new xj leafs

[bear555]

Ok I\'ve got all the bolts off the driver side spring except the front one. 21mm head and it laughs at my cheap impact gun. I\'m heading out to get a big breaker bar, but I may ask to borrow a good impact gun tomorrow morning, if some one would let me....

[JCJ]

I\'ve got a good one if you need, plenty of power in reverse.

Make sure your using a 6 point socket, 12 pointers don\'t transfer nearly as much torque to the nut.

[bear555]

Got the 6 point and a new gun that\'s rated to 730lbs. no dice
tomorrow I hit it with he heat in the uni frame. I\'ll need to make sure I have some water handy...

[Wingman]

Gas-wrench...  :fire:

[smichaelR22]

cut off wheel is much easier, replace the ubolts anyway just cut them off.

[Ryan_25]

The bolt is probaly rusted to the inside sleeve. Are you trying to turn the bolt or nut?

I usually use a cutting wheel, like Smike suggested.

[bear555]

The Nut is burried in the welded on frame re-enforcement bracket, you can\'t get to it with out cutting through the frame twice or cutting through the floor board. the nut hasn\'t broken loose thank goodness. I think I\'m Going to drill a small hole in the bracket to get some lubricant on it. I\'ve done some research and there is also a problem if the metal sleeve in the bushing has bonded to the bolt. I was hoping to save the leaf but I might have to cut the leaf off.
Sorry Dopple. I\'ll try to get a pic or two.

[Ryan_25]

You cant get a cutting wheel between the bracket and the spring to cut the bolt?

[luvmyxj]

$99 12amp milwakee sawzall at home depot and 10 pack of 24tpi blades will cut through like butter

[bear555]

Got it! Took some damage tho..

Ok here is the play by play.

Left rear leaf bolt came off no problem.
Left front would not come off with out a large amount of heat on the bracket. Even with the heat it would only move when asked politely by the breaker bar and 4\' pipe extension. Once the bolt cleared the captive nut it was still hard to turn because the bushing sleeve was gripping the bolt. I was able to get a box wrench behind the head of the bolt while turning it with the breaker bar, and it slowly came out. The right side was harder.  The rear bolt was bonded to the sleeve, so I put a new blade in the sawzaw an cut the bolt on both sides of the leaf. The front bolt was bonded to the sleeve as well, but the saw bade didn\'t fit well.
So here is the trick. After I turned the bolt out enough so that it was free of the nut I was able to get a screw driver between the leaf and the bracket to peel open the sleeve. This worked surprisingly well and was easy to do.

The bad news is that I broke off the threaded part of the shock absorber stud ON BOTH SIDES!. I hillbilly fixed it with some zip ties but that\'s not going to last very long.

Pics to follow.

[bear555]

Here are some pictures.
My hillbilly bolt for my shocks, I\'ll need some advice on this one..
The yellow torch was very nice.
\"Say hello to my little friend\" saws-all with a very nice blade, covered in bushing blood.
Check out my foot on the wrench while turning the ratchet  technique. :)
 

[smichaelR22]

just weld on a bolt for the shock

[MrMindless]

yup, cut the stub off and weld a new bolt on there, or double nut a fully threaded bolt if you don\'t have a welder.

[thomasxj97]

Nice! when I added new leaf springs to my XJ i had the same problem. only I stripped out the threads on the bolts so I had to use a new bolt with a lock nut in between the unibody