CFJB

Well guys...started to put my lift on today, and, those darn rear shackles are not making my life easy. They're just spinning... I've done my a fair amount of research and I've decided to take the bumper off and go through the unibody. My question is since I do not have any welding gear, If I put a new bolt through there with a nut and wash in the unibody(to replace current welded nut) will it be okay?

my89xj

I don't see why not.

bassboost

I used bolt and nut on mine, everything was too rusty to re-use. As long as it bolts together properly and nothing appears to be not in the correct spot. All should work fine!

motorcharge

Are you sure it's the nut broken off inside the frame or are the bolts seized in the bushings?

If it's definitely the nut you can simply stick a wrench on it and unbolt like any other nut and bolt and reuse it.

If it ends up being the bushing, you have three options. Ranked in order of ease:

1. Hit the welds on the shackle with an air hammer til they bust, by then the bushing should be toast and fall out once you pry the shackle open some.

2. Cut the welds with a grinder and get to the bushings that way.

3. Torch the bushings out. This is probably the easiest, but I'm not a fan of an open flame that hot that close to the gas tank.

Did the air hammer on mine and had the shackles off and the new ones on inside 20 min.

gilbertxj466

I dropped the gas tank and cut a hole large enough to fit a socket thru to get at the nut inside the unibody . I have not placed a plate over the hole for future access. Everything is holding up just fine with heavy wheeling.

motorcharge

Its a lot easier to unbolt the rear bumper cut the sheet metal off the end of the frame rails. Theyre already marked and it opens the frame up for frame tie ins on a rear bumper.