Anyone put bolt through frame for leaf spring install?

All -

I am planning my rear leaf spring replacement strategy. Obviously, the captured weld nuts in the front and rear are a major deterrent to the whole operation.

For the installation part of this....what do people think of drilling a hole on the other side of the frame which is large enough to accommodate the bolt and then fasten that bolt via washer and nut on the outside of the frame? This would forever bypass engineer johnny's brilliant weld nut.

Obviously, the bolt would need to be a fair bit longer than the original 120mm bolt.

Thoughts and experiences?

I just did my leafs a few weeks ago on my 98XJ that has lived almost all of its life outside in Oregon. Sprayed all of the exposed bolt ends in Kroil for a couple of weeks beforehand, and didn't have a horrible experience in removing the old bolts (passenger side bolts were a lot harder to remove, but everything came off without breaking).

As to the bolt lengths, they already stick out about 3/4"-1" past the outside of the weld nuts (not including the locator end). I would recommend spending the extra cash and getting the factory bolts - the locator end makes it a lot easier to get them to line up to the hole they are going into. They also have enough threaded portion to adequately work (the bolts I got from General Spring had threaded portions which were too short, requiring me to use between two and three washers to get them to work).

As far as cutting into the frame member, it is structurally more sound to access the weld nut from above (i.e, lift up the carpet and make a hole in the floor above the nut). I would reserve that procedure for when you have no other choice, for instance if the weld-nut comes loose, instead of just doing it as a matter of course.

Oregon...might as well be Nevada compared to the rust that we see in PA. :bawl:

You would need to weld in a sleeve to keep from crushing the frame rail when you tighten the bolt. And something like an 8in long bolt. And then it will rust again. I wouldn't waste the time. Mine broke the other day. Easy fix, cut a window into the body,remove broken nut, weld nut to a new piece of plate and weld it to the spring mount. Took maybe 30min. No need to cut into the floor either as I found out, asthenut doesn't fit thru the hole into the frame rail.

In in NJ, way more road salt used here than PA -- Both my rear leaf spring bolts came out easily -- 2000 XJ with 226,000 miles

Haven't tried the fronts yet

Mine is a 2000 sport with 135k.

I had a lot of trouble with rusty bolts doing the front end lift...so I am sort of expecting the worst for the rear leaf spring bolts.

Lots of heat helps too, cuz of the nasty factory lock tite.
In WV they use a particularly nasty road salt so I fight with every bolt.. or did till I started either greasing or nickel anti-seize on every bolt that didn't get locktite.
and get new bolts from the dealer, they arnt cheap but you know they will work

first having access to a welder or someone that can is highly recommended, if it goes bad youll almost certainly need one per the circumstance.

i soaked everything in acetone/atf for a few weeks, still had a bolt snap, had to cut it and have a nut welded on to extract the remainder of the bolt.

i recommend using anti seize on the new hardware, especially on the sleeves.

iirc the bolt was a grade 10.8, should you go with your plan a bolt that big likely aint cheap.

best of luck!