Gangster leaning seat help

[vortex]

So over the last 4 years of ownership of my '89 Laredo my drivers seat has slowly leaned back "Gangster Style". The seat is not broken(or at least its not flopping around), but i would like to figure out how to fix this as its very annoying and i already have back problems this just makes it worse.

I need some help getting this fixed so if you have any ideas or experience please help me.

Thanks-

PJ

 

[vortex]

anyone?

 

[anthrax323]

Not familiar with the older Laredo trim packages... Power seats or manual?

 

[djlarroc]

The frame or seat has to be broken or twisted. Did you pull the covers off to inspect?

 

[MrShaft696]

The seat frame breaking is very common, I would unbolt it from the jeep and look. Easiest fix is to go get another from the junk yard and put a cover on it.

 

[Matthew Currie]

If you can't find a junkyard one, it's not that hard to weld if you or someone you know has a little wire-feed rig. The frame cracks apart with age, and also the metal pan that forms part of the bottom tends to crack. If you weld all the cracks up and maybe add a couple of little gussets you'll end up better than new.

The bottom seat cover and the foam come right off, but make sure you look carefully at how the clips underneath are put together so you can put them back. The back cover comes off up to the headrests (zipper on bottom), but that's enough to get it out of the way of welding.

 

[tanmanb]

mine was pretty bad too, so i took the passenger side seat, and swapped it over to my drivers side. All i did was change seat mounts (the frame that the bolts to the floor), and mount the seat adjustment buttons.

I then took a passenger seat from one of my parts 2-doors and now have a passenger seat that's back folds down all the way, and has a big pocket on the back.

I also discovered that the PO tried welding it, but did a poor job. When mounting my "new" driver's seat, i used washers as spacers to make sure that it was mounted level. I love it, and now its SO DAMN COMFY!
here is my old driver's seat.

 

[vortex]

Anthrax-the seats are manual the EXACT SAME as in Booth's picture

DJ-I have not taken anything apart

 

[djlarroc]

My bros '99 had the same issue on drivers side. I pulled the covers off and it was broken on the frame. Got a dirty ass seat from jy, and swapped covers.

Recent '98 I got has same probs. A little twisted, but not broken. Had it welded as best I could, so should not go anywhere from there.

Friend got a '97 and PO told him he had to have both seats welded.

My '95's seats were straight and true.

I thought only the post '97 seats were a POS.

 

[Matthew Currie]

My bros '99 had the same issue on drivers side. I pulled the covers off and it was broken on the frame. Got a dirty ass seat from jy, and swapped covers.

Recent '98 I got has same probs. A little twisted, but not broken. Had it welded as best I could, so should not go anywhere from there.

Friend got a '97 and PO told him he had to have both seats welded.

My '95's seats were straight and true.

I thought only the post '97 seats were a POS.

The pre-95 seats were among the nicest, most comfortable seats ever made for anything on wheels (in my humble opinion), but have some serious structural issues, owing to the way the seat base is formed out of a combination of tubing and a sheet metal pan. The two-door seats especially can really fall apart. Well worth fixing, though, I think. The original seats were designed, I think, under AMC's partnership with Renault, and it seems very French that the seats should be both extraordinarily comfy and failure-prone.

95-6 appear to be a unique set, not as comfortable as either the earlier or later, but pretty solid.