XJ rear bumper bolts

Tried this SAT to take off my rear bumper for nut strips (skid plate/tow hitch) and for the life of my could not get the upper (hidden) bolts loose.
Used PB blaster and waited a couple hours and they both will not budge.
The two on the underside lip come off easily, but the 2 that are hidden up top there is not enough room to get good leverage. Can not get a socket/ratchet on it either and my hand wrist barely will fit in there.

You guys got any tips for this ???? I was thinking about cutting the bottom lip to give me more room to move; but that would be like cutting
yourself on an old style can of beans lid .....

thanks, Randy from Oceanside

I used a socket and a 3 foot long breaker bar, IIRC.

^^^^^ Yep.

Socket, breaker bar, pipe.

Assemble.

Fish the whole thing up in there and get the socket on the bolt/ nut as required.

Break bolt/nut loose.

Replace breaker bar with ratchet.

You'll be lucky if you can get 15-20 degrees rotation inside the bumper.

Just be patient.

15mm ratcheting box wrench and extension bar, not much room to move, but it eventually works.
If you don't plan to keep the bumper long just reef it up after the lower two are gone, if you put it back on just bend it back down.

THANKS MUCHO !! I actually made a piece of wood that had a "U" shaped cut out and I then I put that around the side of wrench and gave it a couple wacks with my large hammer. -- moved the nut a little, but not enough to allow me to loosen it much more.

I will try again this week. I do have some of those ratcheting wrenches,
but it is in my workshop and I was too mad and lazy to go down there
and get them.

After a few beers, I took off my running boards that previous owner had installed and XJ looks much better.

If any Grandpa wants them and you are near Oceanside, you can have
them for FREE !!!!

thanks, Randy

Second Question: I also see that the bumper bracket is attached with 4 bolts each and sits next to the leaf springs.

I will NOT have to take these 2 brackets off CORRECT ????
I just need to take the bumper off to install nutstrips and then
but it back on ...

tx, Randy

Wait, you're trying to remove the bumper from the brackets? Or are you trying to remove the brackets and bumper from the body?

The brackets need to come off to gain access to the hole that you need.

You're referring to this bracket right?

Yes -- that bracket. So -- I can not fish the nutstrips inside the framerail without taking the brackets AND the bumper off ???

CRAP, CRAP !! Two of those bolts are so close to the leaf spring bolt,
that it might be harder than I thought ???

Thanks, Randy

[email protected]

You might but I seriously doubt it... I certainly wouldn't try.

Those 8 bolts should be far easier to get to than the 4 you're trying to get to now.

The correct size socket should make quick work of this.

I pulled mine off in about 10 minutes when I added a new hitch on mine by removing those 8 bolts.

I looked at those for about 10 minutes before I went the other route,
since it looked like it would only be 4 bolts instead of 8 to mess with.

Thanks -- I will try the bracket bolts this week , after I throw some
PB blaster on them.

thanks again, Randy

Good luck.

So -- the secret was getting a FLEX type ratcheting wrench from Harbor Freight. Nothing else seemed to work until I got one of those -- since they are kind of short, it is a little hard to break the nut at first; but finally got it. Found that the little spring type nut clip on the underside
of bumper was fractured; but a 10 minute weld job fixed that.

Then I could get to the bumper brackets and then the nutstrip install.
The rear quarterpanel molding is a little tricky ---- they SLIDE OFF not
pry off. Slide off towards the rear. I ended up breaking one of the tabs
on the underside and had to use some JB weld to patch it back.

Then I took SAT to put on the TOMKEN skid and SUN for the Mopar tow hitch. Skid gets hung up on the heat shield a little.

thanks guys, Randy