acmech13

I was thinking of instead of removing the broken bolts in my frame. I would weld new bolts right under my frame. Anyone else do this? to me this seems alot easier than trying to break the old broken bolt out.

thebrow89

i would use a air hammer and they usually caome rite out

94sport

I drilled out what was left of the broken bolts and tapped new threads. Then I put grade 8 bolts back with anti seaze lube to prevent the new ones from rusting. Make sure to use safety glasses

a1racer

this is the way to go if you can. and don't forget the anti seize it will prevent this from happening again. don't try to weld to anything on the unibody unless you have very good skills with sheet metal if not do it the way 94sport said

Long Island XJ

this maybe hard to follow as Im not sure how to get this in writing. use an air hammer and punch the old bolt out, should come out pretty easy. There should be a little space in between the shock mount ant the floor pan(at least there is on my 93). Take your new bolt and loosely duct tape a zip tie to it, bend to zip tie a little to a fish hook shape and fish it through said space and pull new bolt through. Worked like a charm for me. HTH

jpdocdave

thats the only way to go, takes about 15 mins. i've written it up and talked about it, but the question keeps coming up every couple weeks, and everyone keeps coming up with complicated suggestions, drilling, tapping, welding . i've done dozens of these, because at least one is gonna break on every xj. i've tried other ways, and they are a waste of time.

Long Island XJ

thanks for the jpdocdave. A lot of people tend to over think things and make it harder than it is.

thebrow89

i all for knockin them out with an air hammer and i kno another good way to get the nuts in there. first u take ur welder (it has to be a wire feed) and put the nut u wanna hold onto into the ground clamp. then put the wire from the welder up against one flat side of the nut and just barely tap the trigger so the wire sticks to the nut. then take the ground clamp off and feed out about a foot of wire and cut it off. now ur nut should be welded to the end of the wire and u can fish it were ever u want to. i hope that made sense. its easy once u get the hang of it. good luck

jpdocdave

that probably sounded more complicated than it is. i never thought of that, but i just use a flexible magnet the few times i couldn't fit my hand back there. the bolt can fall off the magnet if you're not careful, so thats a cool idea.

i use a bolt though, not a nut for the top, that way the nut is facing down and at least gravity holds it in place, and i put the nut on the bottom side.

thebrow89

yea it sounds alot worse than it is. lol it works well tho. my only problem with the bolt was i was afraid it would try to spin when i tightened it up. as long s they tighten up i guess it dont matter.

jpdocdave

air gun always zips it right up, by hand it might be a little tougher, but almost every time i can fit a wrench on the bolt anyway.