How to Fix a Stripped Seat Bolt in a Jeep Grand Cherokee

The bolt in a Jeep seat is what connects the physical seat to the runner bar that the seat slides forward and backwards on. Over the course of years, drivers and passengers leaning backwards in these seats puts stress on the bolts, and eventually cause them to pull through the hole, enlarging it many times wider than the bolt. When this happens, the seat will lean backwards much farther than it should, and could eventually ruin the other track runner, as well as make it difficult to slide the seat backwards.

To fix this problem, follow the next steps.

Step 1

Locate the hole in the seat runner where the bolt was stripped. The bolt should be pointing downwards from the bottom of the seat. Measure the hole using either your finger or a ruler, though it may be difficult to get a ruler down there. Note the size, and purchase a washer that is slightly bigger than the hole.

Step 2

Place the new washer against the hole to make sure it is large enough that it won't slip through. If it is, remove the nut from the bolt and press the seat so that the bolt goes back down through the hole. Slide a washer or two onto the bolt underneath the runner, then twist the nut on a few times.

Step 3

Using a wrench or socket, reach underneath the runner and tighten the nut until the chair can no longer move freely backwards. It is pretty much impossible to over tighten the bolt, except maybe tightening it so much that the washer warps and can be pulled through the hole again, making it larger than before.

Step 4

In the case of my '96 Grand Cherokee, the washer method worked for a couple of weeks, but then pulled through again, rendering the seat back to its previous condition, only now with a bigger hole. The solution to this extended problem is to either weld a piece of metal over the hole in the runner, then punch a hole in it for the bolt, or to find a new runner in a junk yard and swap it out for your damaged one.