Support the tranny with a jack/jackstands if not already. Take the skid the rest of the way off and try vice grips on that stud. If there's enough room(which it looks like there isn't) you can double nut it. Good Luck!

 

Actually, the part I'm having trouble with RIGHT NOW is the broken bolt head. I haven't even tried to remove the stud yet. But I will definitely try the double nut method you recommended first, then vise grips.

I guess, technically, now that I've snapped the head off the bolt I'm dealing with 2 studs. One is exposed, the other is broken flush with the frame rail, making it difficult to deal with.

I took a look at the frame rail, there's happens to be a larger hole downstream that I think I could fish new hardware through if I can punch out the bolt that I snapped the head off. I may try that. It's essentially the same approach you would take on the busted shock bolts.

Anybody have any issues/concerns with this approach?

 

How would you keep the bolt from turning while tightening down the nut?

 

Good question. I guess, I was hoping that the lock washer would allow me to get a good bite. Once it STARTS to tighten, it usually continues. At least that's my experience from the rear shock bolts. I didn't even need to hold the bolt with a wrench on the shocks.

Would you recommend trying to drill and re-tap the hole first?

 

Well its probably a welded nut, so I don't think that would work....and it would probably break the tiny *** welds they did on it. So I wouldn't recommend that lol.

I guess you could try the lock washer, and if it doesn't work, you could use vice grips to hold the bolt while you tighten the nut. That would suck though.

 

Yeah, looks like I'll try that first then. Punch-and-fish!

 

Good Luck!

 

While I try to figure out how to deal with the snapped bolt on my transfer case crossmember, I went ahead and tried to loosen/remove some of the other bolts/studs.

I took offroadnut36's advice on the double nut method, which I wasn't familiar with, but it worked great on the passenger side stud. I actually bought a couple nuts from Lowes for this because I felt like the flange nuts would be a little too cumbersome to work with.

Here they are loaded up on the stud. Make sure they are very tight against eachother...


Once you get the the nuts on there, use the bottom nut to tighten the stud and the top nut to loosen the stud. The nuts shouldn't move in either direction if you are careful with the wrench. I tightened and loosened the stud with a back and forth motion to break the corrosion/seize. I spent my time doing this b/c I don't want to deal with any more broken bolts. It eventually backed out nice and smooth. Also, I sprayed a little PB Blaster up into the frame rail yesterday which may have helped.

Here's what the stud looks like once it's out:


The stud and it's flange nut:


No more stud! You can see the threads of the welded nut in the frame rail if you look closely:




After this small victory, I decided to move to the other side and see about loosening the nut and bolt. Again, I took my time and tightened each first to break any corrosion/seize then loosened. Both the nut and bolt seemed to loosen so I'm sure the driver side won't be an issue with any luck.

All I gotta do now is deal with the one snapped bolt head on the passenger side.

I'll keep you posted.

 

Good job! And good luck with that bolt!

 

nice build, just went though a similar install myself installing a 3.5 inch lift from RE. I wish I had as thorough a install guide as you have created here! nice work!

 

for your broken bolt in the frame, I think the best way would be to use an extractor for it, the way it works for most of them first you need to drill the bolt, then i higly recommend eating it as much as you can, the hotter the easier, then you just have to use the extractor, kind of looks like a left hand drill to unscrew it. If you go to your favorite auto parts store and ask for a broken bolt extractor kit I'm sure they will be able to help you

here is a link to a picture of the kit I use. Just make sure you heat it up real good and it the extractor pretty hard in it before you try to unscrew it
http://media.uxcell.com/uxcell/image...x0076_ux_c.jpg

 

i step drilled mine after they broke and then weaseled the rest out with needle nose. stud extractor would be the best bet however.

 

Finally remedied the broken crossmember bolt, but not exactly as I had planned.

Punch-and-Fish method:
I finally got the bolt punched through. This took some WORK. I probably spent a few hours off and on punching away but it eventually succumbed.


The tape you see on the sides was just covering some of the frame rail b/c a lot of debris was falling down onto me.

With the hole cleared, it was time to fish the bolt:

Running it through...


Wire in place...


Ready to pull...


Right about here is where I'd like to show you the picture of the bolt coming through the hole...

[IMG] bolt poking through the hole in the frame rail [IMG]

But I don't have that picture. Because the dang bolt was too large to come through!!!! Not because of the bore, it was too long to stand up inside the frame rail. Apparently the frame rail narrows in height right where the bolts come through to fasten the crossmember. Since the bolts are longer to accommodate the 1'' spacers they just didn't fit.

Since I had punched out the welded nut, there was no going back (drilling, tapping, ez-out, etc). I figured I had 1 of 2 options remaining.
1. Cut the floor to access the inside of the frame rail
2. Fish a nut over the hole

So, I removed the passenger seat, kick plate and lifted the carpet to see what I was dealing with. Now, I don't have an angle grinder or any other high powered cutting tool so I busted out the Dremmel. I tried to line up where I thought the floor should be cut and started into it. Long story, short.... I gave up after about 45 secs when I realized the Dremmel just wasn't going to get the job done. At least not with the crappy cutting wheel I have anyway. In retrospect, I'm glad it worked out this way.

What about option #2? If only I could fish a nut over the hole and keep it in place while I tightened the bolt. But how?

This is how:

I taped and super glued a flanged nut to a wrench and fished the whole thing through the frame rail. If I had a welder, I would've gone that route.

Here it is in place:

You can see the shaft in the frame rail. The length of the wrench is an important feature as it keeps the nut from spinning while being tightened.

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get the bolt to thread b/c I wondered if the wrench would just jump around in there. Let's just say, here's the finished result:

I tightened all the bolts down to specified torque.

We'll see if the craftsman wrench that lives in my frame rail results in a rattle during driving, I'll keep you posted on that.

Transfer case drop, DONE.

 

I'm sorry, but that's just entirely epic bahahaha.

Glad to see you figured out how to finish it, sorry to see you lost a wrench in the process....and a good wrench at that. Now its time to test drive that baby

 

sanchezcruz_20 you should post that over in the "you know you drive an XJ when" thread...

You know you drive an XJ when you have permanently lost tools inside your frame rail!

I got a free rusty crescent wrench at a salvage yard one time. The guy must have lost it and dropped under a seat I pulled out for the seat motor. Cleaned it up nice and been using it ever since.



Good progress! You mastered the bolt fishing pretty fast, since you have an XJ; broken bolt extraction and bolt fishing skills are very important!