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Crossmember bolts broke. What to do

jeepfreak1020

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Thornton
So yesterday I instelled my SYE, and before that I had a drop. Just 3 nuts to drop it. I dont know how long it had been in there, but I went to pull the bolts out and push the crossmember back up. Well both bolts on the passenger side broke inside the weld nut. I cant reach them at all. I had the same problem about a year ago with the driver side, the back bolt broke and I just drilled threw the floor and put a bolt washer and nut. Well I dont want to drill 2 more holes on the other side. And the nuts dident break so what can I do? I was thinking about just welding the crossmember to the frame, on the back side front and side. THat would be strong enough right, I only plan to wheel it about once or twice more this season and then it will just be road driving the rest. I plan on building a new heavy duty crossmember around Christmas anyways. So I would just cut it off and grind it down. What else could I do?
 
Why don't you drill through the bolt and use a bolt extraction kit?
 
same thing happened to me when i installed my drop, i welded the square tubing to the framerail and bolted the xmember to the tubing
 
Drill the weld nut out and tap it to the next larger size threads. I think I went with 1/2-13.


If a bolt snaps, an Easy-Out is not going to do anything except snap off and compound the problem.
 
Drill the weld nut out and tap it to the next larger size threads. I think I went with 1/2-13.


If a bolt snaps, an Easy-Out is not going to do anything except snap off and compound the problem.
Tim has the right idea. You need to drill it out and run a tap through it.

All an Easy-Out is going to do is break off and make the problem worse. They are made of a very hardened metal and will make drilling it out a royal PITA.
 
Like mentioned before. Drill them out and tap them to the next largest size. I tapped mine to 7/16-14. I had no problems drilling the broken bolt out. I had problems drilling the broken stud because of the stupid XXXXing piece on the inside of the frame rail that the stud is secured with. Ended up windowing the floor board to remove the stud.
 
I drilled a hole in the side of the unibody rail and used a nut instead of the weld nut. I do like ehall's approach, though. Wish I thought of it.
 
::dusts thread from oblivion::

'99 XJ, lifted. Inserted shims under crossmember. Just had a boo boo. Snapped one of the protruding, fixed bolts (wth). :banghead:

Can they be sawn off, then tapped, to use the standard, original (or, now, bigger) bolts like the other two? How are those fixed inside the unibody? Any chance of detaching it (them!) without using Good Ol' Brutality?


1601110_10153956428155276_1740696128549310304_n.jpg
 
The "fixed bolts" are actually threaded studs. They thread into a nut welded into the frame rail just like the holes that take bolts. To fix, you have the same options already mentioned, its not any different than breaking off one of the bolts.
 
::dusts thread from oblivion::

'99 XJ, lifted. Inserted shims under crossmember. Just had a boo boo. Snapped one of the protruding, fixed bolts (wth). :banghead:

Can they be sawn off, then tapped, to use the standard, original (or, now, bigger) bolts like the other two? How are those fixed inside the unibody? Any chance of detaching it (them!) without using Good Ol' Brutality?

In order of what I would do in your case:

- Remove the crossmember (support the engine/trans first of course)
- Sand down the remaining stud/bolt with an angle grinder so it's nice and flat.
- Center punch the stud so the drill doesn't walk.
- Drill and tap to the next largest size. Google 'drill and tap chart' to find the correct size bit you'll need.
- Drill the crossmember for the new bolt.
- Reinstall everything but with some anti-seize on the threads so you'll be able to remove them again 4 days from now ;)

Hope that helps!
 
You may want to hold that sigh of relief until its out. Broken and rounded hardware is some of the worst you'll deal with on cars.
 
I made some flag nuts and enlarged some of the other holes in the body to insert them and it works pretty well after i broke off the weld nuts inside
 
I wish someone would make a repair kit for this. It seems to be a universal problem.

I saw a commercial for the exact tool needed for problems like this.
 
As it turns out, solved the issue by taking it to a shop, removing the protruding studs (stupid factory set up, anyways), and having them weld stronger (10.9) nuts to the channels, with a reinforcement inside. Added benefit: dropped my transfer case an inch or so, which was my aim with the shims.

W00t.
 
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