few of the 80s XJs with rocker seats. If I can remember I'll get some measurements.

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I haven't been on this forum for a while.  I had modified XJ seat bases and keep the rockers.  After much work the slope of the floor requires the seat to be rocked all the way forward and the seats still sit high.  I ended up cutting the rockers off and mounted those directly to the MJ bench base with some extra metal welded on.  A search may produce some photos.  The time frame should be around 2006.

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