The bolts are far enough out, you're clear of the nuts. My fix was to simply(ha!) cut the shackle apart, chisel the seam of the inner sleeve, soak it with BG. Then grab it with vise grips, and turn the bolt till it came loose.

 

x2 especially the driver side one seems plenty far enough out. cut those bad boys off, she got some rust for a 99 friend.

imo PB is over rated lol, it works well, but not miracles haha

sometimes pressing outward with a pickle fork or open end of a wrench while loosening will help pull out the remainder.

 

Driver side popped out once the front was released from tension (had to have a guy weld in new front end hangers, not fun) only have to worry about the passenger side at this point. The rust is really only on the rear bumper and the suspension components, not the body panels. Looking forward to getting this project done.

 

You can make the best penetrating oil in the world with 1/2 ATF and 1/2 Acetone (nail polish remover). Make only what you need for the job because it has limited shelf life. The acetone evaporates thru just about anything like a jar seal. I got a pint of pure acetone from a chem lab, put it in a clean paint can. A year later the can on the shelf was totally empty!

 

I can hear mine doing that. Thanks to this thread, I think I have a plan for tonight.

These two kind of make me wonder, if I'm replacing the leafs anyway, and I have new shackles to do with them, why don't more people just save time by cutting the springs in the first place?

 

Because the eventual solution is that it is the bolt needs to be cut. Cutting off the spring can give you some extra room to work with, but IMO the quickest way would be to loosen the bolt as far as it will go then slip a sawzall blade in there and cut BOTH ends of the bushing and bolt off. I only did one side of the bolt, but doing it that way you have to pry the bracket open a little bit to allow the other end of the bolt to come out, and then sledge the bracket back later.

 

I'm sorry, i meant, not as a means of defeating the spinning bolt problem, but just as a preliminary step. It seems like all of these would be easier if the tension in the spring wasn't there. The bolt would come out easier if you had two dangling pieces of metal instead of one tensed spring. The same would go for if you snap the backing nut, or if any of these other problems happen. I just don't see why cutting the leaf spring in half isn't the first thing you do, regardless of what follows, given that you're probably only taking anything apart to change the springs in the first place, so you don't need the old ones.

 

Because cutting the spring does nothing to solve the problem. If the welded bolt breaks you need to cut a window to grab the bolt, and if the bolt is stuck in the BUSHING the bolt has to be cut no matter if the spring is there or not.

If the bolt came out by simply removing spring tension, then was never any problem to begin with.

 

Wasn't the other post saying that releasing spring tension at least made things easier? Therefore, at least increasing the chance you can just get it free, or avoid damaging the bushings? Or did I read that wrong? I haven't done it yet, so I'm not speaking from experience.

 

For that bolt all I think he did was jack up the BODY (not the AXLE) a little bit.

 

Cutting the springs is a lot of extra cutting and the release of tension should really be minimal anyway since you've already got the axle at "full droop" and supported with jack stands while the body of the Jeep is supported by jack stands as well. If you disconnect the U-bolts first, the tension is pretty minimal. Then it's really just a question of how badly the sleeve is rusted to the bolt. In a low-rust area (Southwest, Texas, etc.) you might just need the heat to break the red loctite and then the bolt will just come out. Here in the Northeast, there is likely no choice (which was the case for me) but to cut the bushing and split the sleeve off. Tension has nothing to do with it - it's rust - pure and simple. If the sleeve is seized to the bolt badly enough, you can't back the bolt out enough to just cut. Basically, you need to be sure that there's enough bolt left to get a grip on AND that the bolt is loose enough in the weld nut to come out if you want to cut both sides.

If you're cutting the spring, you aren't going to be worried about damage to the bushings - If you're going to the work of replacing the springs, you want new bushings in your new leaf springs before putting it back together. The putting it back together is the easy part!

Also if you have a lot of rust, take care to check the floor above the leaf mouting brackets before applying heat. My floor was rotted badly and added significant time to the project since I had to do both the leaf springs AND fix the rusted out floor sections.

 

Thanks for helping me think it through guys.

Yeah, I bought 3" lift springs, so that my leaf-under plan is only about a 3" drop. The springs came with bushings. I bought new shackles. I just bought new bolts today, so I don't need to reuse anything. My biggest worry now is just not damaging any of the weld studs or frame stuff.

 

Double07 thanks for your posts. I was thinking the same as you wrote; that I'll be cutting the springs about 8" from the shackles before i hit the shackle bolts, to take the tension off. But haven't tried it yet. Have been spraying bolts/nuts once a week for about 6 months now with liquid wrench. Did you get it done? How did it go?

 

I cut my springs as a way of removing some tension, and also allowing for some movement in general. My right side was a royal PITA, and took a few days to work all of the rusted items loose. I worked on it until I was frustrated each day. haha. My left side came off as if it was installed the day before.

I too tried all sorts of penetrating oil for months before. I think once they are this old, it really doesn't help anymore.

 

I ended up cutting/prying/twisting off everything, to get down to just spring eye bolts. Then went back and forth with them, lots of liquid wrench. When it felt too tight i let it sit for a few days soaking. They ended up coming out without breaking nuts off inside frame rail. It was a lot more work on front end, but i dont have tools to fix nuts if they did break loose. The inner sleeves were definitely seized to the bolts; its my guess this is what causes the nuts to break loose usually.