'98 Ranger --> '05 Escape Seat Swap?

[avid]

Hi everyone, I've been searching the forums for an answer but haven't found much. I would like to swap out my 1998 XLT bucket seats for some very nice 2005 Ford Escape bucket seats I found. The tracks are completely different sizes and the Escape tracks are spaced quite a bit wider, but the seats themselves appear to be about the same size. I've read that it's possible to swap the tracks off the old seats onto the new ones, but is that possible in this particular instance? Also, the Escape seats are power and my original are manual- does that make a difference?

I'm not a welder, so I'm hoping for a bolt-on solution.

 

[adsm08]

I've never done it, nor read about anyone doing this particular swap.

My advice is to get them both side by side with the tracks off, and see what happens.

 

[avid]

I've never done it, nor read about anyone doing this particular swap.

My advice is to get them both side by side with the tracks off, and see what happens.

Thanks for the reply. The "new" seats are at the junkyard. I think I'm going back tomorrow and do some measuring. If the track assemblies can be swapped the Escape seats would be a huge upgrade for my truck. They also have some 98 xlts so I can unbolt those seats and compare them side-by-side. If it can be done without welding I think I'll go ahead with it, even if I have to do some tapping or bolting on some bars or something.

 

[6gun]

Thanks for the reply. The "new" seats are at the junkyard. I think I'm going back tomorrow and do some measuring. If the track assemblies can be swapped the Escape seats would be a huge upgrade for my truck. They also have some 98 xlts so I can unbolt those seats and compare them side-by-side. If it can be done without welding I think I'll go ahead with it, even if I have to do some tapping or bolting on some bars or something.

I recently posted a thread about this swap, DO IT!!!!!! Stupid easy and makes more room and more comfort! I used 1/4"X1" Flat stock to bolt to the bottom of the Focus seats with holes drilled 1.5" to the inside of the Focus holes to mount the '94 Ranger tracks to. I also used a 1"X1"x1" angle iron to make a seat belt mount. I've tried posting pictures to no avail but if you want to PM me a number or email I'll be happy to email/text them to ya! All in all it took me about two hours of designing brackets, drilling, and bolting for the DS and about an hour for the PS since I already had a system. Feel free to hit me up with any questions!

 

[avid]

I recently posted a thread about this swap, DO IT!!!!!! Stupid easy and makes more room and more comfort! I used 1/4"X1" Flat stock to bolt to the bottom of the Focus seats with holes drilled 1.5" to the inside of the Focus holes to mount the '94 Ranger tracks to. I also used a 1"X1"x1" angle iron to make a seat belt mount. I've tried posting pictures to no avail but if you want to PM me a number or email I'll be happy to email/text them to ya! All in all it took me about two hours of designing brackets, drilling, and bolting for the DS and about an hour for the PS since I already had a system. Feel free to hit me up with any questions!

Thanks for the reply. These seats are from a Ford Escape, rather than the Ford Focus you used. I did get them, but it seems like it will be a bit more complicated than I anticipated. The feet don't line up, obviously, but also the track is connected to the backrest in what appears to be a permanent way that is different than the Ranger (so swapping just the seat components isn't an option). The track rails on the Escape seats are spaced wider those on the ranger, so swapping those directly isn't an option. The most obvious solution would be to cut off the rivets that attach the feet to the track rails and swap those, but since the tracks are a bit wider on the Escape will need to probably do what you did and attach some additional material to get the feet where they need to be.

One final complication is that the Escape driver's side seat is a power seat, so the whole track/feet assembly is way different than the passenger side. I don't think there's any way to adapt it directly, but maybe I'll think of something. It doesn't have feet really, more like the entire rail sits on the floor. The other option there would be to find an Escape non-power driver's side track assembly and swap it for the power one I have, and then adapt it to the Ranger.

Here are a couple photos, but I'll post some better ones as I move forward. First one is just the seat. They are both heated seats if I can figure out how to hook that part up. The second photo is the bottom of the power driver's side seat and the last one is the passenger side.

 

[6gun]

Thanks for the reply. These seats are from a Ford Escape, rather than the Ford Focus you used. I did get them, but it seems like it will be a bit more complicated than I anticipated. The feet don't line up, obviously, but also the track is connected to the backrest in what appears to be a permanent way that is different than the Ranger (so swapping just the seat components isn't an option). The track rails on the Escape seats are spaced wider those on the ranger, so swapping those directly isn't an option. The most obvious solution would be to cut off the rivets that attach the feet to the track rails and swap those, but since the tracks are a bit wider on the Escape will need to probably do what you did and attach some additional material to get the feet where they need to be.

One final complication is that the Escape driver's side seat is a power seat, so the whole track/feet assembly is way different than the passenger side. I don't think there's any way to adapt it directly, but maybe I'll think of something. It doesn't have feet really, more like the entire rail sits on the floor. The other option there would be to find an Escape non-power driver's side track assembly and swap it for the power one I have, and then adapt it to the Ranger.

Here are a couple photos, but I'll post some better ones as I move forward. First one is just the seat. They are both heated seats if I can figure out how to hook that part up. The second photo is the bottom of the power driver's side seat and the last one is the passenger side.

Sorry to say but you done gone and made this too complicated. I looked at several different power seat setups and came up with nothing easy to swap. If the JY will let you trade them back in manual seats are much easier to deal with. Mine were ZX-2 seats to be precise. You'll also need a set of tracks from a pre-96( I think) Ranger. Then the adapter brackets are easy! Sorry for any confusion. Since your seats look so nice another option may be to find a set of manual Escape seats and swap the covers over. Best of luck!

 

[avid]

Sorry to say but you done gone and made this too complicated. I looked at several different power seat setups and came up with nothing easy to swap. If the JY will let you trade them back in manual seats are much easier to deal with. Mine were ZX-2 seats to be precise. You'll also need a set of tracks from a pre-96( I think) Ranger. Then the adapter brackets are easy! Sorry for any confusion. Since your seats look so nice another option may be to find a set of manual Escape seats and swap the covers over. Best of luck!

Yes, it's possible. I didn't realize the power seat was so different as we were using the passenger side (non-power) to compare to the Ranger seat we pulled. It was only when I got them home that I really noticed how different it was. Yeah, will need to figure out something. I could return them but these are so nice compared to all the garbage seats I usually find that they were hard to pass up.

What is special about the pre-96 tracks?

 

[6gun]

The Older tracks have less crap attached. You MAY be able to cut off the newer ones but it wasn't worth the risk for me.

 

[Ranger850]

i have 6gun's pic of his swap, still have to resize before i can post them

 

[avid]

i have 6gun's pic of his swap, still have to resize before i can post them

He sent them to me as well:

 

[avid]

There are a couple differences between 6gun's swap and the one I'm attempting: 1) his donor vehicle was a Ford FOCUS, not a Ford ESCAPE; and 2) by the looks of the seat he used it's pretty old relative to the 2005 seat I am wanting to swap in.

I looked more at my donor seats yesterday, and pulled out my passenger seat to compare. Nothing lines up. The four 10mm threaded holes in the seat bottoms do not line up (though we thought the Ranger seats from the junkyard did, so maybe my vehicle has different seats in it already). Swapping the tracks seems like it would be the simplest solution if I only had to reposition those four threaded mounts in the seat bottom. But the complication is that the backrest also attaches to the tracks via a riveted-on L-bracket, and my donor seats have significantly wider-spaced tracks that would require some adapting there as well.

As of right now, the simplest solution seems to be to swap out the feet. That way, I keep the donor seat tracks and everything there (such as the L-bracket the backrest is bolted to) gets to stay. The donor tracks are wider though so I can't swap the feet directly- I'll need to change the way they're positioned or make some new ones.

 

[avid]

Anybody know if the tracks come apart? What I mean is the two nested rails that slide on bearings- can I remove a stop or something and separate them, or are they pretty much permanently married? If I could separate them it would be a lot easier to swap the feet, which is still my current plan.

 

[6gun]

Anybody know if the tracks come apart? What I mean is the two nested rails that slide on bearings- can I remove a stop or something and separate them, or are they pretty much permanently married? If I could separate them it would be a lot easier to swap the feet, which is still my current plan.

All the ones I have been dealing with could be separated with a little bit of work with a cutoff wheel to remove the stop. Probably less than a couple of minutes a piece.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Hey @avid did you get the seats in?

 

[avid]

Hey @avid did you get the seats in?

I have not. I think I know how I want to put them in, but I just haven't even done any more with them yet- been too busy and it's been cold here. Now that it's getting warmer maybe I will get to it soon. Will update when I do.