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Stuck leaf spring bolt

A

Anthropy

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Iowa
I spent 2 days trying to get the front leaf spring bolt out and my garage is still trying to get it out.

Any helpful suggestions as to getting it out. He is going to try and put a torch tip in the uni-body hole next to the bolt to see if he can get some heat to it.

Tom
 
If the bolt is turning but not coming out then you have 2 possible scenarios. One is that the nut inside the frame rail has broken free of its tack welds and is now spinning as you turn the bolt head. I've never had to deal with this one but many here have. You're probably going to have to cut into th rail so you can get a wrench in there.

The other possible scenario is that the bolt is siezed to the bushing inside of the eye of the leaf spring. You'll probably be able to tell if it's this scenario if the bolt actually backed out some and then started to give you trouble. The solution for this is to cut the eye of the spring in half. Neither one is a party. I soaked all my bolts for weeks before even thinking of installing my lift to try and avoid this. Good luck.
 
You have a third option too. If you can get a sawzall blade in between the spring pack and the frame rail, then you can cut the bolt in half and get the springs removed. You will still have to figure out what to do with the half of the bolt left and determine if there is a problem with that nut.

Here's a link that shows a good solution if you need to get inside the frame rail to gain access to the nut. Take your time...it'll all work out.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=93674&highlight=leaf+spring+bolt
 
Chances are you are going to have to cut open the frame rail, so you might as well just save time and agravation and do it now. It will allow you to put a wrench on the nut if it is spining, or cut out the nut and bolt out when it snaps (more common). It isn't pretty but Jeep never came up with a better system so this is what we are stuck with....make me want to beat the guy who had this GREAT idea.
 
The nut is not actually in the frame rail, its in the little pocket welded onto the outside of the frame rail. Also, that would take one long wrench to get to the front leaf spring bolt.

I had this problem as well but what I did was drilled a hole on the inside of the frame rail then enlarged the hole on the other side. Then I could get a socket thru the frame rail to the nut.

drawing is not to scale
new-holes.jpg
 
I don't think the nut has broken off of the uni-body as when I was trying it, I put my breaker bar on it and then put my jack under the handle and when I put upward pressure on it all I did was to start to bend my breaker bar.

My garage mechanic told me yesterday that he tried a breaker bar with a 6 ft cheater and it would not budge.
 
i stood on me 3ft bar and jumped up and down after i cut the leaf spring away from around it. that got it. on the other side i tried this before i cut the leaf spring off and snapped the bolt. but difinitly cut away the leaf spring. i snapped one 3ft breaker bar doing this but i eventually got it with the second
 
I just replaced my leaf springs last week, soaked all nuts and bolts with PB Blaster every night before bed for 5 nights before tackling the job, had no problems, wife said it left a sour taste though!
 
jtmerc said:
I just replaced my leaf springs last week, soaked all nuts and bolts with PB Blaster every night before bed for 5 nights before tackling the job, had no problems, wife said it left a sour taste though!
Click to expand...

and what was she tasting PB off of?
 
have you tried to re tighten the bolt and work it out by tightening and loosening. sometimes there is rust and other debris that gets caught on the treads and doesnt let the nut back off the bolt.

i broke the same bolt on mine being in too much of a hurry. if it isnt going, dont force it cause a busted bolt there is a PITA.

i would definitely recomend tightening the bolt and walking it in and out. that will give the threads a chance to clean themselves out a little bit and slowly allowing the bolt to come out. patience is a virtue.
 
Go with cutting the spring eye and don't go after the nut until you have the bolt exposed. When I did the lift on my '96 I ran into the same problem. I cut the spring eye in half with a 4 1/2 inch grinder. Then I cut away the rubber bushing. Step three is to cut the bushing sleeve off of the bolt using a Dremel tool. Then all you have left is the bolt. Use PB Blaster. Let it soak. Then heat it up and use a good impact wrench or 18 inch cheater bar. Now if you find that it spins and doesn't back out, you can go after the nut.

The problem usually is that the bolt rusts to the sleeve and you can't back them out. Of course, you'll need new bolts. When you put the new ones in, put anti-seize on the inside of the new bushing.
 
I wound up having to cut the leaf spring off the car, leaving the eye on the front bolted to the jeep. Then I used a cutoff wheel to slice the eye in half, then I cut the rubber bushing off to expose the bolt. Once I got it all wide open I was able to heat it with a propane torch and get it out without damaging the cage nut in the frame too much.

I wound up drilling out the cage nuts and installing new grade 8 bolts and nuts anyways. What I did was tack weld the nuts to the frame rail from the inside while it was all bolted up while I had the floor pans cut open to repair rust.

I'm on my way home now to finish up those pans. I cant wait to get my XJ back on the road!!!
 
Well, he said he fianally got them changed. I think the heat part worked. I would have tried more myself, but he was only going to charge me $110 to swap them out.

I had used Kroil to soak all the parts for a week prior to tackling the job, but I guess I should have done it for about 3 weeks prior. Live and learn.

Plus the wife wanted me to take her out of town to go see the King Tut exibit in Chicago. For all my troubles, I ended up with some bad food and have been sick ever since.

BTW: The Tut exibit is over rated and much smaller than it was when I first saw it 30 years ago in California when I was 14.
 
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