• Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Driving without a shock...

B

buckinbyers

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Carmel, IN
So I want to avoid rethreading so if anyone can link me a good thread on replacing back shocks with busted bolt heads I would be very grateful. I snapped both bolt heads on my driver's side rear shock. I know I need to go in through the top so I would love if someone had pictures of doing this. Auto shop said it could be a lot of labor so I figure I would save myself the money by DIY. Thanks for all your help.
 
Oh and I forgot to mention the main reason I made the thread: Do you think it will be a majorly bad idea to drive around with an unbolted rear shock for two days?
 
you will be fine riding with no shock, you don't have to cut the floor I've always drilled the broke bolts out and retaped for a bigger size bolt and called it a day
 
For short term it will be fine. i drove for 2 days on one shock. One old, stock, 150k shock....
Drive it respectable and you'll be fine.

For a fix, there are several threads out there. My choice:

Get a air hammer and punch, or a BFH and elbow grease. I used both. Get under the Jeep, and beat the mojito outta the welded nut. Once it's popped out, just get some grade 8 hardware (bolt, nut, lock washer) and drop it in. Like so:
Take some wire and wind it around the threads on the bolt. thread the other end of the wire into the brace, and out the bolt hole. the bolt will fall into place. repeat.
When installing the shocks you are working against gravity. What I did was hold it up at a slight angle to put pressure on the bolts, and thread on the nuts to hold it up. Then cut the wire, slide on the bottom, and tighten it all down.
 
The weld nut can be driven out with a punch. Then just drop new 5/16ths dia bolts down through the holes and call it a day. If You have trouble getting the bolts in the holes, just wrap a piece of welding wire or mechanics wire around the bolt and fish it through the holes. Did it on every Cherokee I worked on as a professional mechanic, as the stock bolts always broke. Usually could change a set of shocks in 15 minutes, not including the time it took to set up the vehicle on the hoist.
 
The wire on bolt method works, but I ended up just taping the 5/16th bolts to an open end wrench with masking tape and inserted the tool into the adjacent groove where the weld nuts were located (take a look). Once I got the threads through the hole, I simply pulled hard enough to break the tape. Easy method.
 
In the past I've drilled and retapped the broken bolts, but the last time I did this, I instead punched out the old captive nuts. I then took some strips of mild steel, about 1/2 inch wide and 1/8 inch or so thick, and about 6 inches long and drilled and tapped each one at one end. By bending them just right, I was able to fish them into place. Think of them as the equivalent of little nut strips. The strip serves as a handle so you can push it in, and also of course holds it from turning. Next time, if there is a next time, I can just go ahead and shear the bolts if they don't come out, drill and tap another hole in the strip on the bench instead of upside down in the mud, and repeat.
 
if you are very dexterous with your fingers you can drill out the old bolts and get new ones in place by hand. there is a small access port you can fish a nut into. I have done this myself. the other option is to drill through and use a long bolt inside the cab. Just use locktite and overtighten teh bolts a little.
 
Here is what I did for mine, I tried beating the weldnuts out but it wasn't happening. When I got them out from above they had a real bead of weld plus the spot welds. Most people report the nuts have just 4 spot welds, mine have I think 1/3rd of the nut with a weld bead.
 
My 96 was as iwannadie reports, heavy welds. I cut holes in the floor and put in new nuts.

Try punching the nuts out, if they don't move with a hand sledge either drill and tap or go through the floor.
 
kastein said:
My 96 was as iwannadie reports, heavy welds. I cut holes in the floor and put in new nuts.

Try punching the nuts out, if they don't move with a hand sledge either drill and tap or go through the floor.
Click to expand...

Glad I am not the only one. I felt like a weakling when I tried hammering them out and they didn't budge. Everyone said they were able to bang them out easily. Once I cut the floor and got a visual on the welds, I saw that I didn't make any headway at all after beating on them for a long time.

Now that I have air tools and a killer air hammer I wish I could do it over and see if the air hammer would knock them out !!!1 .
 
oh yeah. I forgot. I have been driving without one rear shock on my MJ for months now because I broke a bad weld on one of the shock tabs on my axle last time I raced it, and haven't felt like getting mud in my eyes recently.

I would bet on bending the sheetmetal instead of knocking those welds out. Mine had a good half inch long bead on each side of each nut. No way in hell those were breaking without deforming the sheetmetal. On the other hand a friend's 01 had the 4 spot welds and I knocked the nuts out with a punch and about 2 swings of the hammer. It literally took longer to get in position and put the punch in the right spot than it did to knock the nuts out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

G
Replacing axle leaf spring ubolts questions
2
Replies
31
Views
4K
Anak
Anak
L
XJ Tight Steering
Replies
11
Views
2K
truckeejeeper
T
D
Build: "full body" tons and 40s
2 3 4
Replies
65
Views
17K
DrivnXJ
D
M
New to my XJ & wrenching - How to choose parts and what to prioritize?!
2
Replies
28
Views
4K
flyin_ryan
F
K
XJ Overland build plan, need a sanity check.
Replies
16
Views
6K
jeep ride
J
Back
Top