Extending Wrangler seat adjustment

My 6'1" son drives a 1990 Jeep Wrangler YJ (manual shift) and even with his height, generally keeps the driver seat all the way forward. When I (5'9") drive it, I can reach the pedals, but just barely. He goes off to college next year and the Jeep has to stay home where we'd like to have his sister (5'4") use it. Otherwise, we have to purchase another car. The problem, of course, is that she just cannot reach the pedals. For some reason, this vehicle seems to have been designed for tall-ish people only.

I've looked at the seat adjustment and where the sliding rails on the seat bottom are bolted to the seat tilt mechanism, it looks like I might be able to drill another set of holes in the tilt mechanism about 1-1/2" forward of the existing holes and just re-position the seat. But I don't think 1-1/2" is going to be enough for my daugher. Repositioning the seat tilt mechanism on the floor does not appear to be an option becasue the floor is not flat and the bottom of this mechanism is contoured to the floor. Moving it forward would cause a mis-match in the contours.

Does anybody have any others ideas for getting this seat further forward? I would even consider replacing the seats and tilt mechanism...that's a lot cheaper than buying a new vehicle. (Replacing the Jeep itself is not an option!). Maybe there are longer seat slides available for the seat??...that would be ideal. I suppose I could even put blocks on the pedals, but this seems a little hokie and we're probably talking 4" thick blocks on all three pedals.

Thanks for any ideas.

Rick

Reply to
Rick Sink
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I would be willing to bet someone has swapped in something like Mustang seats or something.

I am 6'4" and my wife is 5'1" and we both can drive in my CJ7. I find YJ's actually pretty tight for room.

A couple friends have swapped in Mustang seats and man I can 'just' reach the pedals and one friend's fairly tall wife has no hope of reaching. The seats aren't really back, they are just tilted bad so most people's upper legs hit the seat bottom before their lower leg can depress the pedal.

Sort of instead of the seat base being level in stock seats and tilted

45 deg in the Mustang seats.

The seat brackets in the YJ or CJ only have about 1/2" max for where they fit on the center side, the rails the seat bolts onto could be moved on the seat base likely. If it is a Mustang seat, this wouldn't help, just be more up in the air.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Rick S>

Reply to
Mike Romain

Man, it really sounds like the seat riser, or the enitire seat, has been replaced. I am 5'9", and have to have the seat all the way back in a YJ or a TJ (I drive my buds YJ at least 2x a week, and my TJ seat is always all the way back....) So go find yourself another YJ in a used car lot, and take a peek and see what is different..I bet you will be surprised, and I would like to know what you find. Good luck!

Reply to
Joseph P

That's weird. This one is a Sahara Edition, but I don't know why that should make it different. I'll take another look at the seat...maybe there is something wrong with the adjustment mechanism. Also, we got this Jeep from my brother-in-law who said that he switched the driver and passenger seats to keep the upholstery wear more even. I wonder if the adjustment mechanism was somehow affected by the switch.

Rick

Reply to
Rick Sink

Rick:

No way is that seat still in the stock configuration. I also own a 90 wrangler sahara with stock seats and I'm 5'5". Even so, I don't keep the seat all the way forward in order to reach the clutch. You've got something funky going on there. Don't you know NEVER to trust a brother in law? ;-)

J. Painter

Reply to
J. Painter

He switched what?? The whole seat, just the foam, the slider and riser and foam, what did he switch??

Reply to
Joseph P

I don't know...I'll have to ask. From the responses I'm getting, something sure sounds fishy. I'm going to examine the seat mounting more closely and I'll post what I find.

Rick

Reply to
Rick Sink

There you go likely.

I know on the CJ7's the passenger seat sits totally differently on the rails so the bolts for the seat will be in different places. If you swap the seats back it should do it.

Have a good look to be sure.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Rick S>

Reply to
Mike Romain

measure you chassis length....maybe someone extended your bumper to bumper length at your steering wheel!! haha

Reply to
SB

My B-in-law just exchanged driver and passenger seats. Did not mess with slides or tilt bases, so I don't think that's the problem.

Both passenger and driver seats adjust exactly the same amount forward and backward. There does not appear to be anything wrong with them. If I slide both forward all the way, then tilt both forward, they both just miss bumping into the (factory) under-dash air-conditioning vent housing. I assume this is as it should be? If the seats were able to be slid further forward, for shorter drivers, the seat cushions would hit the AC vent housing when the seats were tilted forward. If this is the way it's arranged on other YJ's, it's a real puzzle to me how the shorter drivers mentioned in this thread are sliding their seats BACK and still able to reach the pedals????

Rick

Reply to
Rick Sink

Hold the phone!!! I measured the passenger and driver seats for what seems like the upteenth time. THIS TIME I finally noticed a difference in the way the mounting rails are positioned. Evidently, the driver side rail extends a little further than the passenger side. Since my passenger and driver seats have been switched, they coincidentally extend forward the same distance and they both hit (after market) speaker enclosures when slid back. So I was snookered into thinking that they both had identical travel adjustments. But if I switch them back the way they are supposed to go, I think I'm goiing to find that the driver seat actually does slide closer to the pedals. Man!...I was beginning to feel like a Twilight Zone resident for a while there.

Rick

Reply to
Rick Sink

Well, we swapped the seats back to original driver and passenger positions. Picked up a little further forward adjustment on the driver side, but probably not more than one inch. Bottom line, in this Jeep, if you are short, you cannot adjust the seat close enough to easily use clutch pedal. I can only conclude that ther must be variations on seat adjustment from vehicle to vehicle and/or people vary themselves in leg reach, even if they are same height.

I got both my wife a daughter to try out the seating. They are both about 5"-4". My wife can drive the car fine. My daughter cannot fully depress the clutch pedal. I think the difference is leg length and probably a little more, uh..., well...., should I say, "padding" on my better half's derierre that naturally scoots her a little forward in the seat. And I've ALREADY gotten into trouble for making THAT observation!

Glad I finally got to the BOTTOM of this!

Rick

Reply to
Rick Sink

Reply to
L.W.(ßill)

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