i'm sure plenty of people have run into this prob, i went to replace my factory shocks that came with the my XJ in 93 and i broke off 3 out of 4 upper shock bolts, just wondering what some of you have done to remount your shocks after you had this prob, any pics or a tech article would be great thanks in advance,

 

This is a very common issue with XJ's. What I did with my '99 is I used a punch and hammer to knock out the rusty weld nuts and used a thin piece of wire to fish 3/8 bolts from the top down. I believe they were 1-1/4" long. I slid the shocks into place and put washers and nuts on the bottom end of the bolts.

I was able to slide an open end wrench on to the bolt heads and used a socket to tighten the nuts. Check the bolts in a week or so. Mine loosened up due to debris left from the weld nuts I think. So far, mine has been like this for over a year and no problems.

 

Exactly why ive had brand new rear shocks sitting in my jeep waiting to be put in lol. Glad to see some ways to fix it

 

Going to do mine this weekend. Yesterday left rear shock broke away from floor while driving. Previous owner had welded it on & by the looks of it never attempted to get old bolts out . Search this subject there are a few good posts with pics walking you thru whole procedure. https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/bro...utting-111475/ recent one

 

these look promising...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JEEP-CHEROKE...#ht_720wt_1110

 

i've gotten away with carefully drilling them out and putting in a 5/16 helicoil, just be careful to keep the hole as centered in the old bolt as possible as there isn't much meat up there for it to catch in.

 

Thanks for all the info guys, i heard about running bolts though the back side but i didn't really see how, I'll have to look for the access holes a bit closer, and that product on ebay looks like it would be a good replacement mount, i thought about fabbing something up to convert it back to the old style shocks with just a bolts and eyelets, i'll try running some bolts though the backside before i start fabbing up something weird, thanks again,

 

Anyone tried to soak them with liquid wrench overnight and using a bolt extractor?

 

I soaked mine with PB blaster for a week prior to taking my shocks off and broke all 4 of the upper bolts. I then proceeded to break my extractor in half trying to get one out.

Grabbed an air chisel ($10-12 from HF) and had all the old hardware out in a couple of minutes.

Fished in new bolts through the access port right next to the shock mount (no cutting of the floor) and was good to go.