I tried the fiber washers from Lowe's as another member, but they were too tight and jammed the threaded part and wouldn't align. So, I modified some aluminum washers to take up the "sliding" space. There were absolutely no OEM washers present, they had all corroded to dust, there should be an engineer somewhere gett'n the boot. Anyway, here's a pic of one side about to be reinstalled. It's not a bad job, just time consuming.

 

Good job with the repair. Time consuming it is, but well worth the time.

I just did the same repair on my 1998. I cut the washers from some leaf spring busing inserts that I had in my toolbox.

I have to say that the seat feels much better.

 

I fixed mine by replacing the seats with the rare "bench" style...

 

Huh those are rare? The dealer I purchased my 01 from had a rango with the bench seat. It had the floor shifter that moved freely because the linkage was broken so I couldn't test the 4x4 so I got my electric shift 01 with heated leather buckets lol. Would love to have a bench in front though for sure

 

I'll take my heated leather seats over a bench though, but mine have been doing this too, wasn't sure what I could even do about it. Thanks for the idea, now I can actually solve this annoying issue!

 

The bench is a good benefit, but I do like my buckets.