XJ question

[sams92xj]

While removing the front leaf spring hanging bolt on my cherokee the nut that was part of the unibody of my cherokee broke off inside the frame, what can I do now. The guy who was helping me suspected that a local body shop would have a nut that is made to fit inside the unibody, has anyone ever had a problem like this and if so what did you do?

 

[notajeep]

did you get the bolt all the way out or is everything just spinning??

 

[utahxjer]

While removing the front leaf spring hanging bolt on my cherokee the nut that was part of the unibody of my cherokee broke off inside the frame, what can I do now. The guy who was helping me suspected that a local body shop would have a nut that is made to fit inside the unibody, has anyone ever had a problem like this and if so what did you do?

Exact same thing happened to me... I cut a hole right underneath into the unibody, just big enough to get a wrench in there to hold the nut while my bud was on the bolt with a breaker bar. Worked great.

 

[sams92xj]

I did get the bolt all of the way out, but the nut is floating somewhere inside the frame, I tried to retrieve it with a magnet but no luck. It sounds like I will have to do you the same as utahxjer. I just need to find another nut that would work. What did you use to cut the hole? would I have to use a torch?

 

[utahxjer]

I did get the bolt all of the way out, but the nut is floating somewhere inside the frame, I tried to retrieve it with a magnet but no luck. It sounds like I will have to do you the same as utahxjer. I just need to find another nut that would work. What did you use to cut the hole? would I have to use a torch?

I drilled a few holes, then broke out the jigsaw or the sawsall I can't remember, but it was one of those, might be able to use tin-snips too

 

[Badcop]

I agree with Utxj, you can just cut it out with a angle grinder, etc. I replaced one with a peice of 1/8 steel with a hole drilled in it. Set the new nut on the plate, center it to the hole with the bolt and weld it together. Pot the plate over the old hole in the uniframe and weld it on.

 

[sams92xj]

That was what I was thinking, I will give it a try and hopefully I will get it back in good shape, with my luck it will won't be as easy as it sounds.

 

[BioNuke1]

Did you have any luck? Looks like me and my buddy will be doing this same thing tomorrow....

 

[sams92xj]

Haven't tried to fix it yet, but I will this week sometime

 

[BioNuke1]

All I can say is holysh|t, worstest design EVER, took us all day to swap leafs and shackles from 2 xj's, gotta butcher the unibody frames to remove the bolts

 

[XJEEPER]

It is a poor design, but I've done more XJ leaf jobs than I can recall and have only had to fight one with a spinning nut.....way back when on the stock springs on my 89, I had the bolt seize in the bushing sleeve and had to bend the front hanger like a taco to get an angle to bust it free.
Sounds like you just got lucky......