Broke upper rear shock bolts!

Erik V

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Feb 20, 2018
Messages
222
Location
Florida, USA
Help
Anyone have any fix’s for broken rear upper shock bolts?

I went to replace my rear shocks today and broke 3 out of 4 upper shock bolts.

Any ideas on how to fix this mess?

Thanks
 
I broke one and used a dremel to drill it out and cut the nut, which is welded on. Then you can buy a new bolt and locknut.

This guy did a video of it, but he went overboard with lifting the body up.

 
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Last time I had to, I put a pry bar in from the side (there's a small notch in the body that gives just enough room.) then used a bfh to snap the tack welds off and take the nut out. This was after hours of trying to drill a hardend bolt with several drill bits. The only one that worked was a sharpened masonry bit. (the carbide cuts nicely) I was almost ready to cut the crossmember and weld it back after.

Edit: after watching the video acctualy I think I do remember busting out the dremel and going up through the hole on the center to start at least one side of each nut before bashing the crap out of it.

There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
 
Last edited:
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Last time I had to, I put a pry bar in from the side (there's a small notch in the body that gives just enough room.) then used a bfh to snap the tack welds off and take the nut out. This was after hours of trying to drill a hardend bolt with several drill bits. The only one that worked was a sharpened masonry bit. (the carbide cuts nicely) I was almost ready to cut the crossmember and weld it back after.

Edit: after watching the video acctualy I think I do remember busting out the dremel and going up through the hole on the center to start at least one side of each nut before bashing the crap out of it.

There must have been a time
when we could have said no.

Totally forgot to mention that I used a BFH and chisel set in combination with dremeling the welded nut.
 
I found cutting access holes to be the quickest and easiest way.
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I lifted my body, cut the welds with a Dremel, and bashed them out. Welded some bolts in to replace them. I was doing a body lift at the same time, so it made sense. If you run carpet, @derekmac's method would work well.
 
Do you have dimensions on the cut outs?
Think I might go that route
No sorry, I don't. Use my pics for reference though, and you should be good. The first pic is the pass side, and the two bolt holes are from the seat bracket. The last pic is the drivers side.

The plate I use for the patch doesn't need to be near as long as it is, but I didn't feel like cutting it down, lol.
 
Thank you all who gave me ideas on how to remove those damn broken shock bolts.
I took a little bit of info from you all and conquered on getting them out.
So here it is.

I went under my Jeep and drilled a pilot hole in the center of the squarish hole where the shock sits.
This gave me a idea of where to cup saw the floor from inside the bed section.

Took a guess on the width and made two 2” cup saw holes in the bed.

In the video the guy got those dremal cut off wheels, THOSE ARE THE BEST EVER, what a life saver they are.

I bought the attachment and some wheels and let me say they WORK GREAT.

The outer bolts were a pain to get to but you can get them off.

One tool that came in super handy was a brake adjustment tool to pry out that outer bolt once cut deep enough. Who would of thought, lol.

All in all it took about 2 hours start to finish which to me isn’t to bad considering what’s involved.

Here’s some pics for your enjoyment and maybe help others out.

Again THANKS to all with the ideas. You guys are the best.

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No sorry, I don't. Use my pics for reference though, and you should be good. The first pic is the pass side, and the two bolt holes are from the seat bracket. The last pic is the drivers side.

The plate I use for the patch doesn't need to be near as long as it is, but I didn't feel like cutting it down, lol.
Derekmac,
Thanks again for the great idea.
I messed up on the first start of the hole location.
I didn’t realize it should of been BEHIND the seat bracket, lol. No big deal.
Live n learn
Thanks again:)
Erik
 
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Thanks for the link. Wondered if have you installed these yourself ? They evidently bolt in (as opposed to a weld in application)
 
Derekmac,
Thanks again for the great idea.
I messed up on the first start of the hole location.
I didn’t realize it should of been BEHIND the seat bracket, lol. No big deal.
Live n learn
Thanks again:)
Erik

It pains me that I find myself reading and posting on this thread. Had a phenomenal day off road yesterday & in the back of my mind was the installation of my new shocks today, what a great weekend right?

It all started innocently enough when I popped the front shocks out in about 15 minutes. 15 minutes later I was looking at two driver's side upper mounting bolts laying on the floor broken :(.
The passenger side fought me good for a while & I actually got one of them off :campeon: only to then spin the second one into a perfectly round ball unmovable even with a bolt extractor o_O. That's as far as I got today.

I then began the inevitable search for ideas & this one looks the best. My question is what's the best way to cut the hole in the bed, I have a grinder with a cutting wheel but I'm thinking that might be too big to cut this size hole? I don't have a lot of experience cutting metal & I'd really rather not butcher my TJ learning... any help?