Hardest Fix On Your XJ?

[Matthew Currie]

I almost forgot one of the hardest, because it was one of those things that shouldn't have been hard. My son had a 96 that had spent a good bit of its life near the ocean, I think. The body wasn't badly rusted at first, but every fastener on it was terrible. When he brought it over for help replacing a hub, I found it was impossible to remove the hub bolts. I cranked and yanked and finally got two off, but the third would not budge. Although the hub bolts are necked down specifically to prevent seizing in the bores, these had filled with rust. I torched the head off, and still no budge. I finally torched the ear off the hub itself, and even with the ends removed, I could not even punch out the remains of that bolt. I ended up burning it out with the torch, quarter inch at a time, until there was about an inch left which was loose enough to punch out. The job ended up taking all afternoon. Every job we tackled on that thing ended up like this. He finally got rid of it when the rust got so bad he feared loss of the rear axle from rusted spring mounts.

Another one of those "how could it be so hard" jobs was when I decided to take the rear bumper off my 99 to replace the nasty U-haul hitch with my Mopar receiver hitch. How hard can it be to take the bumper off? Well, aside from having virtually destroyed the subframe putting the old hitch in, whoever installed that hitch had replaced the bumper bolts using green Loctite. That's the stuff that's supposed never to come apart again. It took forever to get those damn bolts out, and I cut my hands to ribbons doing it, about an eighth of a turn at a time. That took most of the day, and the rest was consumed torching out and extracting the bolts and inserts that had been shoved in, and extracting the right hand nut strip that had been bent out of the way instead of utilized. XJ Hell awaits someone for that one.

 

[Ecomike]

IIRC preheating the hell of the bolt will burn out Loctite?

I sometimes wonder if a mix of mild acids and a paint brush might be the answer to those that are so severely rusted and can't be just cut off.

 

[kastein]

the solution to severely rusted XJs is either a lot of plate, 16ga, angle, and tube... or a few gallons of gas and a road flare.

I'm a little sour on rusty XJs after my last one. I am sure I will be a little sour on rusty MJs too soon, but at least most of the annoying weld-nut fasteners on the rear of an XJ are either through bolts or studs on an MJ so it hasn't truly pissed me off yet.

 

[Sidewinder CC]

Hardest fix? Jeeps are a fix...like a drug addiction. My hardest fix is realizing I need to get rid of it instead of dumping more tons of money into it to keep it going.

I can't I can't

 

[Ecomike]

I would not want to tackle a rust bucket jeep either, in fact I would not do it, but an occasional rust frozen 25 year old large nut, on an otherwise good, nearly rust free jeep is another issue.

 

[AeroSync]

Mostly everything on my 99 Limited has been hell to do because it was from the Northeast (PA, MD, and NY). From recently bought to now:

-Installing C4x4 Tow Hook Brackets: all bumper bolts broke except the torx ones.

-Installing rear hitch: rear bumper side covers got broken bolts and bumper bolts were almost impossible to remove due to rust. Also the passenger rear panel behind the wheel had a massive rust hole (to be cut and folded).

-Removed carpet: massive hole in driver's side floorboard and hole in passenger's side above catalytic converter.

-Installing RE 3.5": sway bar bolts broke, driver's side LCA bolt on frame side was seized and had to be grinded off, trackbar was almost impossible, rear spring bolts at the box were rust welded to leaf bushings so they were cut off, exhaust was rusted and fell off during install (???), rear upper shock bolts broke, rear brake line had to be redone due to rust.

-Changing transfercase fluid: my idiot self decided to drain before loosening the fill plug, and guess what? The fil plug wouldn't budge so I had to weld a bolt to it and go that way.

-Changing wheel bearings: brake protector thing rust welded onto the knuckle and bearing, had to destroy to remove. The hub was basically rust welded and didn't come out until I used an air hammer. Surprisingly the 36MM nut came off easily with air tools.

-Changing front axle shaft u-joints: basically they blew up and I had to cut them out from the yoke since they didn't want to press out.

-Installing RC Drop Brackets: UCA bolts on the frame had to be persuaded with a pry bar and cursing/BFH to come out through the frame hole straight.


Floor has been fixed and at least now the bolts won't give me trouble since I basically had to reconstruct the damn thing!:smsoap:

I still love it though.

 

[Super mud]

Hardest thing I've found is, believe it or not, the damn valve cover!!! My '95 4.0L has leaked from the rear of the valve cover since I have had it. Tried new gaskets, a post-update valve cover, sikaflex instead of a gasket... Still can't stop the damned thing from leaking!!! Maybe one day I'll work it out!

Get a felpro. It's more expensive than their oil pan or head gasket but for some reason it was the only thing that worked. Plus it's reusable. I sealed mine 5 times with rtv. Didn't realize to use black rtv after the 1st 2 and still leaked worse than the previous each time after. Don't know how chevy valve covers with like 3 bolts don't leak but the 4.0 with 10+ bolts and rigid aluminum construction leak.

 

[TA2Jeep]

Hardest = Getting the 30mm axle nut off. I had broken 1 Craftsman and 1 Wright 1/2" breaker bars. Then I got a 3/4" Wright, still would not break loose. I had to get a 6' iron pipe, I then took and positioned it so it was pointing straight up. I had the pipe pushed all the way down to the door handle and cracked the mirror before it broke loose. I bet I had well over 1000lbs of force on it before it went.

But, but it's only supposed to be 175 ft/lbs.. :gee:

Had that same kind of fun with my axle nuts too, but the most worstest was the goddamned ball joints - especially when they're ball joints that didn't belong on an XJ, that the PO had put in with a BFH. Heated, blasted, kicked, pressed, cursed at and prayed over - they would not come out. Tried everything in the book, including melting wax down into them and all types of hinky shit, it finally took a plasma cutter to release them into a hundred pieces.

For the oil filter adapter, I left that to my mechanic for $40 - I have arms like a chubby T-Rex..

 

[souske]

and all types of hinky shit,

hinky?:dunno:

 

[TA2Jeep]

hinky?:dunno:

Some pure WTF, make you nervous, we shouldn't really be trying this but hope it works way to fix shit..

i.e. Using a tie down as a "tow strap" attached to the radiator support of a Honda accord as its being pulled by a Nissan truck in an attempt to straighten out said radiator support.


Here's an example of hinky..

 

[souske]

A Presidential solution

 

[Super mud]

But, but it's only supposed to be 175 ft/lbs..

I had a mechanic do the unit bearing when I got the jeep for this reason. When I had to get it off a few months later, it was just as tight as it was the first time I tried it. I could tell he replaced it but wouldn't be supprised if he said f*** it. Took a 6ft bar, heat and a 300lb fat man. I was less than 150lb at the time and it wasn't happening. Don't know why it was torque so tight.

 

[kastein]

Because things stick together over time. Some rust, some vibration, some dirt and water and a fastener that went on at 175 is coming off a few hundred higher than that.

I don't really understand how you guys are having problems with these though, a bit of heat and a cheater pipe and they come right off. Matthew Currie is the only one whose unit bearing problem sounds legit to me... and he's so far north I think he would need to dump his xj in the ocean to get more salt on it than the DOT provides!

 

[souske]

Do you guys use anti-seize on the stub threads? Makes it a lot easier to get the nut off later, and you dont have to worry about it wiggling loose due to the lock cover/cotter pin.

As far as breaking em loose, all thats needed is a Jeeperjohn Judo kick!

 

[kastein]

When I can find the antiseize, I.e. never :dunce:

 

[souske]

just follow the copper trail, that stuff gets everywhere, at my old job we got it in 5 gallon buckets, probably enough to ruin the clothes of every man, woman and child in the US.

 

[kastein]

just follow the copper trail, that stuff gets everywhere, at my old job we got it in 5 gallon buckets, probably enough to ruin the clothes of every man, woman and child in the US.

yeah I think so... heard it said once that you would never expect a single tube of antiseize to coat an entire garage floor until you've experienced it :wow:

 

[Super mud]

I don't really understand how you guys are having problems with these though, a bit of heat and a cheater pipe and they come right off.

Only that one. I've even zipped the factory other side off with an impact no problem.

 

[stewie]

Body swap 96-87

yep. doing one from my 95 to my 96. sucks.

CPS on my '99 also took about 10 minutes. Not sure what the difference is with other year XJs. Sensor bolts are very accessible from the rear of the driver's front tire with a couple extensions and a universal joint on the socket.

CPS's are easy. a half hour and thats taking my time.

yeah I think so... heard it said once that you would never expect a single tube of antiseize to coat an entire garage floor until you've experienced it :wow:

there are so many parts on my heep that get anti seize on them. and for that matter so do i!

 

[Yuri]

My first CPS took forever! But since then I've subsequently figured out the secret... use an air wratchet. It's literally a 5 minute job now. If you don't have one, the aggravation savings from this single job makes the purchase well worth it.

Broken rear shock bolts used to take me hours as well, laying on your back and drilling them out stinks. But someone on here let the cat out of the bag... just air-chisel the welded-in nuts out! I broke 2 the other day and was still finished with both rear shocks in under an hour taking my time. The tough part now is fishing bolts through from the top. I taped them to a 1/2" wrench (use masking tape so it tears easily so you can get the wrench out).

Air tools are worth it!