Broken Front Leaf Spring Bolt

Hi guys, in the process of lifting my brothers XJ today he managed to break the bolt that goes through the front of the leaf spring on the driver side. The bolt broke halfway through the bushing... the nut did not let go inside the frame, just the bolt broke. I have new leaf packs to put in so cutting it up's not an issue, but I'm just wondering how in the hack you guys would get the broken bolt out of the nut? What woud you do? (Yes I'm in the process of searching the forums here, but any help is appreciated since I'd like to get him back on the road tonight...)

You are going to have to cut the bracket under the bolt. There is a little bump behind which the nut sits on the inside of the bracket. The nut sits between the leaf spring bracket and the frame. Cut out the underside of this "bump" in the bracket, and you can get a 22mm wrench, or some needle nose vicegrips in there to hold the nut while you cut or turn out the broken bolt. You will have to bend or cut the outer wall of the bracket to get the leaf spring out.

Hope this makes sense.

SimpleXJ

heat it with a propane torch 'til it glows. let it cool, and hit it with PBlaster. torch it again and vice-grip it out. this is assuming you cut the spring eye until you can get to the remaining portion of the bolt.

--Shorty

Propane torch will not be hot enough to make anything glow. I think he meant acetelyne torch. Good point though, if the tack weld on the nut is not broken, you may be able to turn it out with some heat. If the weld is broken, and the nut is spinning inside the bracket, you will have to cut it.

SimpleXJ

SimpleXJ said:

Propane torch will not be hot enough to make anything glow. I think he meant acetelyne torch. Good point though, if the tack weld on the nut is not broken, you may be able to turn it out with some heat. If the weld is broken, and the nut is spinning inside the bracket, you will have to cut it.

SimpleXJ

Click to expand...

yeah, acetelyne is the method I use. I was thinking propane would prolly do the job as I was posting. dammit, I hate when I'm thinking and posting at the same time!

thanx for fixing my 'case of the stupids'
--Shorty

It wasn't pretty: I don't have a torch, I had a welder, angle grinder with cut-off wheels, extra hardware from the J-Y, borrowed a sawzall once I choose my course of action.

It started with the nut breaking loose in the bracket. I cut the bolt on both sides of the spring. I cut the bracket as shown, bent it out just enough to extract the nut and stub of bolt. I closed the vertical cut with a hammer and punch, put a tack weld on it to hold it shut. I left the "flap" open at the bottom. Using the opening at the bottom, I slid the replacement nut in place and ran the replacement bolt in tight enough to hold the nut so I could tack it to the bracket. With the bolt still in place I pushed the rest of the bracket into place and welded it shut. I removed the bolt AFTER the welding was complete.

I did not weld the entire span across the bottom. I welded the ends and put a tack in the center. There was a lot of dirt trapped inside the bracket when I first cut it open, I'm thinking about drilling a drain hole or two on the other side.



After I put this side back together, I changed the spring on the other side, took a shower, drove it 45 minutes on the highway to pick up my wife at the airport. That was a month ago; so far, so good.

Your results may vary, but at least you have a preview. Myself, I hate working with that awwshit feeling. This one lasted 5, maybe 6 hours from realization of the problem, to making the airport on time.

you mentioned that you had a welder. another possible solution could have been to weld a nut on to the stub of the broken bolt. then attempt to remove the bolt with the new "head" of the bolt welded on (nut).

also, heat is a very effective tool at loosening siezed bolts.

i too broke the exact same bolt off on my 95. i only had 1/8 inch of bolt left sticking out of the bracket and didnt have access to a welder then so that was out of the question. i ended up drilling it out and attempting and failing with an easy out. so i grabbed a dremel tool and cut the remaining stuck portion like a pie or pizza and removed each "slice." i was careful not to cut into the nut threads and broke each slice off with a punch to remove it.

hope these tips help for future searches.

Thanks guys!

We ended up cutting the bolt flush to the bracket so we could drop the leafspring out. Then we cut an access hole into the bottom of the bracket with an angle grinder. Then we stuck a sawzall up in there and cut the excess bolt off inside the bracket. I grabbed my punch and a small sledge and popped the nut off. Then since we had an access hole already, we just held another nut up in there when we were putitng it back together and once everything was tight, I tacked that nut in place and patched up the bracket. Wasn't too horrible, but still it was quite a setback in an otherwise easy lift.

[rant on]

Ok so I get a beater cherokee for free, that runs, and already has a 3.5" rubicon express kit on it. My other cherokee, has a 4.5" Rough country AAL kit which Really sucks my left nut.... another story...

Anyways I've been in progress of swapping the kits between the two because I'd rather the beater cherokee have the beater lift kit. Got the front done no issues, and moved on to the back. The kit has been on for several years, and I go to pull the leafs out after undoing the u-bolts go figure the bolts are seized like someone jbwelded the things in there. No big deal soak it with PB blaster and a few days later it should be butter with a 36" breaker bar.

No go, got the rear shackle done first, and after minutes of abuse from the impact gun on the front bolt, I break out the big boy. Get about a 20th of a turn and think all is well in the world, next pull and snap. Needless to say it appears the bolt broke right on the frame side of the mount... :gonnablow Bolt is still very tight but spins around in circles in the bushings. spring wobbles back and forth on the exterior mount. Guessing the bolt is seized with the sleeve. Ok the world isn't over yet, break out the sawzall to finish off the bolt and drop the spring so I can just have it done and cut the bottom of the nut box off and chop it off somehow..... Sawzall brokey.... :confused1

So now I'm really pissed, don't want to buy another sawzall, the O/A torch is in the back of the garage and hasn't been used in years, once I do get the spring out I gotta fix the old one to put the other spring on... Oh well, I guess it's a UniBody thing.... I haven't even gotten to the passenger side yet, so I'm still dumping can's of PB on it hoping it will go easier. If the other jeep does this too me after only having the lift on for a year and a half... I'm going to shoot the damn thing with my AR and leave it to rot in the desert :tears:

Anyways [/rant off]