Can these be reused if I clean them up with a wire brush?
Can they never be reused?
Can they sometimes be reused, but mine are too far gone?

If I need to get another, where can I get one? I've seen them at a couple places like rock auto, but I can't believe that price is the best there is.



And how do I get the shock mount off the axle? Tell me like you're talking to a particularly stupid 11 year old who's never held tools, ...Will i be able to reuse that, and if not, where do I find another one?

 

The plate can be reused. Even when they are a bit rusty, they are very thick, so unless the rust is very severe they will be fine. I replaced mine with some heavy duty ones I found on amazon, but it really wasn't necessary. And yes, given how much the replacements cost, it was probably silly for me to do. Since you provided a picture, I'd say those could be reused. Unless the rust goes way deeper than the picture depicts.

The shock mount bracket is welded to the axle. If you are talking about the entire bracket, it would have to be cut/grinded off. However, there are companies that sell heavy duty replacement parts for these types of axle components. So it might make more sense to get clean ones. In any case, they would have be welded to the new axle. Are you talking about the entire bracket? or just the bolt that the shock bushing slides on to?

 

You are good top go. As stated there is enough metal there that some rust is not going to kill it

 

Thanks for the good info.

I mean the whole bracket. I'm trying to lower mine by going leaf-under-axle. I need to relocate them since the shock mount is occupying the space for mounting the leafs to. This is only a street used XJ, so I don't need heavy duty for off roading or for autocross...Since I'm grinding/cutting them off, I would need to source new ones, right? I have no idea what kind of place to look for to do that.

 

If you're super careful in cutting the old ones off you may be able to re-use them. You can buy new brackets at any of the 4wd/Specialty retailers - Quadratec, Morris, Summit or even just a RockAuto or Amazon. Make sure you account for shock length if you're modifying the vehicle height - depending on what you're doing you may need to relocate the upper mounting location as well.

I see a lot of welding in your future..

 

Yeah. Is the welding something I can do with a 110 flux core welder? I have no welding experience, but I bought one a while ago. I never used it, but never returned it, so it's still NIB.

 

If you have little to no welding experience, practice on a scrap piece of the same thickness you will be welding. Do the same when welding two pieces together, especially if they are different thicknesses or you could burn thru. Practice, practice, practice.