New leaf springs

[Hypoid]

Originally Posted by burntkat

Yes, that and how he said he "just pushed the bolt out" after it was apparently seized, seems he may have been dipping into the "medicinal" marijuana too much.

That, or there is a huge language barrier.

Or he lives in a arid climate, where steel does not corrode at the same rate as other climates.

[burntkat]

Originally Posted by Anak

The one bit of advice I will add is to order them one at a time, several days apart.

My OME's beat the daylights out of each other getting to me. I think SOP with shipping springs is to just slap a label on each spring and send it out. No box is going to hold up to the springs. But the two of them against each other, from one truck to the next, is anything but gentle.

It's a frigging leaf spring. It's going to live under the vehicle in worse conditions than that.so many more important things to worry about

[burntkat]

Originally Posted by Hypoid

Or he lives in a arid climate, where steel does not corrode at the same rate as other climates.

If it's not seized, why bother cutting it out...

[blu3fan]

Originally Posted by Hypoid

Or he lives in a arid climate, where steel does not corrode at the same rate as other climates.

Yeah Arizona and California. we do not have that rust stuff here in the same levels as elsewhere....

axle bushing on the xj are the leaf bushings lol
so I was talking about the same bolts.
if it was rusted in place that makes more sense as to why you could not remove them..
I thought you meant the nuts were rusted to the bolts.
that's how mine was. and it took a good hour with the grinder.

then the bushing replacement was not possible with the press. so we drilled them out.


what about the bolts above them holding the stock drop bracket. ? might be same situation. but worth the idea ?

[burntkat]

K this is starting to make a bit more sense now.

What is the "bolts above them holding the stock drop bracket"? I am not aware of any stock drop brackets in an XJ.

As for bushing replacement not being possible with a press- this is why I use a blue press- MAP gas in a torch. Remove item from truck. Burn out the bushing, and replace with poly. Problem solved.

[Alaskan89XJ]

Flames.., sheesh.., LOL. Me; I related into the XJ parts topic acquisition that commie red army labor provided products are a crap shoot, and recommended that they be avoided if possible, and get flamed by the 'we' person. Then the 'we' person flames someone again by saying; "seems he may have been dipping into the "medicinal" marijuana too much" AND; "That, or there is a huge language barrier." Now.., who is allowed to be off topic?

Calm down burntkat, I gain expertise from you, as well as others.

Had a rear leaf spring bolt mess after a week's worth of PB Blasting, several times a day, plus hammering etc., when failure resulted with a 4 foot pipe, and cheater bar with socket on the outside. Torch did not seem to cure the issue. However I found that a set of 'easy-out' type sockets helped to remove that last bit. Opened up the rear panel to access the frame rail in order to manage said socket inside that 'tunnel', and other tools onto the outside in order to remove said. Like ammo, one can never have enough tools.., jost sey'in.

Peace.., over, and out.

[blu3fan]

Originally Posted by burntkat

K this is starting to make a bit more sense now.

What is the "bolts above them holding the stock drop bracket"? I am not aware of any stock drop brackets in an XJ.

As for bushing replacement not being possible with a press- this is why I use a blue press- MAP gas in a torch. Remove item from truck. Burn out the bushing, and replace with poly. Problem solved.

my 92 xj had a stock drop bracket.

** edited.
Pretty sure it was stock.
my jeep is the laredo model that came with everything. including the transfer case skid. gas tank skid and front engine skidplate.
was Quality oem steel.
the bolts were near impossible to get off in 2007.
Ive owned the car since 2006 so pretty sure considering how tight the bolts were that it was done before that.
But I could be wrong

[Ecomike]

The rear of the leaf spring has a stock OEM drop bracket on them all. The front does not. The upper bolt on the rear bracket is an unobtanian, unreachable spot for the kind of tools we are talking about. In fact if it can rotate, and move on the top side, I wonder if it helped break the leaf spring at the axle. The bump stops are gone on mine, and I have yet to pull and test the rear shocks to see if the caused the problem.

[burntkat]

OK, what you keep calling a "drop bracket", is a shackle.

Totally different thing.

[Ecomike]

Originally Posted by burntkat

OK, what you keep calling a "drop bracket", is a shackle.

Totally different thing.

Other than the name what is different about them?

[Afireinside]

The name! A shackle is what it is. A drop bracket won't move

[Ecomike]

Well after spending 4 months, including the Harvey flood interuptions, we finally got the rear leaf spring 100% off our spare 87, then the rear bolt, it was a true die hard, then the outer steel bushing part, then rubber, and now after 3 weeks of using a torch, a BFH and chisel, and a massive electric industrial nut buster impact wrench, and finally a new air hammer chisel I bought this week, we finally got the inner steel sleeve on the front bolt loose enough to spin, LOL.

Now just need that massive industrial electric Impact back on loan (mt new air powered 600 ft-lbs tool just gets laughed at still).

But repeated heat on the nut, and water soaks to chill it, and then pen lube, and then the impact should finally get it loose now. May need to hit the sleeve one more time with the Dremel tool/diamond mini wheel to cut the sleeve open closer the rear nut to better access for heating and pen-lubing, as we were not able to open up and remove the sleeve, just able to detach/un-glue it from the die hard bolt.

Long story short, I see daylight on this endless one afternoon repair nightmare LOL.

[Ecomike]

Ooo-K,

Now what?

As I mentioned in my last post, at the last minute the front captured nut weld broke, nut came loose. We cut a hole, and got it out.

It was well rusted. But what concerns me now is the OEM welded nut has a tube nipple (best description I can think of?) on the face that gets welded, that went inside the frame hole facing the spring bushing.

Probably used to hold and locate the nut perfectly for welding. The bolt went through that sleeve/tube. The old nut has bad threads now (too much rust and damage....

But I do not think the new OEM or after market flange nuts have that nipple. With out it, there may be some slop and alignment lost as the where the nut locks down since I was not planning to weld the new one, even if I did weld it, hoe do I locate/center it. The tube wall x2 is about .20 to .25" thick (.125" per side?). I am also concerned about wall thickness (rust and loss of any metal on the hanger when the weld broke, and left over weld burs around the hole??

My knee is out again, so I have not been able to get down there with a flash light or scope to inspect it for my self, yet. And my helper that cut the hole to access the nut and got the nut out is blind in one eye and can't see out the other, LOL (He needs new glasses..).

So I am wondering what others found and did when they replaced the nut??? What nut did you use? What did you do about the oversized hole the bolt goes into? What did you do about any repairs or beefing up the plate/face area the nuts rests on????

[alexgalexg]

Originally Posted by Ecomike

Just buy them with bushings installed.

That is the easy part!!!

The hard part, almost impossible part is getting the old bolts out!!!

All the old bolts, not just the leaf spring ends.

Hand grenades do not work.

I've been working on one leaf spring removal since Before Hurricane Harvey.

The trick is shopping for the meanest impact wrench you can find, and grinder-cutting blade tool(s), cold chisel, safety glasses, and a case of PB Blaster LOL

Oh, a 5 foot 1-1/4" ID cheater pipe, hydraulic lift, and a 3/4" breaker bar with 3/4" impact sockets.

And a TORCH!!!!!

I spent more on Tools than I did the leaf spring, LOL.

That's the case with one of my xj's... And if course it's the one ill be fully restoring to brand new in and out in a few years... after 300k of Rhode Island and Connecticut weather I can't even change the power steering pump. Started to try to turn them... well... half of the long bolt would turn... the other half stayed put! I feel your pain

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[TDoggs]

Maybe I'll just let it SAG in the back.........