Hey guys, I'll cut right to the chase, I'm a beginner and I haven't changed shocks before. This forum has been amazingly helpful in researching what i should get and great tutorials on installations, so thank you guys. I've been reading about a lot of people having issues with the rear upper shock bolt corroding and being unusable for the replacement shock. I didn't see any resource for what happens after the bolt has been dreamed unusable. Is there just a replacement bolt you can buy? I read of several people taking their truck into a shop after the bolt corroded out on them. I really appreciate any help you can give me, thanks again.


PS I have a 2000, basically stock XJ and I'm replacing stock shocks with Bilstein 4600's. If anyone has any tips about working with Bilstein I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

 

If you have extra cash, you could always do these so you don't have to worry about this issue at all

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JEEP-CHEROKE...6eb7ff&vxp=mtr

 

So the heads of the bolts broke off and I tried to easy out the rest of the bolts, and the easy out broke off inside the bolt. The only other fix I could think of is drilling out the holes and putting bolts right down through the sheet metal to the shocks, but I don't really want to take out the interior to do that. Any other solutions you guys know of? Thanks again for your help.

 

If you have access to a welder id weld a nut to the broken bolt and pb vlast it for a couple days then slowly loosen and tighten the bolt/s until they come out

 

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp...w=1394&bih=643

 

Just do this.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f11/d...repair-556807/

I'm new too, and the first time I changed my shocks I sheared one off. Followed this and worked like a charm. While you have them out, I would recommend switching to Bar Pin Eliminators so you should never have to worry about messing with those bolts again.

 

Drill, tap & antisieze the new bolts, problem solved.

 

Drilling through broken Easy-outs sucks. As an Airframer on F-18's for 5 years I can personally attest to that.