beerts

91 XJ 4.0

I've been putting on a 3 inch rough country lift over the last three weekends, and have learned how to efficiently remove those stuck bushing bolts pretty well (I thought). I had an after market rear shackle lift installed that needed to be removed before I could install some OEM shackles and finally get the new rear leaf springs in. The shackle bolt was incredibly stuck, but after some torching blaster and a huge cheater bar started making some progress. Unfortunatly the bolt ended up snapping when it was about 2 inches out. After some eye balling and wiggling at the shackle I came to the conclusion that the bold was almost out of the threading in the frame, so I have it some good smashes with a hammer to help it wiggle its way out. Long story short I ended up breaking the frame where the shackle bolt threads in. After calling a few shops and realizing it very few would do the work, and the ones that would seemed pretty hesitant I've decided to just fix the thing myself. I know ill need to rip out whats in there, and weld in something new.

Any advice or tricks would be more than welcome, thanks!

Close up of damage

Overall view

Medium View

4.3L XJ

That shackle looks like it is diagonal instead of square with the frame. Am I looking at it right?

beerts

yessir, that is a product of the hammering, its pretty much just hanging loose at this point.

4.3L XJ

Do you have a MIG available?

beerts

I've got an electric welder, from what I can tell it should do the trick. My main concern is finding the safest way to weld to that frame, if a bigger hole would be better than a smaller hole, should I usr a nut wended to the patch or Tap the steel i weld in, what kind of steel to use etc.

4.3L XJ

If you are using a stick welder, I wouldn't recommend it unless you are very good at it and using something like jet rod (8024). It is too easy to burn through that thin metal we have

TRCM

Judging from the amount of rust in the pics, and the condition of the metal, I'd say it's time for some shackle relocation boxes....lift or no-lift style, either will work

This is what I did when I had a problem with mine....https://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1123584


I do wish I had moved the shackle bolt forward forward tho, as then it would have modified my shackle angle as well.


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4.3L XJ

that was my next suggestion. The only option I could see with the thickness of metal there is acetylene gas welding

TRCM

I used a mig....I would not use an oxy-ace setup there............driver side is too close to the fuel fill line for a flame to be in that area.........at least for my likes.

beerts

This looks like it might be the best solution for me, nice work!