Hey Guys,
I am replaceing the trans and motor mounts on my '97 xj. I replaced the mounts on my '90 a few weeks ago and it went smooooth. The crossmember I sprayed with PB blaster and let sit for about 6 hours. Then later that day I applied heat to the crossmember bolts and the first one I tried to get off completly snapped in the weld nut....FML!!! This should have been a half hour job but now I dont want to try and remove anymore because I need this truck for work.

What do you guys suggest? Apply a lot of heat then try?

 

Heat makes things expand....why would you do that to try and get a bolt out?

 

So just PB blaster then?...ivy always used heat to remove bolts and had no issues

 

heat would work if your able to heat up just the area around the bolt. I would try to fix the broken one for now and respray the ones that are still in and let them set so that you can set the project aside till another time.

 

keep soaking it
have read some say they have run years on 3 bolts

 

I ended up cutting my floor open and drilling them out.heats alot then spray with water to cool this will break the bolts loose for me everytime.

 

someone posted on here about drilling out the busted bolt and retapping the old nut look on the second page for the drill and tap he used

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f67/cr...n-bolt-102813/

 

That was me, lol. I did this about two weeks ago. Drilling and tapping was really easy and only took about a half hour. Depending on how tall the Jeep is, you may need to jack it up some to drill.
As a note from experience, wear a long sleeved work shirt when you do this. The little metal chips from drilling are HOT...

Also, I DD-ed to work on three bolts for a week. I babied it just to be safe, but it wasn't a problem.

 

Can you drill a tiny access hole to spray the bolts inside the frame using the straw PB Blaster comes with?

 

on my 99 and my 97 i have driven with three bolts for yrs and never had an issue even with wheeling, but i finally got out of my stupid yrs and fixed that on the 97. try drilling it and extracting the broken bolt.

 

Thanks guys for the replies. I have been letting it soak overnight and then sprayed it again this morning. Guessing I should heat it up and spray then repeat and try to remove this afternoon

 

Heat causes the bolt to expand yes, but it also breaks the rust bond.
Whack it with a hammer while it's still hot, then douse with cold water - breaks the bond more.
When cool, soak it with PB Blaster - then whack it some more - that helps the PB work it's way in deeper.

if still frozen, tie a rag around it and soak with the PB overnight - get it really soaked - the PB tends to evaporate.

You can also get "reverse drills" if the bolt breaks off. They cut turning counter-clockwise. Very often as you drill out the broken bolt the drill grabs - and backs out the broken piece! They can come in real handy at times.

 

OK got the cross member out..phew..now the two bolts that hold the mount to the trans seem to be in good and tight...which way should I tackle them?

 

Got the bolts out with some heat and all is good again. The old mount was cracking and very soft so this new one is much much better