U-haul really roger’d me on a trailer rental, and I’m due to drive cross country in less than a week. Now instead of a 4x8 trailer holding my goods, I’m trying to cut the fat and carry it all in/on the XJ. I think I can make it work, but I’m worried about suspension. I’m already squatting with the rear bumper/tire carrier, and I worry about bottoming out for a 3k mile drive. I have a set of 2” lift shackles and I’m debating whether I could toss them on in time for the trip to regain some clearance. I know it would only stress the leafs more, but I’ll be replacing those pretty soon anyways. All the horror stories have me shook about getting the old shackle bolts out. I’m not equipped to heavily cut (or weld at all), and if the welded nut snaps in the frame rail, I’ll be in deeper than I wanna be. For what its worth, I reckon I accidentally got plenty of PB blaster on that nut in the frame rail when I was removing the old nut plates for the stock bumper. Anyone have a clean removal of these that might reassure me?

 

If you don't have, or have access to, the proper tools, don't start.

 

Will honestly come down to how much rust is on them. I personally have never had to cut one out or had any issues with any of mine. I have done different spring swaps on my current jeep and on 2 other I owned in the past and all went like butter. Again come down to how rusty everything is. Mine are Western Colorado desert jeeps and absolutely no rust though

 

I went to a little Off-road shop near me. They got the driver side off easy, but couldn't budge the passenger bolt at all. I mentioned heat and they acted like that wasn't an option. At that point I lost faith in them going forward.

Edit: Correct me if I'm wrong, but if I were to remove my rear bumper to hit the other side of that bolt with heat/PB, does that not mean it would be possible to get a wrench on that welded-in nut from the rear opening to the frame rail as well? I just can't be dealing with cutting/ welding

 

Not easy time here at all. There was mention, many years ago of a guy somewhere in the FL or AZ area that had them on and off without any of the usual issues. I can't vouch for that...

There are 2 factors that you're going to run into issues with directly and then a well known indirect one.
1 - Bolt freezing to bushing sleeve in old eyelets. I ran into this one. It was a lot of careful cutting and gouging out chunks of old rubber and crying over the discovery (via burned carpet) of the rear cargo pan rot not have been fixed previously (my floors front and back had been done).
2 - Snapping the welded nut. This I did NOT run into. If you want to avoid the cutting and welding aspect here, make sure you use HEAT. The OEM bolts are RED loctite'd and will not spin out until you warm them up to about 500 degrees F. Once the bushing is snapped off, this is easy. Be careful for floor rot above and around the bracket to avoid the problem I DID have.
3 - Upper shock bolts. There are numerous solutions and suggestions if you google or forum search this. What I did for mine was just drill right into the old spot, once it was deep enough, tapped it used grade 8 hardware and haven't looked back.
(Also, take care on the lower stud mount bolts.. I snapped one and used a creative washer solution drilling and tapping once again. If I had used heat I bet I'd have had them out no problem.)

It's a heck of a job and took me more than a full weekend, with my Dad (who at 75 is still the stuck fastener master) helping. Plan accordingly or pay the hefty price of several hours of professional labor. Maybe you'll be the 2nd unicorn that everything just comes apart, but unless they've been done recently, don't expect anything but a long and tedious job.

 

thanks for this. Good detailed info here. The real problem here is my timeframe. I’m meant to be 3000miles across country late next week. It looks like my only options here to get any ground clearance within my timeframe is a quick block lift or an Add a Leaf, both of which are a waste in long term because I plan to swap the springs as soon as I can. But even that sounds like the same nightmare. I have zero desire to cut/weld anywhere. I love my XJ so much, but this rail design is what I’d call an absolute botch.

also, are you saying that you burnt your carpet applying the heat to that bolt? And did you heat the nut itself from the opening in the frame rail, or just heat the bolt (and thus the nut by proxy).

 

The one good thing about living in CA is no rust. I replaced 100% of all the suspension on my last Jeep and did not have a problem with one bolt. Did it all without heat too.

I dont think you will have much issue with the shackles, its the bolt on the front of the leaf that gives most people trouble. My advise is to crack all the bolts loose before attempting to take everything completely apart. Chances are if you can crack them loose, they will come all the way out.

 

My carpet burnt because the floor panels above the brackets had rotted out. If you poke above the brackets from the bottom with a screwdriver, it will go through rot, if it's solid, you're good.

That's an unfortunate situation - however, the issues are usually with the 4 main spring to frame bolts. Even with lots of rust and presumably original springs, the U bolts came off pretty easy.

if you absolutely can't get by as is (if this is possible, that's what I would do. If not, a block type lift that only needs the U-bolts off, that would be the best temp band-aid if you need some lift. You could cut the trouble in half with some shackles (I believe they make aset thathas alift ad stock setting) and then it's 2 frame bolts instead of 4.

One big point here is that of all the jobs that folks have trouble with, the leafs are one of the most consistent ones - or in other words, most people have the same issue and most people spend lots of time.

Looking back, I feel a muliti-tool with lots of cheap blades may have helped a lot with cutting out the rubber to get to thesleeves.

 

That's what I though, but apparently that bolt is absolutely not moving (at least without heat). I saw the breaker bar they were using, and leverage certainly wasn't the issue.

 

I realize the plural of anecdote is not data, but mine came off easily when I replaced my rear leafs and shackles a few years ago. Just a socket and breaker bar was all it took. I was lucky, I guess.

 

Not sure if this would be helpful or not but might work temporarily:

https://www.supersprings.com/application-guide/

I added a two inch lift to my '96 XJ 4x4 and I added these Sumo Springs for a little extra help when I'm carrying my bike rack or storage tray. They don't provide any sag help when the XJ is empty but it does definitely help when I have the bikes or cargo rack on.

The springs are available for no lift Jeeps and up to a 2" lift.

 

I'll be replacing mine with 3.5" packs with 1" lift shackles at some point REAL soon. I may just go ahead and start throwing on some lube and PB Blaster NOW. Heck, I could go ahead and spray 'em, heat 'em, and break them loose then retighten them so its only a few weeks that pass from now until they have to come out.

 

Thanks for all the info here everyone. To make my timeframe work, I ended up just pack the jeep full as hell, its definitely sagging real good, but still not rubbing in the rear. I’ll be as easy as I can on her on on the long haul home, and then it’s time to get new suspension all around. I’ll definitely heat up the remaining bolts and give em a good PB blast any chance I get for a few weeks, and heat em up prior to breaking em loose. Hopefully the leaf spring bolts don’t give me too much added grief, but I suppose that’s the name of the game.

 

Last thought... Any reason I don’t see any mention of the “spinning weld nut” problem for the shackle bolt getting the same fix as the upper shock bolt? Could you not cut the head of the bolt off, then just air hammer the remainder through into the frame rail, pull it out from the bumper mount hole and be done with it? Guess it all comes down to not being able to get a wrench in the right place?

 

I'm late to the party, but just removed the shackle to frame bolts last week on a '91 with zero problems, upper shock bolts too...
I'm in SC and Jeep is rust free.

Hope you get yours fixed in time.

I would have just bought a cheap add-a-leaf kit, that would have done the job for you!