How to repair a broken seat cable in a Jeep Wrangler TJ OK, This is the story of how I thought I could make a cable to replace the broken one in my 1997 Wrangler TJ seats. In the end I just bought the friggin' OEM cable for around $55, because I was running out of time and patience. You might be able to make something that works, or you might count your losses and pay the money like I did. Either way I hope these instructions help you at least get to the problem and know what you are dealing with. | |
This is the cable that makes your seat tip forward so people can get access to the back seats. Make sure you get part number 04886309AA. Sure, have a go at fixing the cable or making one if you like, I mean - You know more than those Engineers at Chrysler right? Or save yourself 5 hours and any amount of money in running around to fishing places to get bits and pieces, and buy the correct thing. | |
Remove the seat. You are going to need a Torq 50 driver and a good set of sockets. You may need to "get agricultural" and employ some imaginative leverage techniques like I did. | |
There are three metric bolts and one torq 50 bolt to remove. I got my torq bit set from Repco. | |
Carefully remove your seat and put it on the lawn or on carpet somewhere. This will be better for your knees and the upholstry as you figure out what the problem is. | |
Look under the seat. Learn how the levers work, and where the cable goes. Remember this layout and where the cable is tied to for later. | |
My cable is OK at this end, but is slack so it is busted at the other end... | |
Take the seatbelt thing off it's easier. Push aside some of the upholstry and foam following where the cable goes. It ends right on the hinge of the bottom and the back pieces of seat. | |
Mine is broken here. | |
The cable has busted at the Z clip and come out of the plastic sheath on the left. You need to remove the old cable now - note where it goes and what it is tied to. | |
This is the pieces once removed showing the break. Looks simple. So I thought I'd go to a fishing or boating place and just buy some bits to make a replacement cable. That way I could reuse the cable sheath | |
This line might be good enough for catching small sharks, but it's no good for this job. It fit well down the sheath, but wasn't strong enough and kept pulling through any way I could think of joining it... FAIL. | |
These things seemed like a good idea at the time. FAIL. | |
Hmm. These look good to join the cable to the frame instead of that Z shaped original thing. These were a bugger to get onto the frame and in the end, snapped or bent FAIL. | |
Some of my dud attempts... FAIL. | |
FAIL. | |
FAIL. | |
So here's that picture again. Print it and take it to Jeep / Chrysler. Get them to order the cable for you. Put it back the same way you took the old one off and in minutes you are "set like jelly." I tried for 5 hours and used $25 worth of other bits to make a dodgey modded cable. None worked. |
