so i jacked my jeep up last night and started unbloting the rear shocks so i can add my new Nitro 9000 shocks in the rear, and i bought a add a leaf kit so i can fix my flat leaf springs. i took the tires off and and jacked up the rear. as soon as i proceeded to remove the bolt holding on the rear springs at the top BAM! the bolts snapped off!

now im working out the removing the bolts so i went ahead and started unbolting the U-clamps holding the leaf springs together. but i can't remove the middle bolt holding the springs together. am i supposed to actually remove the leafs off the jeep altogether? or can i add a leaf while it's still attached to the jeep?

edit: i just read the manual and it said i need to remove the leaf springs from the rear shackels. so how do i add a new leaf to my old leaf's?

 

The bolts on top of the shocks is a common thing with most trucks....I had this happen to me a short while back. All I did was rotate the top of the shock about 1/4" and drilled new holes. I have heard of other people taking the end peices off the rear sway bar and welding them to the truck, and using them as a mount. As for the rusted bolts in the leaf spring? Get new one's, and cut the old one's? I was reading, there is a post on here with a link in it about penatrating lube. It looks like from the study they did a 50-50 mix of ATF and acatone was the best penatrating lube.

Other then that, I'm not sure..

Good Luck man.

J

 

I found it easier to add a leaf with the main spring still mounted on both ends. And yea that center bolt has to come off.

 

Make sure you have some good c clamps and use them on the spring to hold it togather while you remove center pin if not you may be hurt

 

X2 main leaf stays bolted up.

 

For the rear shock bolts, use a air chisel and just knock out the nuts. Wrap some wire around some bolts and fish it through mounting location and pull the bolt home. You can slide a wrench in and hold the bolt head, and put a nut on the bottom. Took me about 30-45 min to do it. Works great.

 

^^ this works. but if youre like me and dont want/need to buy an air chisel and you have an angle grinder.. check this out :
http://www.rocklizardfabrications.co...ock_mounts.htm

^^^this is what i did. also with the bolt for the leaf springs, get a good grip on the bottom nut with a vice grip and use a ratchet on the top and just break it off, since you got an AAL it should have come with another bolt and nut i became an expert on this stuff by putting my own AAl kit on my 93. i can almost guarantee noones xj is more rusted together than mine

 

"edit: i just read the manual and it said i need to remove the leaf springs from the rear shackels. so how do i add a new leaf to my old leaf's?"

take the shackles off with vise grips carefully. i used my stock shackles with a 3" AAL. all i did was take out that plastic bushing thing thats in there and it wrapped all the way around the new AAL with the springs. youll probably even be able to keep the plastic bushing if you want if its only another stock leaf youre adding for sag.. btw im getting new shackles that will fit with the AAL so this was temporary for me because my kit didnt come with any..thanks fat bobs garage... so good luck to you man whichever route you take

 

yeah youre going to need c clamps to hold the leafs together while you put the shackles back on. once the shackles are on again DO NOT TAKE THE C CLAMPS OFF! until you put the center bolt back in. then slowly remove the c clamps and watch for the shackles snapping or flying out. put your u joints back on and you should be all set after you tighten them down.

 

I looked at doing it that way. Just didn't want to cut holes in my floor.