Do 97+ frames bolt to MJ brackets?

[phenryiv1]

I am sure that this info is here somewhere, but searching did not help me out.

 

I found an XJ (97+) with buckets. The seats are trashed, but I could probably get them for next to nothing, and there is good seat upholstry on other XJ at the yard that I could grab to recover the 97+ 2dr frames.

 

So is the slider arrangement compatible on the 97+ to bolt to MJ floor brackets?

[Wildman]

The DIY that mfpdm wrote up is Here

 

You should find the info you need in that ;)

 

And This was posted just last week.

[jpnjim]

I think that linked topic only covers early seats.

 

I put 2001 seats in my MJ,

You have to grab the floor bracket, since they mount directly to that in the front.

(marked 'take' in this pic:

 

Drill out the spotwelds, and weld to your floor.

Only problem in an MY is there's already a bracket on the floor running the length of the 'frame'.

 

I removed that bracket, when I did my floors (It kinda removed itself), the MJ support bracket is a moisture/rust magnet anyway.

 

Here's a pic of the late model XJ seat bracket on my passenger side floor

(cut section is for a crawler box, I ended up not doing :doh: , ignore that. :D )

 

I set that one at the stock (late model XJ) setback.

Late model XJ's have less leg room than the older ones, so I set the bracket on the drivers side back 2-3 inches from the stock position.

I don't have any pics of the drivers side on Photobucket right now, I'll try to post some later.

 

 

So, for late model seats:

1) Get late model floor bracket

2) cut, or slot either the XJ bracket, the MJ bracket already on the floor, or remove MJ bracket all together.

3) weld it in

4) think about setting atleast the drivers side bracket farther back than it was in the XJ

5) the MJ rug's not gonna fit so great over this new hump (late model XJ rug will fit, but you'll have to move it back if you moved the bracket back) < I slit the late model rug in half, under the console, so I could keep the passenger side in the stock position, and move the drivers side rug backwards.

5) get 2 door seats, or you'll have to modify the 4dr seats to fold forward (I modified my 4dr pass seat to flip, but there's no latch to secure it).

6) FWIW, late model MJ buckets don't sit up as absurdly high as early XJ buckets, with the XJ brackets.

 

I think that's it. :D

[jpnjim]

I don't have any pics of the drivers side on Photobucket right now, I'll try to post some later.

 

I guess I never took any pics of the completed DS floor,

Basically I welded in the chunk of 2001 XJ floor shown in the first pic, and moved the bracket back 2-3 inches.

Here's a couple pics of the seats in place:

 

 

FWIW, the seats are OK, but have the same seats in my DD 97 XJ,

already wore a hole in the ft left corner (@62k miles), and had to weld the seat frame back together once (frame broke right in half, had to totally disassemble the seat to weld it back together).

[phenryiv1]

^^^^^^^^^^^

 

So you used the XJ base/brackets, right?

 

I was hoping to use the XJ rails/sliders and mount them to MJ floor brackets.

 

Any hope of doing this?

[jpnjim]

The front of the seat has a forward facing bolt hole, that has to mount to a forward facing bracket.

The left hand bolt is sitting in the bracket in this pic:

(and that washer is laying on the floor infront of the other hole)

 

The seat bolts to that location,

so, unless you made a 90 degree bracket to make the mounting point face the floor (which wouldn't be as strong as using the late model XJ bracket), you'd have nothing to bolt the seat to.

 

They made this change at the same time as the airbags (I've *heard 96's mount this way, but never checked)

I guess, to get the front bolts out of shear, if/when the airbags deploy.

[phenryiv1]

So I looked at 97+ sliders today (at least the power ones). It looks like the bottom rails are on roughly the same plane, side to side. Meaning, you could use 1 or more sections of flat steel and bolt the 97+ XJ rails to that plate, then bolt that plat to the MJ "feet," which also have a roughly linear upper mounting plane.

 

Am I nuts here? It cannot be that simple, or someone would have done it before, right?

[Darren]

I don't have the 96+ xj. So i'm just going to run a piece of angle along the floor to bolt the seat to.