Leaf Spring Nutsert busted loose

I know some people have simply gotten a longer bolt and drilled through the other side of the frame member, then put a strengthening plate on and bolted it down... you might also consider boring straight through and welding in a steel pipe big enough for the bolt so that you've got a bit more to bear on. Just be careful because the gas feed/return and rear brake line go down the left rail. Jeep says the nutserts are actually the same nut as is used on the shackle end, but welded down. Another thing you could do is cut a piece of steel large enough to comfortably weld the nut (or a new nut) to, then cut out the old hole and weld the panel and new nut in.

kastein said:

I know some people have simply gotten a longer bolt and drilled through the other side of the frame member, then put a strengthening plate on and bolted it down...

Click to expand...

I had considered this but was worried about crushing the uniframe rail, plus the lines running down the drivers side rail would be an issue. I think I might try your last idea out.

Right now though my concern is more of how to get the bolt out...

Thanks:exclamati

Yeah I'd be worried about that too personally - either a strengthening plate or the welded-in tube would be something I would lean more towards. I think welding in new plate with a new nut attached will be easiest though - as for getting the old one out, a cutoff wheel should help, you can probably find a way to fish the nut+bolt stub out somewhere (with a magnet after you cut the hole for the new nut+panel?)

I'm freakin scared of this... with my rust belt 96 XJ. I'm taking it to a local spring shop that deals with heavy trucks and letting them deal with it. Soaking it in PB blaster, a 1/2" drive socket with 3 cheater bars (old motorcycle fork tube, 2 small bottle jack handles) wouldn't budge it, and I'm not wanting to bust off the weldnut.

I'm buying all the materials I will need to simply cut the old nuts and bolts out and weld in new before I even start this project (next week!)... decided it's not worth screwing around with it. I'll have to remember to take pictures and post a howto since this seems to be a really, really common question (I've answered... three? four? threads concerning it in the last week)

Good luck!

do some searching, there used to be a picture thread of exactly where to cut through the floor to get to the nut. that way you don't have to worry about rebuilding the structural part. IIRC it was just under the rear seats near a panel seam.

pull the back seat out, pull up the carpet, measure the seams underneath and match up in the cab. this exact reason i haven't replaced my saggy stock springs, scares the hell out of me...