2000 XJ: Upper Shock Bolts Metric or SAE???

Quick question for the experts: are the upper shock bolts in late (2000, in this case) Cherokees metric (my guess) or SAE/fractional?

Thanks!

To the best of my knowledge the only SAEs on XJs are the 1/2" lug nuts & the diffs.

I also have a '00 XJ...its hard to say...seems to have a mix of both. Sometimes the Metric sockets/wrenches fit tighter, sometimes the SAE do.

I would try both and use the one that has the tighter fit...less chance of rounding off the bolt head.

But you meantioned upper shock bolts...I'd be more worried about breaking the bolts...there are many, many posts about this issue here. I was successful in removing all four with breaking...used a lot of PB blaster, a little time and a few hits with a hammer...

good luck.

upper in the front 17mm rears are 13 mm/ 1/2"

Yeah, have already doused with PB, 2 or 3x...they are breaking anyway. They're breaking heads, leaving studs...going to try a stud puller first...probably will break 'em off at the nutserts so will probably be drilling and tapping or knocking 'em out, haven't decided which.

souske said:

upper in the front 17mm rears are 13 mm/ 1/2"

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Thanks, I was actually wondering about the bolt size, not head - I am guessing 8mm coarse which would be 8x1.25.

As someone mentioned above, the 13mm hex wasn't a great fit, even in a 6-pt socket; got a better fit with 1/2" - not that it made much difference...

There's some threads around here on successfully repairing those broken studs- I snapped all 4 of mine off, and spent the next few (5? 6?) hours drilling and tapping. Wish I'd found this board before that little fiasco. I guess using an airhammer or punch and hammer to knock the welded nuts/broken studs out completely, and replacing them with suitable bolts is a popular fix. After going with the drilling/tapping method, that's the only thing I won't recommend.

Thanks, I actually did use the search function :laugh3: and read several dozen. I do have a question about what you've written but it's a different question than the original thread Q here so I'll post a different thread.

Thanks!

hubs97xj said:

There's some threads around here on successfully repairing those broken studs- I snapped all 4 of mine off, and spent the next few (5? 6?) hours drilling and tapping. Wish I'd found this board before that little fiasco. I guess using an airhammer or punch and hammer to knock the welded nuts/broken studs out completely, and replacing them with suitable bolts is a popular fix. After going with the drilling/tapping method, that's the only thing I won't recommend.

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