I went from being thoroughly excited to thoroughly bummed with one phone call. I have my 96 XJ in the local shop having them install a whole new suspension, the Up Country replacement that a helpful fellow took the time to piece together on Amazon and do a full write-up (with a few exceptions, Dormans instead of Crowns, different rear shocks, etc.).

Apparently, everything was going well until they got to this:



The passenger side front mounting bracket is pretty well rusted out. The bolt spins and will not come out. There's no way to get at the nut side of the bolt as it sits inside the unibody frame rail and has only a very small, useless hole on the bottom (of the rail) which I'm assuming is for drainage and not access as there's no way to get in there.

Has anyone run into this problem and what have you come up with for a solution? Can you get a new mounting bracket for this guy, grind the old one out, and weld a new one in? I'm really bummed out. Although I have the whole suspension, the real reason behind having this job done was that my leafs had completely inverted again. I have these two beautiful new Dorman HD springs with bushings just sitting there, and no way to get them in.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide!

 

My brackets on my 96 were good, but nuts spun just like yours. I used a grinder to cut holes in the bottom of the uni-frame, did the lift, then cleaned the area down to bare metal, and stitch welded 3/16" plate over the holes i made.

 

You don't want to cut in to the frame, instead, you need to cut into the bottom of the bracket that is slightly offset from the frame.

As for the mount itself, it doesn't look bad. A little surface rust... but your floors above it are toast. You'll want to cut those out and weld in some new steel.

 

Been hoping this same thing won't happen on mine.

 

My mounts are like that and I just had the springs changed. Mechanic said they are fine for now but I plan on welding a plate over the bracket in the future, just for peace of mind. Search the threads here for floor pans and you will find several threads where users welded plates over that bracket.

However, if you look at the bracket, it is firmly welded to the bottom and side of the frame rail.

As for the mechanic not being able to remove the bolts, that is lame. They should be able to manage around that.

 

Also, it looks like you have some sort of undercoating that is now flaking off. That is a great method of trapping moisture and salt next to the metal underside of the jeep. Take a wire brush to it so it falls off. It will expose the metal but it will allow it to dry off when wet.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. The thing is, the uni frame rail or whatever it's technically called is in pretty good shape itself for having been driven in northern Minnesota for 20 years. You can tell it had been coated by Ziebart or something similar, and the rail itself is surprisingly solid. The floors are in pretty bad condition, but not the worst I've seen. I'd hate to cut into the rail though, given that it's probably in the best condition of the whole undercarriage.

If I can't figure out a reasonable solution, I'll probably just roll around in it the way it is until it falls apart. As of right now, it has new coil springs, front shocks, steering damper, and these rear load leveling shocks which hopefully raise up the rear some:
Was really excited about the new leafs though. Anyone contemplating which leafs to get, I can say from the looks of the Dormans, they look really solid. So bummed

 

Can you expound on this thought? It's not as though the mounting brackets are about to break off. They are still relatively solid considering. My main problem right now is the bolt not coming out. If you had the same problem, how did you guys get the bolt out?

 

cut a "u" shape into uniframe and fold the flap up, you will have to ream the hole larger with a reamer bit on a die grinder to get a deep socket on a breaker bar on the nut, remove nut with a magnet, install new grade 8 hardware with some kopr kote on the threads and in the leaf eye bushing, tighten and torque it up (torque it on the ground), fold flap down and weld 'er shut

 

http://www.polyperformance.com/Syner...Hanger-Bracket

 

Again.... don't cut the frame. Just grabbed a couple of pics off the internet.

Here, you can see where to cut a small opening.







In this one, the guy cut his opening a little larger than I would have liked, but you can see how he stuck a wrench in there to grab the bolt. No need to cut massive holes in anything.

 

Ok, I wasn't quite understanding where you meant, looks good though. I'm about to print this up and head down there, thanks!

 

Those look solid as hell. I would have to put in new floors before putting those in. Dig it though. If I ever go whole hawg on the floors, these will definitely be on the list. Right now, we're gonna try the hole big enough for a wrench in the bottom of the bracket solution. The driver's side will come out no problem, if they can get the bolt out after lunch, new springs will go in, and I'll wind up keeping it until I turn into Fred Flintstone with my legs sticking through the floorboards and drive it until it literally falls apart.

Trouble with these goddamn Cherokees is they get so sentimental, or I should say, I do when it comes to the Jeep. I've had it for almost 10 years, and we've been through a lot together. Body is in fantastic shape. Engine, tranny, 4wd all work perfectly. Interior is in awesome shape, etc..

I'll let you all know how it turns out!

 

Sorry for not being clearer, I just meant that a mechanic with a lift, tools and experience should be able to get those bolts out. People here do it all the time at home, on the driveway, with lots of sweat and muscle so it should be doable for a mechanic that does this for a living.

 

I had those Monroe 58594 installed along with the Dorman leaf springs. The mechanic warned me against them because of how stiff they are, but I had bought them already so I told him to install them anyway.

I regret it because the ride is very stiff now and they are very noisy. I sprayed them with Wurth lube and then with graphite and that quieted them down mostly, but they still chirp some.

Good luck.