Upper Shock Bolt Help *I’m an idiot” - scratch that, I’m not

[TreyK42]

I don’t want to talk about how I managed to do this but I tightened my upper shock bolt on the driver’s side of my Mojave too tight and managed to get it through the welded nut in the shock tower past the threaded portion of the bolt. Now it just spins and I can’t get it out. there is virtually no room behind the shock mount tower to work with and I don’t know how the hell to get it out. A very expensive King shock is in there but the high misalignment spacers that EVO sells in order for them to fit the Mojave’s 14mm bolts are garbage and do not space the upper part of the shock away from the frame. Now the shock rattles like crazy and I’m at a loss.

Anyone have any advice on how I could force that bolt to re-engage with the threads and back it out of there so that I can install the proper spacers that King sent me?

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[20blue]

Screwdriver and wrench?

 

[Wet Willys]

Can you grind a wrench down thin enough to get in there and hold the nut?

 

[Lunentucker]

Any way to cut the head off and push it through? Clearance to do that on the other side?
I haven't looked at mine so I'm fishing.

 

[22_Sarge_Sport]

Well, you either need to pull from one side or push from the other. I guessing slipping anything under the bolt head is virtually impossible. All you need is for the threads to bite, so maybe you could grab the bolt head with vice grips and pull/twist to get it started? Is there any way to get anything wedged behind the end of the bolt to push it back toward the nut?

 

[22_Sarge_Sport]

...and you're not an idiot.

 

[WILDHOBO]

...and you're not an idiot.

Definitely not. The weld nuts and press nuts on these things are stupid and infuriating.

 

[brianinca]

Would non-destructively clamping the shock body help? I had a helluva time with the front shocks on an H2 and wound up with a chain clamp

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NPR2VM/

to hold the damned shocks while I unbolted them. I don't know what the top mount looks like on a Mojave like you're describing, though, so it may be useless.

 

[TreyK42]

Thanks for all of the feedback. I’ll be working on it over the weekend and we’ll see what I can get done.

 

[TreyK42]

Well. After about 6 hours laying across the engine bay with a compact sawzall, 21 Milwaukee 6-inch 24tpi sawblades, and a lot of cold beer in the 102 Texas heat while my dad sat on a bucket slowly rotating the spinning upper shock bolt I was finally able to cut out the spinning press nut..

From top to bottom in the pic is the threaded portion of the bolt that made it through before the push nut broke loose in the shock tower. The mangled mess still attached to the smooth portion is the f-ing press nut that broke free of its mount and was spinning freely. Then the mangled washer and bolt head.

So damn tedious! There is a small black collar left in the shock tower leftover that’s just spins and spins and spins.

I just can’t believe that FCA decided to use that shitty push/press nut setup. I felt sick the whole time taking a sawzall to my $65k JT with 3100-ish miles on it just because I wanted to change the shocks. Not to mention that I was cutting around brake lines and the main wiring harness. Man it was work.

I ran a new 14mm bolt through there and put a washer and nut behind it and was able to torque it down to 80 ft lbs. Rattling is gone and shock is mounted sturdier than before.

A word of advice when torquing down your upper shock bolts…take your time and be careful. It is not a welded nut in the frame. That push nut (at least on my Mojave) was way too delicate for my liking.

It’s a Jeep thing I guess.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Well. After about 6 hours laying across the engine bay with a compact sawzall, 21 Milwaukee 6-inch 24tpi sawblades, and a lot of cold beer in the 102 Texas heat while my dad sat on a bucket slowly rotating the spinning upper shock bolt I was finally able to cut out the spinning press nut..

From top to bottom in the pic is the threaded portion of the bolt that made it through before the push nut broke loose in the shock tower. The mangled mess still attached to the smooth portion is the f-ing press nut that broke free of its mount and was spinning freely. Then the mangled washer and bolt head.

So damn tedious! There is a small black collar left in the shock tower leftover that’s just spins and spins and spins.

I just can’t believe that FCA decided to use that shitty push/press nut setup. I felt sick the whole time taking a sawzall to my $65k JT with 3100-ish miles on it just because I wanted to change the shocks. Not to mention that I was cutting around brake lines and the main wiring harness. Man it was work.

I ran a new 14mm bolt through there and put a washer and nut behind it and was able to torque it down to 80 ft lbs. Rattling is gone and shock is mounted sturdier than before.

A word of advice when torquing down your upper shock bolts…take your time and be careful. It is not a welded nut in the frame. That push nut (at least on my Mojave) was way too delicate for my liking.

It’s a Jeep thing I guess.

Damn. Sorry you had to go through that. Nice work making it better though.

 

[Hootbro]

Weird, most any other bolt on the Gladiator suspension is a all thread bolt so this kind of thing does not happen. Glad to see you got through it.

 

[tgeek8]

Well. After about 6 hours laying across the engine bay with a compact sawzall, 21 Milwaukee 6-inch 24tpi sawblades, and a lot of cold beer in the 102 Texas heat while my dad sat on a bucket slowly rotating the spinning upper shock bolt I was finally able to cut out the spinning press nut..

From top to bottom in the pic is the threaded portion of the bolt that made it through before the push nut broke loose in the shock tower. The mangled mess still attached to the smooth portion is the f-ing press nut that broke free of its mount and was spinning freely. Then the mangled washer and bolt head.

So damn tedious! There is a small black collar left in the shock tower leftover that’s just spins and spins and spins.

I just can’t believe that FCA decided to use that shitty push/press nut setup. I felt sick the whole time taking a sawzall to my $65k JT with 3100-ish miles on it just because I wanted to change the shocks. Not to mention that I was cutting around brake lines and the main wiring harness. Man it was work.

I ran a new 14mm bolt through there and put a washer and nut behind it and was able to torque it down to 80 ft lbs. Rattling is gone and shock is mounted sturdier than before.

A word of advice when torquing down your upper shock bolts…take your time and be careful. It is not a welded nut in the frame. That push nut (at least on my Mojave) was way too delicate for my liking.

It’s a Jeep thing I guess.

Do you by chance have the part number for the m14 bolt? I did the same thing this past weekend. Called the dealer, but they get me a m12 bolt for a regular jeep, not mojave m14. So stuck trying to find the correct part number. Thanks

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