Leaf bolt...serious problem.

[cr2000xj]

I can't tell you the corrext size, but I would do just as you said and cut the old bolt and drop it out.

 

[kastein]

The replacement bolt is an M14x1.5 (or is it x2.0? I forget, whatever the standard is for M14s) 120mm long class 10.9, I forget how long the unthreaded portion of the shank is though. You can pick the bolt up for like five bucks in various MOPAR discount locations (search the forum, there are a few threads listing them) + stores.zmjeeps.com as OEM part number 3420 2118, the nut is OEM part number 1150 2814 on the same sites and costs another few bucks.

EDIT: I know this won't help you this time around, but this is exactly why I buy new hardware for EVERYTHING before even starting - I had new bolts, nuts, and U-bolts+nuts for the whole job on hand before I even started my lift. It gave me a lot more peace of mind and I ended up using all but two nuts (my weldnuts got lucky.)

 

[teevexj]

I checked it with a flashlight, and the nut is totally clean, no dirt welds rust or anything...Tomorrow I'm going to cut the hole slightly bigger and try a 1" or 24mm wrench. If nothing pans out I'll take some pics once I figure out a solution. In the meantime if anyone else may have any ideas feel free to throw them out there.

 

[gump]

Can I cut away the old leaf spring chop off the bolt at the inside of the spring pocket and drop the nut and part of the bolt down through the hole I made?

Cut open the pocket, cut the bolt off as flush as you can to the pocket with sawzall. Remove the spring, fish the remaining bolt/nut out of the pocket. Install new spring, use regular bolt/nut/washer combo. Weld nut to pocket after installation if so desired. I didn't and it worked fine for me.

Dude, that's what I said to do in the first place. Don't bother trying to break it free. The time you've spent trying to get a wrench on there is way more than it would take to just cut the thing off.

 

[teevexj]

I was hoping to keep the nut but it doesn't seem to be working that way so I'm just gonna cut it off and buy a new nut.

 

[ehall]

$5 per nut at the stealership... hard to find metric flange head compression nuts though, I stole a bunch from low-mileage WJs at the junkyard

 

[teevexj]

I have new bolts, so can't I just go to the local hardware store and find a 10.9 nut that works?

 

[ehall]

You might be able to find a box of 14mm flange head class-10 nuts in a Dorman hardware kiosk at the auto stores but they won't be compression threaded to lock the bolt in place. You won't find anything close to that at a general hardware store.