I'm sure this has never happened to anyone else... The fronts went in fine, but I broke the heads off the upper bolts when trying to remove the rear shocks from my '99 Sport... There's no access plate under the carpet, anything other than a drill and easy-out at this point?

 

Id try that before cutting in to the floor

 

It's not as hard to fix as it seems. Pretty easy actually. Punch out the nuts from the bottom, let them fall wherever, then fish a new bolt up in there through the triangle shaped holes in the frame. I used two pen magnets to do mine - one to push the bolt toward the hole, the other to catch it and pull it through. Stick an end wrench in there to hold it still while you tighten the nuts. Do NOT cut holes in your floor for such a simple problem.

 

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f51/br...-guide-150384/

 

I just taped the nut to a long box wrench with clear tape and then threaded the bolt up through. After punch out the old, of course. Worked like a charm.

 

A fellow XJer told me they have an aftermarket kit to solve this from happening again to you. Its a pretty common issue with our beloved Cherokee's

 

This guy has been reading the write ups

Glad i didnt have to be the one to paste in this link. Lol

 

Must be... same thing just happened to me about 2 weeks ago. Figured I was the only one.

Thanks a ton for all the info everyone, I'll fix it myself now and be that much less poor

 

i welded new bolts to the old one with good penetration and a little over lap . done in 10 minuets....

 

I had this happen to my 99 xj a few years back and just had it happen to me while I was fixing someone else's XJ a couple of weeks ago.
For mine I tapped it out and it took forever
For the other XJ (MUCH easier fix) I welded 2 bolts to the frame directly over the broken bolts. I happen to have a welder laying around so it was easy enough but for those that don't I am sure 2 and a half minutes of welding shouldn't cost too much.
There is an after market fix for this yes (I've been reading the write ups as well) but that fix requires you having access to the original bolt holes.
May be worth researching a bit.

 

I lucked out on my lift. The lower driver side bolt broke off instead of the uppers. That was an ez fix!

 

Living in Illinois I did this to my first 95 when it was 3 years old so I drilled and tapped them. When I bought my 01 new I took off as many bolts as I could and used antiseize. I gave special attention to those damn rear shock bolts. In 05 I came across another 95 that spent it's whole life in Ft Myers and the Keys. The shock bolts looked like new when I pulled them,but due to the "salt air" there were 2 holes in the roof under the roof rails

 

Thank you! That worked great, took all of 15 minutes. I pulled the new ones through with a bit of wire. Used stainless bolts-washers-nuts this time, with some loctite on them to help. Moved from PA to SoCal recently, so rust will hopefully advance a bit slower now.

 

I have a NY jeep and i still dont know how i managed to get by without breaking these.