Ok so while pulling the factory shocks off my xj I snapped of the head of the bolt on the left side. I tried to tap out the rest of the bolt and snapped the drill bit off inside the hole. It was super rusted. Now I've only got one bolt holding the shock on and that is not working. I herd welding the shock tabs to body does not work, when it flexes it will just rips the welds off or tabs. Any body have any ideas as to how i can remount the shock (s)? I have been pondering it all weekend. I don't know what to do. thanks

 

There's tons of writeups on this... all 4 of mine busted... ill be welding my swaybar brackets to the frame and using that instead...

 

All 4 of my rear shock bolts broke when I changed my shocks a few months ago. I just took a long punch and hammer and knocked out the weld nuts and broken bolts. I then fished in 3/8" x 1" bolts from above by wrapping a thin piece of tie wire around the bolt threads and pulling it through the bolt hole. Put the shock in place and put lock washers and nuts on the bottom.

I was lucky enough that the bolts grabbed and I didn't have to hold them with a wrench when I tightened the nuts. Make sure that you check the nuts after driving a while. In my case, there was some metal left from the weld nuts that compressed a bit and let the nuts loosen up.

 

Cool. I was trying to find out my options. I did cut the carpet back from inside the cab but I was unable to find the bolts. Figured they had to be on top somewhere. I'll probabaly try the punch and hammer idea. Any other thoughts let me know. Thanks.

 

This is the best method of fixing this problem. Some guys pull the carpet up and cut holes in the rear cargo area floor above where the bolts are, but that is completely unnecessary. I had all 4 weld nuts punched out and new bolts fished and shocks mounted up in less than 30 minutes. And then I didn't have to fix a hole in my floor.

 

Remember to use anti-seise when re installing the bolts. It will prevent this in the future