Rear Shock Broken Bolts / Air Hammer?

Putting on a Rough Country 4.5" lift on my 1990 Wagoneer Limited and of course, broke off the upper rear shock mount bolt's and nuts. Searched, and the best advice I saw was to get an air hammer and burb them out, then fish the new ones in through the access holes and put the nuts on the outside.

Well, today I went out and got an air hammer and went to town on the bolts but no luck. Is there some sort of trick to using this thing? As soon as it pull the trigger it flies all over the place; I can't seem to keep it on the bolt for shit. I'm using the pointed chisel bit. I guess I will try a BFH and a punch tomorrow if I can't get anywhere.. really don't want to have to drill and tap if I don't have to. I've got one broken bolt in each side; the other ones came out ok with VERY slow rotation and lots of PB Blaster.

I drill out the broken part to 5/16"(cut the bolt flush if needed). Center punch it and either use a step dril bit or gradually go up in size of drill. Use 5/16" grade 8 bolts and do it that way.

The BFH and long punch works good. You got the right idea once there out.

I threaded my bolts all the way to the head ,then ran a nut to tighten them down before installing the shock and another nut to secure the shock in place.

Nick

To use the air hammer properly hold it tight to the broken bolt. Then pull the trigger while holding it tight to the bolt. It may only seem like it's vibrating ,but it's doing it's job. If you lived nearby I'd do it for a case of beer and even bolt on your new ones.

I did that exact same thing today installing my lift, and I just drilled new holes over about half an inch and used my old rear sway bar link mounts as BPE's. Worked great.

Like someone else mentioned, make sure you hold the the tip right on the bolt. Use a pointed air hammer tip if you have one. Keep your pressure up near the gun's limit (probably around 80-100 psi). It took me about 5 seconds per side.

This is what you end up with:

Agreed. I've had to do this on two of my previouis XJ's. Saves alot of time and headache.

ok I am going throught the same prob right now on my 98 with 8.5 inches........where the heck are these access holes you speak of.....i did not see them

easiest fix is to take off your rear swaybar and take those mounts and weld them on as bar pin eliminators. They work perfectly.

If you're looking up at the upper shock bolts they're kind of on a excessed triangle. There is an open slot on the side to slip a bolt or nut in with a wrench.

dang worked great.....except for that last bolt did not want to line up with the nut....an hour latter and done and now my wife can't keep her hand off it

:thumbup::wierd: Great tool huh? Better make sure the compressor runs out of air or you may never get lucky.

I just did this today. Got the shocks at Pep Boys & figured if I broke the bolt, I'd have them install them, and give 'em directions from on how. The guy REFUSED to punch out the old nut, and had no other ideas, so I had to do it. I twisted off 3 of 4 bolt heads. Here are a few things I learned...

The welded in nut on the drivers side came out after about 10 minutes of hammering with a 5" punch and framing hammer. The passenger side was another manner. My arm is still sore. I wailed on it forever, eventually using an socket extenstion on my punch, which did nothing but dent up my extension. I got the big pointy-ended prybar at Harbor Freight. Wailed on it forever again. I even wedged it between the nut and the axle and tried jacking the axle up to force it up. No dice.

I dropped $26 on the cheapo Harbor Freight slide hammer, and each one was out in 5-10 wacks.

Fishing the bolt through is what had me most worried, but that turned out to be the easiest part. Use a line zip tie and push it the hole you just made. Duct tape a bolt and washer to the end & yank it home. About 1 minute per hole. Zip ties are great for this! Stiff in one direction, flexible in another, with texture to grip the tape.

I also recommend getting bolts longer than 1". It was a bit hard to start the nut on them. Also, I never could get a box wrench on the forward passenger side nut. I got it pretty tight by holding it with my fingers, but not as tight as I'd like.

@dam said:

The welded in nut on the drivers side came out after about 10 minutes of hammering with a 5" punch and framing hammer.

Click to expand...

Was the $3 Harbor freight baby sledge not an option?:twak: