rear upper shock mounts.

[aszaunmi]

I have not climbed under my XJ to check the grade of the OEM bolts. However if they are grade 5 you could also replace them with stainless steel and not have to worry about them rusting. I know these are not as strong as your grade 8 "upgrade" however they may be plenty strong for the application. I have a 90 XJ and my bolts came right out. Where your XJ lives or did live may play a huge role on the being rusted.

 

[ColoCherokees]

My solution may be overkill, but I'll never have to deal with that stock set-up again. I had a shop weld in a (bar) crossmember between the framerails with brackets for the upper shock mounts. Not cheap (around $200, material & labor), but worth it to me since I won't have to deal with that stock set-up again, as well as being able to use a regular bolt/nut instead of messing with bar pins the next time I replace my shocks. Just a different approach to consider.

 

[Alademuerte]

does the breakage normally happen on older xjs mine is a 99

Mine is a 99. I broke all four bolts on my rear shocks.

I had no problems with my leaf bolts though.. Except if you have a hitch.. The bolts go inwards.

 

[green50gt]

Why in gods green earth would ever think about cutting holes in the floor to do anything? There are much easier ways around cutting through the floor.

I purposely snap the bolts off, take a punch, or flathead screwdriver give it two or three solid smacks with a big hammer on the welded nut, the nut falls right out. Then, you take a nut that you bought at the hardware store, tape it to a wrench, insert wrench in those access ports about 3-6 inches over, line it up over your new hole you just made, thread in your bolt. 5 minute job. I have done this on 4 different XJ's. Mine, of course being the absolute worse, one of the nuts took about 10 smacks to get it out. However that may have only been because It was 2 in the morning, I was piss drunk and kept missing.

 

[MG2000XJ]

None of mine broke! I was loosening them up this weekend before my lift installation next weekend. I ended up taking all of them out and getting all the rust off. I only sprayed each bolt a couple times throughout the month with pb too!

 

[ninner]

I havent done the shocks on my xj yet but when I work under most cars I use an impact and just let it hammer away some time 5 min or more they almost allways come out unbroken. Of course I dont live in rock salt country either. Oh yea I pb blaser or S'ok a few days in advance.