I just bought the rear seat recline kit from innovative JK products and installed it tonight. Easy to instal (minus the tight bolts and one crushed and bloodied pinkey finger) and made a big difference in rear seat comfort. I got them for $50 on eBay and definitely would recommend them. I know that washers work and are cheaper, but these are made for this application and look good. Thumbs up by me!
if you search on e bay for "Rear Seat Recline Kit" you'll see a couple of "packaged solutions" for this if you don't want to DIY with washers/stock metal. one of them requires loosening the bolts, the other involves removing the bolts. once you look at the kits you'll probably realize that making your own isn't all that difficult if you can cut/drill metal.
Time to start buying parts for my 15. I was thinking of trying the second option as it looks like its a little thinner than the first one(more thread for the bolts) but I don't want to sacrifice any tilting. Anyone have experience selecting between these two?
From the looks of the pictures they are just a block of aluminum that is squared off, when you put them under the bolts then the seat frame isn't bolted down and sitting flush with the metal block, it would be a lot better if you could make a set with the proper angle to make sure the seat frame is mounted properly.
Do you have any way of measuring the angles that the seat is sitting at ? If so can you post it here ?
The pictures are deceiving. The "before" pic shows more of the rear window; the "after" pic shows just the stationary part of the rear window giving the illusion that the seat sits further back than it really does.
I used home made shims but the bracket sat flush on mine and should with this one as well. The legs are hindged due to folding capabilities of the sear.
FYI., I replaced the lower front bolts with longer ones. I stripped out 2 of them while tightening them back down. It could have been my super human strength though. Ha.
I used grade 10.9 black 12X1.75 bolts an inch longer than originals. Tightens down great now.
Good to know, i'll try to pick them up tomorrow before the spacers arrive. Where did you get them from? What were the original lengths and what are the new lengths? Spacers are due in on Friday. The back bolts were ok to reuse? Sorry for all the questions, trying to get this done before a road trip.
Thanks for the pics, I'd say judging from the pics there is only 3-5 degrees in there but it's hard to tell.
I'm going to pick up some aluminum and machine it with a few degrees off square and see what happens. I'm sure it doesn't really matter as it's still bolted down tight but I'd prefer it to sit square with the seat frame.
Thanks for the pics, I'd say judging from the pics there is only 3-5 degrees in there but it's hard to tell. I'm going to pick up some aluminum and machine it with a few degrees off square and see what happens. I'm sure it doesn't really matter as it's still bolted down tight but I'd prefer it to sit square with the seat frame.
You don't need to bother shaving off a few degrees, the feet at the bottom of the seat legs pivot so they sit flat and square on the shims just like they do on the floor.
Just bought & installed these myself, took about 15 minutes (with air-impact).
I was going to grab some flat stock aluminum, cut it-drill it-do it myself-etc.. but to be honest, for $50, I really couldn't have done it better/cheaper myself.
I like the Acetal plastic (never rust, never rot, hard as hell) aspect & they're definitely sized right for comfort.
I used the first kit you have listed. I am very happy with it and it has made the rear seat so much more comfortable. Install is very easy. Using a half inch ratchet and breaker bar with an 18 mm socket I installed this kit in about 40 minutes.
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