A not so normal seat swap question

[aaronbtxnc]

So I found a donor 2 door XJ about an hour from my house at work yesterday. I went home to get my "car" tools and money then headed out there. Well I get there and I start trying to remove the seats but the driver front nuts and bolts are rusted really bad. I didn't think to take any PB Blaster so ask the guy if he has anything, all he has is Rem Oil, so we spray those and let it soak in while I hit the passenger side. No problems there, no problems getting the console out, come back to the drivers side and get the back nuts off no problem either. Well the front ones are so rusted that the nut's corners round when trying to get them off and I didn't bring my vice grips so I ask the guy if he has any, he says hold on, I think I do, he goes inside and comes back with channel locks, argh. Should've stopped there and went back to finish the removal with vice grips but not wanting to have to spend half my Saturday going back out there I start trying to weaken the mounting plates by flexing them back and forth. Something pops! It was the spot welds holding the outer rail (track) to the bracket, good, that's progress. He then produces a huge pry bar and I manage to pop the rivet ahead of the now broken spot welds, half way there! So now we have even more flex with only one corner still attached I'm thinking the last one won't be too bad. Well I notice that the inner rail is bending more than the bracet/spot weld/rivet area is. We go at it with the pry bar and finally find an angle where I can get some leverage but the danged rail is bending, so be it. I got the rail out along with a pretty good sized chunk of the bracket, but now to the question finally, the rail is kinda mangled/twisted on the front part. I'm going to try to get it straightened out with a mallet and vice and vice grips and whatever else I can come up with, but could I use the rail off a bench seat to just replace that rail that's mangled? I don't have my bench out yet so can't compare, I'm thinking the one off the passenger side should work hopefully, I'm in the middle of a big wood clearing project and can't give up the truck to work on it right now, but am trying to figure out if I'm going to need to get a new rail/slider track thingy or what before i get into it half way so I don't get stuck with a truck with no seats for a week! Suppose worse comes to worse I can just have a drivers seat if I cannabilize the rail from the passenger side...

Thanks for any tips,

Aaron

[shelbyluvv]

XJ and MJ seat brackets are different. You will have to use the brackets off the bench either way to put the seats in. Do not waste your time fixing the bent up XJ seat brackets.

[aaronbtxnc]

No, not the brackets, the slider rail that mounts to the brackets.

[MJRemi]

You need the complete set-up from the MJ and since the rail is attached to the floor brackets, just use the whole floor bracket to mount your seats. Either modify the bench floor brackets or find some MJ bucket seat brackets.

[aaronbtxnc]

 

is worth a thousand words. can I take this rail

 

 

and replace that bent one?

[aaronbtxnc]

 

is worth a thousand words. can I take this rail

 

 

and replace that bent one?

 

Anyone? The bottom pic is the bench passenger side rail, the top pic is the bucket driver side inner rail.

[shelbyluvv]

You will need the same rail that is bent. I can't tell from the pic if it is the inner or outer rail. MJs use just the outer rails. If the inner rail is bent you will need to go to the junk yard and buy a inner rail.

 

You will also have to replace the mounting brackets with the MJ ones. XJ and MJ floors are different and the XJ mounts will not bolt to the MJ floor.

[DREDnot]

I just did my bench to 2dr bucket swap and I'm pretty sure you can use that channel from the passenger side of the bench and swap on the top channel from the xj.

Just pay attention to the orientation of the metal wheel and ballbearing cage that the tracks roll on.

 

MJ on left, XJ on right, (both passenger side)

this pic is for those wondering why you can't just use the XJ brackets

The MJ rear bracket has a matching step-down

 

 

Drivers side,XJ left, MJ right

[aaronbtxnc]

Thank you and thank you again, I am going to try using the original bench passenger rail to replace the inner driver bucket rail. I will update if it works or not.

[aaronbtxnc]

 

It's gonna take some work but I am gonna make it work. :wrench:

 

The rail on the far left is the passenger bench rail, I am going to have to remove the stuff on top in addition to removing the mounting brackets (already done). I will then have to remove the XJ brackets from the bottom of the bucket rail as well as the two mounting tabs on the top of the bucket rail and attach them to the old bench rail, then attach the MJ mounting brackets. I'm hoping to get all that tomorrow after work, we'll see how far I get, everything ends up taking about twice as long as I think it should...