projectxj98

Ok so I was putting in the HD off road relocation brackets today. Well pretty much every bolt snapped due to rust. It's okay. I got them in. So I realized my leaf springs were blown the F out. So I was taking them out. The passage side came out with a battle. Driver side, well the bolt snapped it the frame. Got the leaf out but now I have a broken bolt in the nut. Has anyone had experience with this. It's such a tight spot. I was looking at the bracket and it looks like it's just spot welded it. I was thinking of drilling out the spot welds to remove it and replace the nut on the back side. Any input???

peep

Some cut a rectangle window into the frame rail from the underside with a zip cut circular blade on a hand grinder. Save the piece of metal you cut out.This gives you access to that nut for removing it. You can then mig weld in a new nut with the spring reinstall. Then weld in the metal you first cut out to fill the access window you made on the rail.
Best insurance for success is start with a plan.

bryanintowson

What Peep said - my Jeep lives in the salt belt here so when I tried myself to do suspension work, everything and I mean everything was rusted seized. Found a good shop to do the work for me and saved myself these kinds of headaches. I stick to the mechanicals.

jordan96xj

I live in the rustbelt as well. My leafs were in "decent" shape, and the job still sucked. It was hours and hours and hours to get them out. Minutes to put them back in.

Cutting an access hole in the frame pocket by the leaf bracket is the way to go. From the top and through the frame rails are both pretty overkill.

These bolts need heat, and lots of. Their entire thread surface is covered in a special red thread locker that makes them very difficult to turn out. To run them out without heat risks breaking the captured nut loose from the frame rail. Heat eases them right up.