Removing leaf spring

[Jeepm@n]

Your sawzall should be able to cut the leaf spring or bolt. I'm willing to bet there is a step wore into the bolt and your just bound up on it. Cut the bolt and get some grade 8 style bolts. When you put them in on the new use plenty of anti seize on the shaft of the bolt and not the threads of it.

 

[WB9YZU]

The threaded end is bigger than the middle on these bolts. See the pix he posted of a bolt before. Crap and rust builds up the sleeve and sometimes makes it hard to remove.

The spring also appears to be under some tension. Is the spring just hanging there with the axle attached? If so you may need to take some of the weight of the axle off the spring. Spring bolts will commonly turn OK until the bolt comes out of the frame side, then if the spring is under any tension, the bolt will go crooked and jam in the sleeve.

Air tools are almost a required the first time you do your springs. You can commonly get an air gun on there and with some pressure from behind with a wrench about the size of the bolt itself, walk that bolt right out of that sleeve, much the same process that Goodbourbon was describing, but with a lot more spinning action

When you put that sucker together again, liberally coat all bolts with anti-seize from the head to the end of the threads. Also coat the spring eyes.

 

[dinorl007]

spray it with pb blaster, try tightenening with an impact or breaker bar to see if it will turn, use the adj. wrench or an open end wrench that fits the shank of the boltand pry out as u turn the bolt, if u could get an impact and loosen the bolt as u pry out after soaking it with blaster i bet it will come out that the methd i use on all leaf spring boltsand it has worked, might have to have some patience and keep loosening and tightening until it frees up hth

 

[Jeepm@n]

The threaded end is bigger than the middle on these bolts. See the pix he posted of a bolt before. Crap and rust builds up the sleeve and sometimes makes it hard to remove.

The spring also appears to be under some tension. Is the spring just hanging there with the axle attached? If so you may need to take some of the weight of the axle off the spring. Spring bolts will commonly turn OK until the bolt comes out of the frame side, then if the spring is under any tension, the bolt will go crooked and jam in the sleeve.

Air tools are almost a required the first time you do your springs. You can commonly get an air gun on there and with some pressure from behind with a wrench about the size of the bolt itself, walk that bolt right out of that sleeve, much the same process that Goodbourbon was describing, but with a lot more spinning action

When you put that sucker together again, liberally coat all bolts with anti-seize from the head to the end of the threads. Also coat the spring eyes.

You would coat the threads of these bolts? Won't they back out? Just a serious question not trying to flame.

 

[dinorl007]

if u coat them with antiseieze when u put them back and he bushing, the bolts will not back out or loosen up as long as u tighten and torque them correctly, the antisieze keeps them from seizing to the bushing

 

[XJ Stryker]

Cut here with an angle grinder. Might as well pick one up. You will need it alot if you work on your jeep. Only 30-40 bucks at homedepot and 15 from harbor freight.

 

[WB9YZU]

You would coat the threads of these bolts? Won't they back out? Just a serious question not trying to flame.

No offense taken, it's a good question.

As the other gentleman mentioned, they stay put, but don't seize to the other side of the fastner. When you toque a bolt to spec, you stretch it. It is that pull that keeps the bolt in place, not the amount of rotational friction on the threads.

There are actually two values of torque for a fastener, lubricated, and non-lubricated. They are fairly close, so for the sake of discussion and in practice, I use the same value. IIRC the lower of the torque values are for lubricated thread because it takes less effort to achieve the same amount of bolt stretch.

 

[98XJSport]

Ive tried all the mentioned methods shortofcutting or airtools. Im going to see if I can get my hands on a slide hammer, otherwise it's going to have to be cut...

 

[XJCruiser]

Well, after 4 sawzall blades and a whole can of pb blaster I am finally done with mine...had to cut, pull, and hammer to get the bolt out. Best of luck 98XJSport!!!

 

[98XJSport]

I can't keep holding this up with trying to find an easier way, cutting is halfway done just waiting for my junk battery to charge back up. Already sourced a plug if I have to get into the frame to bust the nut out.

 

[91XJRubicXD]

I had the same problem, but the fix wasn't as simple as you all are saying, lol. I ASSUMED it was a seized sleeve to bolt problem. The fact of the matter was, the welded nut on the inside of the unibody frame broke loose. I compared the bolt like you did in the pics and was like wtf. Luckily for me, I lifted the rear seat up and pulled the carpet back, and noticed a hole which just happened to be in the same viscinity of the bolt. I was able to get vise grips down inside the frame channel and sure enough out came the bolt. I replaced with a grade 5 bolt, spring washer, flat washer and nut, was a simple fix once the problem was seen. Just another thought, be well

 

[98XJSport]

Hole under the rear seat, never would have thought to look there. Good info, if I hadn't been out of the bolt that would have been a huge help!

 

[mfascuba]

Use a right angle grinder with a wafer cutoff wheel, cut the bolt off and roll the spring out. I had this happen on my 97 a couple months ago. I tried the impact wrench /run the bolt in and out with PBlaster, but there was too much rust on the shaft of the bolt in the sleeve. Make sure the threads are in useable shape on the nut before putting it back together, and I second the liberal use of anti-sieze in reassembly.

Mark

 

[91XJRubicXD]

Hole under the rear seat, never would have thought to look there. Good info, if I hadn't been out of the bolt that would have been a huge help!

Well generally you wouldn't look there because that hole shouldn't be there, it was conveniently a rusted out floor pan, so it just happened to be in that particular area. I do think that is a common area of the floor in XJ's that tend to rust out though. I will eventually get around to repairing the hole hehe. Sometimes rust can be your best friend :confused1

 

[BisonTechie]

I don't know if you have had any luck yet but I just went through this with my 88 Cherokee.

The captive nut in the unibody will push the bolt out of a rusted sleeve until it runs out of threads. In my case I ended up torching off the bolt and part of the sleeve to get the spring off.

The captive nut had been damaged enough that a tap didn't work. I ended up cutting out the old nut with a cutoff tool, welding a new nut to a piece of steel and welding that back in place. I used a piece of conduit the same length as the bushing sleeve to keep the alignment while welding.

To keep things simple, I used the rear shackle bolt on the front and installed a new bolt on the rear. It needs to be at least Grade 8. I got mine at Napa. As someone else posted, the bolts are M14-2 (metric).

This was a royal PITA but I'm back on the road.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[91XJRubicXD]

Yeah my bad, the bolt I replaced was a grade 8. Any hardware store carries these as well

 

[bhansen99xj]

Kroil works wonders. you can't find it in stores, so if you know some friends that work in a shop, have them get you a can. You'll never use store bought PB blaster, wd-40, etc.

 

[kujito]

Kroil works wonders. you can't find it in stores, so if you know some friends that work in a shop, have them get you a can. You'll never use store bought PB blaster, wd-40, etc.

X2!!!
It can be bought though.
linky to deal

 

[souske]

I don't know if you have had any luck yet but I just went through this with my 88 Cherokee.



To keep things simple, I used the rear shackle bolt on the front and installed a new bolt on the rear. It needs to be at least Grade 8. I got mine at Napa. As someone else posted, the bolts are M14-2 (metric).

This was a royal PITA but I'm back on the road.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

just fyi on metric bolts its gonna be 10.8