rear shackle bolt problem - I searched

This is my first post on butI ahve been reading the board for awhile.
I have searched, searched, and searched somemore.
I cannot remove the rear upper shackle bolt.
The bottom bolt was removed with some cutting and now their is no extra tension on the shackle.
I do not want to put a torch anywhere near the back of the cherokee.
IF it matters it is a 2000.
The shackle is a Teraflex 1 1/2
The other side is done. This should of only taken an hour.

id just try and cut it off... or did you mean you tried that and couldnt? like with a sawzall?

DONT CUT IT!!! The bolt goes into a nut that is welded in the unibody "frame".

I have not cut the top bolt yet. I cut the bottom bolt.
The top bolt is seized into the bushing.
I do not know where to go from here....

2ndBagger said:

I have not cut the top bolt yet. I cut the bottom bolt.
The top bolt is seized into the bushing.
I do not know where to go from here....

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At this point you can trying using a big breaker/cheater bar and hope is comes loose but then you run the risk of snapping the welds on the nut in the unibody. If that happens then the bolt will just spin and then you really got problems.

Your best option is to pull off the rear bumper and spray some wd 40 on the nut and bolt through the small hole which goes into the unibody. I know you said you dont wanna heat the bolt up but if the WD 40 stuff does not work you might need to.

He has a post going over at Jeepforum also. I think he has it out of the captured nut but cannot pull the bolt out of the bushing. I suggested just cutting the bolt to pieces.

K

Thanks for the advice. That is a last resort piece.
I am going to try one more thing that someone said to try.

katarn444 said:

He has a post going over at Jeepforum also. I think he has it out of the captured nut but cannot pull the bolt out of the bushing. I suggested just cutting the bolt to pieces.

K

Click to expand...

Well in that case just use a set of big a$$ vice grips and twist.

Cutting a hole in the rear to get at the welded nut isn't as bad as you'd think. You have to do a little unscewing, a little pulling, a little cutting to get at the weld nut. If you cut the bolt flush at the face of the frame you can use a large punch a BFH amd a couple good wacks and its history. Use a stainless nylock as a replacement. You'll need to grind the hole for nut access a little bigger to get a socket in to tighten to spec. Cut some aluminum trim to size, a little black silicone sealant and your good. You may have that area rusted out enough where you can almost tear away the rear bed with your hands.
Here's a pic. Looks worse than it is cause of the rusting I had in that area. The bolt tops you see are bumper and tow hook supprt strip nuts.

I went through that, not much choice but to cut open the shackle and cut/grind the bushing off of the bolt-- i used a torch but a bit of warning, use a box fan or something to blow the smoke out of the interior because burning rubber reeks!

Thanks everyone for the help.
Luckily I did not have to go the extra step that Rocketman said,( and in extreme detail thanks!). I actually did what Katarn told me to do on jeepforum and that worked great.
I cut the bolt inside the brackets facing away from body-if that makes sense-and the shackle fell out.
I was able to reuse one of the bolts from the bottom thus no need to make a trip to get a new bolt.
started at 3:30 got done at 10:30. Wow. All this work for a sagging rear add a leafs.
Thanks a lot for all the great help

Re: rear shackle bolt problem - ANOTHER solution

Here's what I did that was way easier(instead of cutting the bolt): Take a pickle fork(tie-rod seperator), put it under the protruding head of the top shackle bolt,(the head will protrude a little as it unscrews from the welded-on nut) and hit it with a BFH!!:explosion (both to drive it up under the head, and as a lever to pry against the underside of the head of the bolt. Although to pry, you might need to use a short section of pipe as a pivot point.) Worked great for me!