Snapped rear shock bolt....

I snapped 1 of the 4 rear shock bolts. The first one I tried to take out. Since it is my only vehicle for the entire family, I pulled back and ordered 4 new bolts from Jeep. My question is this. What size and thread pattern are the stock bolts?

I anticipate snapping more bolts, and will have to drill out and tap the holes again. What size bit and tap should I get to do this job?

You and everyone else, so search this out. Dont order anything special. After you finish snapping all the bolts out, drill out the holes, tape a nut to a wrench and stick it up there through the holes in the body and screw in the new bolts. Rinse and repeat.

Guilty. Guilty as charged. I did the no no, and posted prior to searching. There is a TON of threads on this. (Must be a Jeep thing.)

Sorry for the repost.

So are you guys using the stock bolts? I ordered 4 from the Stealership, but I haven't picked them up yet. Do they come with nuts? I am assuming that they don't due to them going into a welded nut. I see where many of you are just punching the welded nut off and going with your own nut and bolt combo (probably would have been cheaper if I went that route)

Mudshack said:

Guilty. Guilty as charged. I did the no no, and posted prior to searching. There is a TON of threads on this. (Must be a Jeep thing.)

Sorry for the repost.

So are you guys using the stock bolts? I ordered 4 from the Stealership, but I haven't picked them up yet. Do they come with nuts? I am assuming that they don't due to them going into a welded nut. I see where many of you are just punching the welded nut off and going with your own nut and bolt combo (probably would have been cheaper if I went that route)

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Weld nuts up there. Here is a sort of extreme option in my opinion but you can always think about it. http://www.rocklizardfabrications.com/broken_shock_mounts.htm
I just put a new bolt on top of the drilled out weld nut.

Yeh, my fear is that after I drill out the snapped one(s), if I can't get it tapped right, then I will have no way to punch out the welded nut. Guess I could drill completely through it and use the tape/nut/wrench option then.

BTW....I lived in Montgomeryville/Lansdale for about 5 years in the late 90's This XJ was purchased at Bergy's

if you don't want to remove the weldnut, have a shop do it. I used some fishwire (wire coiled to end of a bolt, run end opposite of bolt through first and fish 'er through) to fish a bolt down through, and I used a nut on the bottom side.

Asked how much for a shop to do the rear shocks, and most said they wouldn't unless I bought their shocks. Jeep dealership wanted $150 to start!!! What robbery. I already made the mistake of buying 4 new stock Jeep bolts. Might as well try to drill out and retap. If that fails, I will go the cheaper route. (back-assward)

Drilling and re-tapping welded nuts for the shock bolts is a waste of time/money and somewhat difficult. The RockLizard method is a bigger waste of time. To be successful, you have to tap to the next larger size bolt.

Knock the welded nuts loose and remove them. A few solid whacks with a BFH and a punch or like 5 seconds with an air chisel. My air chisel is the best $16.50 I ever spent on a tool. Then just use grade 5 hardware from the hardware store.

Anyone want to buy a set of stock 4 rear shock bolts! I won't charge tax. You can have them for $20! lol

a late comer to this thread, but what i did was just snap off all the bolts, use a punch and a BFH and give the nuts a whack and they pop right off and out. then just tape a nut to the end of your wrench and feed a bolt from the bottom up and tighten away, the hardest part is getting the new nut/bolt to line up and catch. the reason i could not drop the bolt in from the top was the ones i bought were a bit too long to get them to clear the 'ceiling' in there and drop down. i used bigger bolts than stock (2mm bigger) i just measured the 1/2 circle in the shock and found a bolt that fit in there nice and snug and used that. i tried a washer under the nut on the top but that didnt work b/c there is a 'hump' near there and the washer does not sit flat. so i just used a bolt and a nut. if it helps any i think i used metric hardware and the O.D. of the nut was 17mm. so if you find a hardware store that has metric stuff grab a nut that fits nice in the 17mm socket you bring, and then whatever size that is tapped for is the perfect size bolt. 10mm or whatever it wound up being.

gotta love jeeps, im in the process of lifting mine right now and all four shock bolts snapped. and on top of that i had to cut both of the eye bolts for the leaf springs. you gotta wonder cant anything ever just work? haha

The eyebolts for the leaf springs??? I am about to attempt putting on 2" lift shackles this coming sunday. Don't tell me that it won't be as easy as unbolting the stock one and bolting on the new ones. (It must be a Jeep thing)

You would think that sliding in coil spacers would be a simple quick job. But no...not with the XJ....and mine is in great shape with very little rust. Pass side went rather easy. Driver side....the rubber coil seat (stock) was rotted through on one side and would not budge. You are suppose to insert the coil spacer between the rubber coil seat and the "frame." This worked on one side, but I ended up putting the spacer directly above the coil because I couldn't move the rubber seat.

Purposely tried to snap all 4 rear upper shock bolts with my impact wrench. 2 actually came right out. So, I did the custom bolts on one, and just inserted the NEW jeep bolts with tons of anti-sieze on the other shock.

Went to install the lift blocks, and the perch needed to be drilled out a little to allow the block to fit. Then came the U-bolts.....they were about 1/8" too small!!!! Tear everything out, install the old stock shocks and put it back to stock. ORDERED SHACKLES! lol.

Now my truck sitts about 2.5" taller in the front until I can get the shackles on this coming Sunday.

I have never spent so much time on such simple things like shocks and springs. (It must be a Jeep thing)

eyebolts won't be TOO bad if they aren't very rusty, but start shooting them with PB-Blaster every morning/evening now just in case. And you might want to buy bolts and nuts for them just in case anyways...

part numbers are 3420 2118 (bolts, expect 4-5 dollars each, you need four unless you do shackles, in which case six) and 1150 2814 (nuts, expect 2-3 dollars each, you need two if your weld nuts stay put, four if they don't, six if they don't and you're doing shackles too, get four or six imo) - can be bought from the discount MOPAR sites (search this forum) or my personal favorite, stores.zmjeeps.com.

I snapped 1 of the 4 rear shock bolts

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You only broke one??? You win the prize. And, $20 for four bolts? I have a bridge....
Seriously, any of the methods put forth is fine. I did the drill and tap, up to 1/4-20 bolts, and re-installed them with anti-sieze. Four years later they came out like butter.
If your new to XJs, or any old vehicles, a tap and die set, along with a LOT of drill bits would be a good addition to your tool collection. Ya gotta do a lot of this yourself, or you're gonna be buying your mechanic a new boat.

kastein said:

eyebolts won't be TOO bad if they aren't very rusty, but start shooting them with PB-Blaster every morning/evening now just in case. And you might want to buy bolts and nuts for them just in case anyways...

part numbers are 3420 2118 (bolts, expect 4-5 dollars each, you need four unless you do shackles, in which case six) and 1150 2814 (nuts, expect 2-3 dollars each, you need two if your weld nuts stay put, four if they don't, six if they don't and you're doing shackles too, get four or six imo) - can be bought from the discount MOPAR sites (search this forum) or my personal favorite, stores.zmjeeps.com.

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Why would I need 6 bolts/nuts. The shackles came with thier own bolts/nuts. I LOVE How everythign comes with no directions!!! Keeps you guessing. I am assuming that I will undo the spring eye bolt (that goes through the stock shackle) than undo the shackle bolt (which goes through the shackle and dissappears into the frame). Then insert the lift shackle and rebolt the stock bolt into the frame....then bolt the spring to the bottom of the shackle. Should be this easy, but.....nothing has been this easy. What are the pit falls?

BTW....I lived in Montgomeryville/Lansdale for about 5 years in the late 90's This XJ was purchased at Bergy's

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No wonder you have rust! You took some of our finest with you. When you're done shaking the crumbs off, would you please send it back! I'm fixing the floor in my '96, and soon there won't be much left to fall on the garage floor. At least you got out before they started spraying the magnesium crap on the roads. Rock salt is inert compared to this stuff.

Oh, you got shackles that came with bolts? Awesome. Pretty much - just buy enough new bolts that you'll have a replacement on hand for any bolt you have to touch while lifting it (that's my general rule, with plenty of rust on board... you might get away with less.) Remember also that the same nuts/bolts you use for the shackles and leaf eyes are also used for the LCAs and I believe one end of the UCAs, so you can always keep them around for another project.

Your toughest job lifting is going to be compressing the new leafs into place - I had to use a combination of a 36 inch crowbar at the front eye, prying down between the top of the leaf and the bottom of the frame rail, and my bottle jack under the axle pushing up to flex them into place. Also don't tighten any of the bolts (except the U-bolts, those you want to tighten while the axle is hanging so it gets oriented properly) fully till it's on the ground so that your bushings don't end up with a lot of static torque on them. Put all the bolts in enough that it'll hold together, lower it carefully, then crank the bolts down to spec.

No new springs, here. Just the lift shackles going onto the stock flat springs.

My only fear is if I snap the shackle bolt that goes into the frame. (assuming there is a tack welded nut on the inside somewhere). If that snaps...then I am SOL.

Anyone ever snap one of those?

It's about the same issue as if you snap a leaf eye - I think it may be easier to get to though, anyone know if it's accessible through the rear end of the frame if you pull the bumper off?

EDIT: not that I could see, it looks like it's got the same frame pocket type brace as the leaf eye mount.

Just putting in a shackle isnt too bad, Ive lifted three Jeeps and have never had a problem getting a shackle or the bolts out. Just gotta give the bolts some lovin to get them out usually. The only problem you really run into is the front bolts for the leaf springs, which you dont have to worry about. And if your replacing the shocks chances are your rear shock mount bolts will snap. Happened to every Jeep I've done so far. Good luck.