cherokee_225

So im doing the rear portion of my 4.5 inch RC lift all happy everything is going fairly well. Until i broke the bolts (all of them) on the upper rear shocks on my 99 xj.... safe to say ive had something like this happen on a cylinder head of my old jeep and know how to handle it.

My dilemma:
should i tap out the bolts?

or

should i bust the nuts welded to the frame and come in from the top?

Alpha 1-4

Break the Nuts out, come from the top.

holycaveman

Take a air hammer with a point. Hit all four broken bolts and it will knock the welded nuts out. IF you don't have an air hammer a punch and a sledge will work.

Take wire and fish new bolts through the holes. With nuts and washers on the outside.

Use flat washers, lock washers and regular nuts. Problem solved.

kickice24

I did like caveman, except I just taped the nut to a wrench and fed the bolts up from the bottom.

skrewy

old trick i picked up and have used ever since.
take a small piece of paper towel or anything that works and wedge it in between the wrench and the bolt or nut holds it in place just fine

XJ1517

I just went through this with my XJ. I don't have access to air tools in my driveway so I cut through the top. Doing it this way can serve other purposes. One, its pretty straightforward putting the new bolt, washers and nuts and is pretty easy. Two, you can address any floor rot/rust by lifting the carpet. On my XJ, I couldn't believe the mess I saw so while I was doing my shocks from the top, I went ahead and did some floor patching and painting.

Just a thought. Good luck.

anarce

This thread has good pictures of the process:
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f51/br...-guide-150384/