But why bother. when there is, in fact, no lateral movement possible on XJ rear shock absorber mounts?

 

then why do my bushings on bar pins only ever last 1yr at most

and with bar pin eliminators, im 5yrs on the same bushing and still good?

 

Because they're AutoZone shocks?

 

no autozone here

 

Well, I think it would be helpful to post the manufacturer and brand of the shocks with the bushing failure you had issues with, because that sounds more like poor quality bushings rather than a design flaw with XJ shock mounts. The only evidence I have seen of XJ shock mount issues were from rock crawlers where the shock slipped off the bushing.

 

Get a Chiltons manual and watch some YouTube. And do yourself a favor and get the flag nut kit from Rough Country and some Bar Pin Eliminators from Zone Offroad. This will make it much easier to replace in the future. I had to air hammer the bolts out of mine because they all stripped out, and then used the flag nuts. Worked great, and the bar pin eliminator makes changing them in the future much easier because I will never have to mess with the bolts that mount the shock to the body, only two bolts for the shocks.