XJ-kee

This isn't meant to be anything technical, just curiosity on my part. I replaced all 4 shocks and the leaf springs this past weekend and had almost everything go wrong for me.

Since I live in michigan, I broke every single shock bolt both on the front and rear. The rear passenger side was easy enough to drop the bolt through the frame like everyone talks about doing. However, the drivers side is a different story. I had 1.25" long bolts and I just could NOT get the bolt to flip down into the hole. The bolt head would hit the floor pan above it too soon and block it from dropping down into the hole.

Also on the drivers side, I couldn't get one of the welded nuts smashed out with the air hammer or using a sledge on my own. That sucker is IN there. I ended up drilling a hole big enough into the nut (i.e. removing the threads of the nut) so I could fit a larger bolt into it (5/16"). Now, even if I bought smaller length bolts, with the nut still in there I wouldn't have enough space to get the new bolt flipped around and down into the hole I created...after an hour of trying I drilled holes in my floor pan, coated it with etching primer and rust paint, and then dropped the bolts through to mount the shock. It's a Jeep, it's going to have quirks, right?! I'm going to keep an eye out for any rust that might start creeping up in there, but we'll see how it turns out. I just didn't know what else to do with it.

Anyone else run into this problem? how'd you fix it?

oldguy52

I didn't know about the dropping thru the frame so I just did basically what you did. I drilled out the broken bolt then from underneath I drilled up thru the floor pan. Then from on top I opened up the holes big enough to drop the bolts in. Like you said I didn't mind the patch hidden under the carpet. I replaced the bolts with stainless steel bots and used never seize to make sure. The stainless bolts can be pricey but for those four I didn't mind.

Cheddarnut

I used a small hole saw, measured and cut out a hole above the bolt. That gave me room to drop in the bolt. Then I just patched the hole.

Dumajones

Here is a good Vid

macgeng

lmao! awesome vid! i just broke mine so that's why i'm here. blahhh.. no pain, no gain!

dmill89

On mine, I knocked out the weld nuts with an air-hammer, taped (scotch tape, just on the edges) a nut and washer to a box-end wrench, put it through the access hole in the mount and put the bolts in from below (then pulled the wrench out of course). This is another option to "fishing" the bolts in, either works fairly well.




Rough Country now also makes a neat kit specifically for this issue, same concept, but eliminates the need to mess around with taping stuff to a wrench and trying to position it or fish in hardware. It should also keep the new bolts from spinning if you ever need to remove it the shocks again, making any future replacements easier: http://www.roughcountry.com/jeep-xj-...-nut-1082.html

macgeng

i think i'm going to go with the kit from rough country. thanks dmill89!

macgeng

ahhh okay... well i just broke the lower bolt on the rear shocks.. shocker. is that sucker welded into the arm? where do i buy a new bolt?

dmill89

Yep, you'll have to drill it out.


You have a few options to replace it, you can just use a grade 8 bolt, an upper shock mount bolt from a Chevy/GMC K10, or an aftermarket product specifically designed for this (which is actually very similar to the K10 bolt):
http://www.dormanproducts.com/itemde...0&SEName=31001

macgeng

Thanks dmill!

Programbo

Shock bolts

macgeng

omg.. you have got to be kidding me. ok, i already broke off one bolt and now the rest of the three that are left connected are all stripped. they all turn but won't come off... fml.

rzldzl

hammered them out with hand hammer

fished bolts down thru on wire.

dmill89

You can try getting a wrench/pliers through the access hole to hold the weld nut, or just cut the bolts off.

macgeng

damn dmill, you saved me again. did the wrench through the access hole. money!