Hey, guys! New to the forum, but a lifelong Cherokee (XJ) fan. I have a 1996 Cherokee Country, 4.0L I6, automatic transmission, Chrysler 8.25 axle. Almost all stock with 254K miles and still kicking hard!

I'm replacing the leaf springs/shackles, and I want to have the replacement bolts at hand as this is my daily driver and can't leave it up on jackstands for a week.

Does anybody know the specs on these bolts: spring to frame, spring to shackle, and shackle to frame?

Seems simple enough, but I can't find it anywhere, even in my detailed shop manual.

Thanks!

 

WELCOME!

Don't how soon you need the hardware but PM the below link if your interested:
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f74/fu...e-kits-248156/

 

I 2nd that.

His hardware sets are top notch you cant beat it

 

All 3 bolts are the same - Spring to frame, spring to shackle, shackle to frame.

Mopar part number 3420 2118

If you go to Rockauto.com, do a Part number search using that number and specify "Mopar", they will sell you the exact bolts at about $6/each.

I'm pretty sure they're M14 size. Make sure you get grade 10.9 if you do buy generic hardware.

 

Awesome! Thanks for the help! This forum is great

 

Anytime man - remember the OEM bolts use red loctite, so you have to heat the bolts to 500F to get them loose from the weld nuts. The worst part is still the inner bushing seizing to the bolt and cutting that nasty rubber out so you can split the inner bushing off the bolt.

I did the same thing when I did mine and bought all new mopar bolts - since the mopar come smeared with the loctite, I burned and brushed that crap off and used blue loctite on the threads and anti-seize on the shaft when I put it back together.

 

Well, you were right! All bolts seized, advanced to differing lengths, inside the sleeves of the bushings. For those dealing with this in the future, I'll give you the four different methods I had to use:




Passenger front seized in sleeve, no longer threaded inside the weld nut, but with the chamfer still holding it in there. Used a carbide tipped blade on a sawzall to cut the bolt/sleeve between the bushing and bracket on each side of the spring eye. After prying the spring from the bracket, the chamfer fell right out.




Passenger rear/upper shackle bolt seized partially inside the weld nut. I cut the leaf out with the sawzall, same as the front, but that bolt was not coming out of there no matter what. I tried to drill/extract it, and could tell I made matters worse. I took off the bumper and the bumper mounting brackets to have a look inside, and sure enough I entered at just enough of an angle to wreck the weld nut threads. I cut the frame and knocked the nut out with a chisel, then had a top notch welder tack a new nut in there and patch it back up. (I do not trust my welding skills for something this important.)




Driver rear/upper shackle bolt seized just like the other side, partially in the nut. However, rust is eating a hole into the wall between the bracket and the fuel line, and my tank was nearly empty (i.e. a vapor bomb), so I slipped a hacksaw in there to cut the bolt out. This time I had the advantage of having the bumper off for a few days, so I sprayed the back of the bolt/nut from inside the frame over and over again with Aerokroil. This helped A LOT. I sprayed it, tapped it with a hammer, repeated. Then I used a left-handed bit to drill into the bolt, tapped a screw-type extractor into it, and it rotated right out of there.




Driver front was a piece of cake compared to the rest. By now, I realized how helpful penetrating oil + time is on this. I drilled a 1/8 hole in the frame behind the weld nut and day after day heated the bolt with MAP gas then sprayed inside there. It worked. When the bolt seized in the sleeve, I was able to keep doing that from the other side, working it in and backing it out until that sucker came out whole.




Hopefully there's some info in there for the next guy trying to deal with this!

 

P.S. When you go to line up your centering bolt, use ratchet straps to move your axle into place. It's the easiest way.

 

I have done 3 XJ, and spray a mix of ATF/turps right inside the frame rail at 50psi to saturation and let it sit for as long as possible

replaced the bolts with copious amounts of copper anti-sieze

re-check the torque a few days later, then annually, never had one back out, even in the slightest

 

Glad to hear you got it done!! It's definitely a major job, but it's reaaaaaaaally nice having new springs on it. Of course, you now have the pride of accomplishment for the work and knowing you saved yourself several hundred dollars of labor costs is pretty sweet too.

 

I found that the easiest way was:
1 - Side you're working on on a floor jack with good wheels (regular jack stand on the other side).
2 - Line up the front eyelet on the spring, bolt through but not tightened
3 - Align the centering dowel (a few swift kicks to the axle if necessary only if that doesn't work do you whip out the ratchet straps/ropes)
4 - Loosely attach U-bolts to plate
5 - Line up the frame side on the shackle, bolt through but not tightened
6 - Connect the spring to shackle using the floor jack to adjust height as needed.
7- Tighten up fasteners to a few shades shy of "snug" - proceed to other side.
8 - Sway bar (if present) connection and shocks, snug up all connectors
9 - Tires on, drop it down, rock it around a bit (some even drive it down the street and back) and then final torque to spec.

This is after foolishly trying to do u-bolts, align front eyelet first.. Yeah, 20 minutes dicking around when it only took a 10 seconds to bolt up the eyelet and a minute or two of kicking the axle so the alignment dowel lined up...

 

How many M14x120 bolts do you need in total to replace all the bolts from Spring to frame, Spring to shackle, and shackle to frame? I am planning to replace all the bolts to my both my front and rear when I install my new coils and leafs .

 

Let me see: Spring to frame - 1 Spring to shackle -1 and shackle to frame -1, = 3
Then there's the same again on the other side, i.e. 3

I make that 6!

I'm lucky enough to have a fastener store nearby so I just took a nut off my parts jeep, to make sure I got the right thread, & got 1/2-dozen 70mm HT bolts (on basis the springs are 50mm wide).
But you can do the same at anywhere that sells bolts, Home Depot, TSC, anywhere. (I only went to a specialist because it's convenient & our hardware stores tend not to sell such things.