96ckeecntry

I stripped out the weld nut on my passenger side main eye bolt. The bolt came out mostly before I had to cut it. I didn't realize at the time it was turning in place and destroying the threads on the weld nut. Decided to test thread bolts into the shackle and main eye while the paint was drying on the springs. Found the problem on the main eye nut. Shackle is fine.

I now have to do the same surgery as everyone who broke the weld nut, except I also get to cut the weld nut loose. I'm looking for pictures from others who have done this task before.

I've already made an initial cut into my floor with a hole saw and then started moving towards the right. I can see the nut but I am going to have to come over a few more inches to be on top of it. I followed the thread on here that said to drill into where the floor dips down but that put me a few inches off from where I need to be. I found another cherokee site on google that had a picture of someone who had removed a small square directly above the weld nut. This is more like what I need to do but i'm sort of concerned about cutting too far over and screwing something up.

I also saw some steps to remove and reuse a nut insert that reduces the hole size in the frame. I am pretty sure my "reducer" is what is completely stripped and not sure what I can do about this. Should I be worried about the slop running without it? Can I buy another one of them? I have a new flange nut and leaf spring bolt.

Thanks for reading and any pics/advice. I refuse to lose at this point in my project. This XJ's a great teacher, just terrible with timing.

96ckeecntry

Here's pics of the stripped weld nut, my initial hole, and where I plan to cut. The tiny x in the third pic is where the weld nut lives.

96ckeecntry

These two pics came from Reno4x4.com

The first pic shows the reducer thing that lives between the frame and the flange nut. This is what's stripped on my xj. Went to jeep, tried to buy a new weld nut assembly and it was simply a m14x2 flange nut like I already have. Not sure how important this is. The frame hole is bigger than m14 so there will be some slop if I skip it. Maybe a higher torque load will help keep things in place?

Second pic is how I'm trying to open things up so that I can sawzall the weld nut loose. Wish I could have done this as my first cut.