Snapped Shock Bolt, Help!

[azwjowner]

Remember if need be you can find a junkyard in town with a wrecked JL and snag a bolt.

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[Rangemaster]

Just remove the complete shock so you can vise grip the stuck bolt, then head down to the local 4 wheel drive shop in your town. I am sure they keep plenty of bolts just for this reason from lift kits they install.

 

[GavinH]

I'd avoid driving with the bolt snapped. You could likely damage/wallow out the outer bolt hole and then you'll never get a tight, unsloppy connection without welding new material in the hole.

And yes, can confirm you have the correct bolt size.

Just remove the complete shock so you can vise grip the stuck bolt, then head down to the local 4 wheel drive shop in your town. I am sure they keep plenty of bolts just for this reason from lift kits they install.

I need it to drive to work in the morning so guess I’ll be cranking on it before sunlight to see if I can get the shock fully out. Would do it right now but storming super bad atm

 

[Mx5red]

Curious to see if you can get the top bolt out.. agree with vice grips or similar approach.

And for future reference, you bolt in the top of the shock first, then lift the bottom of the shock up (whether arm strength or leverage) to slide bolt all the way through and you can thread nut onto bolt. Don’t try to slide the top bolt through a shock under pressure.

 

[pablo_max3045]

As the other said, ether vice grips or use two nuts. If you then loosen the first nut, it will tighten against the outside nut and stop it from free spinning, thus allowing you to loosen the bolt.

 

[GavinH]

Curious to see if you can get the top bolt out.. agree with vice grips or similar approach.

And for future reference, you bolt in the top of the shock first, then lift the bottom of the shock up (whether arm strength or leverage) to slide bolt all the way through and you can thread nut onto bolt. Don’t try to slide the top bolt through a shock under pressure.

Yeah I did every other shock in that order just didn’t think about it, I even had the top fully tightened but loosened so I could maneuver the bottom easier just didn’t torque the top before the bottom after loosening.

Just climbed under the Jeep before work and was able to get the shock and head of the bolt out no problem. Luckily the bolt snapped cleanly against the bracket so the shock slid out no problem. Bolt is not seized can untwist it with my fingers until it gets tight, looks like when it snapped some metal bent outwards so the bolt isn’t wanting to continue threading, I can back it out the long way (way it originally went in) but gets too tight to hand unscrew and vice grips stopped spinning it so I'm gonna get some PB blaster and hope that'll clean the bolt up for the vice grips to continue working it out.

Just so extremely relieved the shock was able to come out easily so I can now drive to work and around town to get my parts and not to mention the threads on the welded nut appear to be good. Now just onto sourcing that replacement bolt and working the threaded part of the snapped bolt fully out.

 

[GavinH]

Get some vise grips and grab the snapped end and continue to follow through until it comes out.

Looks like if you could get pressure off the shock you could remove both halves of the bolt . Seems like it snapped in the middle.
I just did all 4 of mine a few weeks ago with the Fox's.

G.

Remove lower shock bolt so there's no more tension applied to on the snapped upper bolt.

Then see if you can just can either twist the snapped bolt that's sticking out with either your hand or vice grips to remove it completely.

Was the bolt hard to turn the whole time? Was the bolt almost all the way in and you were just torquing when it snapped? The threads on the back side of the nut don't look damaged from your video, but you may be able to see wonkiness better in person. Hopefully they are in good shape and you didn't cross-thread the bolt. You'd likely know if you were cross-threading it when installing, as it would be hard to turn the bolt after only a few threads have made contact, and it looks like you got it pretty far in.

You should be able to push your fender liner up high enough to get a straight shot at the bolt. If not, you may have to remove it. Removing it will certainly make the process easier for you (or a shop).

As others have said, remove the bottom bolt and let the shock hang from the upper (broken) bolt. This will remove the shock pressure on the upper bolt and you should be able to work it out without too much drama. You may have to support and wiggle the shock a little while pulling out the bolt.

Hopefully the bolt snapped near the nut, so when you pull out the bolt head the shock will drop free. From the images I can see of the bolt online, there appears to be a tapered/reduced cross-section in the bolt between the threaded end and the smooth shaft which would be a likely failure point.

From there you can use a drill and bolt extractor/easy-out kit as you mention. Even if the shock doesn't drop out, you can still do this. Spray the nut and remaining bolt with PB Blaster or a similar penetrating catalyst/lubricant.

Alternatively, you can try cleaning up/filing/sanding the broken side of the bolt bottom and try to continue threading it into the back side using a vice grip (if there's enough room) or grind a slit in the broken end and use a large flat-blade screwdriver. Continuing to thread it through the nut, if it isn't seized, will require much less rotation than backing it all the way out.

Almost 300 Ace Hardwares in Florida, so hopefully you're close to one. I've had really good luck finding random fasteners at two locally.

The OEM bolt is Mopar part # 6512467AA - Hex Flange Head Bolt and Washer. $4.20 MSRP.

Bolt snapped cleanly on the bracket shock came out no problem, snapped bolt with threads i can hand loosen and continue with vice grips just need PB blaster to help finish it through. Truly thank you everyone for your help

 

[m3reno]

You can also buy a tap and die set and retap the threaded part

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