Alright guys. I have been busy working on my 89 Heep XJ, still gotta post a build thread. Anyway my question is these. While my jeep has almost 0 rust and no mud under it (Its one of those mythical highway 4wd jeeps) I am about to run into a problem. Tearing apart the front suspension has caused few head aches, but I fear a upcoming battle with the rear is on its way. Just for the heck of it I tried to remove the front leaf bolt that goes into the frame yesterday. Electric impact and cheater bar bore no fruit in getting it to break loose. Been soaking it in a liberal amount of PB blaster for awhile now, hoping for some help there now. I know one thing is that the while the front is sitting on jack stands the rear is still bearing its weight on the leafs. I wasnt planning on trying to take the bolts out yet, just loosen them. Do you XJ gurus think that the weight resting in the leafs is the problem right now or do you think that once the xj's tail end is in the air will I still have the same issues? I have heard about the problems that could arise but while the jeep hasnt seen mud, it did come from PA so I am sure it saw some winter salt.

 

Get the weight off the jeep and from there its all dependent on the force you apply.

Good luck.

 

Well I'll tell you what happened to me and how I fixed it, that way if you run into the same problem you'll at least have a point of reference...

Even with the Jeep sitting level and the weight off the rear, I could not, by any means, get the those bolts to come loose. Putting my hands against the front tire and pushing on the cheater pipe with both of my legs wasn't enough to do it. All it did was break a perfectly good socket. Placing a floor jack under the cheater pipe bore the same results. Like you, my Jeep had never seen mud. In fact, it hadn't seen much salt either as it came from the Badlands area of South Dakota. Still, those bolts were seized up. My final solution was this: I used an acetaline torch to cut the wraparound leaf (top leaf). I made two horizontal cuts and removed the piece I'd cut, dropping the spring out from around the bolt. Then came the rubber bushing. I used a box cutter and hacked away until I got it all out. Then the true culprit reared its ugly head. With all the rubber removed from the crush sleeve, the sleeve itself remained seized to the bolt. There's a seam in the crush sleeve where the bend meets. Coaxing with a hammer and chisel bent the sleeve enough that I could pry it around the bolt and remove it. After that, with no crush sleeve seized to the bolt and no rubber bushing seized to the sleeve (the bolt would actually recoil every time I tried to loosen it with leg power), the bolt backed right out of the unibody brackets with absolutely no troubles.

Keep in mind this will only help you if you have new leaf spring packs, and if you're worried about retaining the factory bolts. I did and I was, so this was my solution.

 

TrueBlueXJ - Dont tell me that, lol. Oh well thats a worst case scenerio though. I am putting entire new leafts under it, so only thing I need to worry about keeping is the factory bolt. Not that I couldnt find another one, but dont want to have to go to the junk yard. Plus if I was to break it I couldnt imagine how difficult it would be to remove.

Just guess time will tell the tell.

 

Lol, sorry mate. I 'm not trying to put any bad mojo on you, but IF it does come to that, I just wanted to let you know how I got around it. As far as simplicity and ease of maintenance (kept the factory bolts and just undercoated where I'd burnt the sheet metal), I'd say that's about the best way to approach it. IF it comes to that. IF.

Hopefully it won't come to that.

 

Heat as mentioned will do wonders. Even a little Bernzomatic torch will show a great difference in getting it broken loose.

 

I can tell you this much when I removed my rear bolts..I used a 12 pt wrench and cheater bar and lots of muscle...It's tough but you just gotta work it and eventually they will break loose..I am not looking forward to adding the RE 3.5 and breaking these suckers lose again along with the LCA bolts...

 

Oh and if you need to you can order factory replacements for around $5 a piece...

 

Put it back together with antiseize compound.

 

I did with the rear ones..Never took the front spring bolts out..Now those should be fun.. I do have my heat torch and such so I have confidence I'll get em out..A heat torch and PB blaster is a must for removing 17 yr old bolts..

 

Well I have been needing a reason to buy a torch kit and now.....well now I have one. Thanks guys, my wife does too

On a side note dont tell her that a standard torch bottle will work, I have been looking for an excuse to get the nice little benzomatic kit.

 

Won't mention it. Heck go get a Victor kit with Oxy/Acet set up. We won't say that it is overkill for what you are doing but it will come in handy in the future.