Even with the seat adjusters all the way to the rear, I find that I could use a bit more legroom. (and I'm only 6' 0") On one of my other cars, I put a strap under each of the four mounting points of the seat rails, with two holes in each, 2" apart. The front seat hole in each strap bolts down to the stock seat rail mounting point. The rear hole in each strap connects to the seat rail. That way, I was able to get 2" more legroom. There was enough slack in the seat wiring for this to work. Any reason this approach couldn't be used on an XJ8 ?

 

Seats not moving back far enough is enough Jaguar design flaw! When I remedy this factory problem I was thinking of having metal blocks machined that would bolt to the original floor holes, and the seat bolts to the blocks maybe 1 1/2" further back and 1/2" higher. I am 5'8" and my driver seat is all the way up and almost all the way back, passengers typically have their knees hitting the console.

I don't understand what you mean by straps, if they are flexible wouldn't the seat move around?

 

By straps I mean steel pieces 3/8" thick and 1 - 1/2 inches wide. Not at all flexible! I installed similar straps on a Buick I own, with no issues.

 

Recently I was reviewing a factory training manual for Jag technicians and there was mention of a front seat position sensor that feeds info to the airbag computer system.


There are airbags in the seat and over the side windows among other locations and their deployment and effectiveness might be changed by moving the seat out of its factory specified range. In fact that may be why Jag engineers didn't let them go further back, or it could be just another of the many design flaws.


I don't think moving the seats back will cause a problem with airbag deployments and when you do it please document with pictures.

 

I suspect that any seat position sensor just monitors where the seat is with respect to its position on the track. My scheme moves the entire track rearward.

 

I take it you don't have adjustable pedals. On my XJ8L I set the pedals all the way forward. When my seat is all the way back (in entry mode) I can't reach the pedals and I'm 5'10".

 

The adjustable pedals are not working. A common problem, there are threads here about that. Cure is to replace a broken and hard-to-get-to plastic gear with a metal one. But the hard-to-get-to part has me stymied for the time being. I'm hoping in the next month or so to get out to Michigan, where the metal replacement gear came from, to have them install it.