Hey everyone, so I am replacing the shocks on my newly purchased XJ. They are blown beyond belief. The rear two are where I am struggling, naturally. The body is extremely rusty back there. I do realize that it is a common problem for these bolts to break and there are many threads about that, however, I am having a different issue. My issue is that whenever I start ratchetting the nut (bottom side), the bolt (top side, not visible), also spins with the nut. Obviously, this means that either the welding broke on the bolt, or someone in the past has replaced the shocks and placed new bolts in there. For the life of me, I cannot figure out a solution to this. I have not found any type of wrench to be able to successfully set on the top side bolt and keep it secured as I ratchet from the bottom. I haven't found anything in stores long enough to reach and provide leverage to place it on the bolt. Does anyone know of a specific type of wrench or tool I should be using to secure that bolt from the top? Keeping in mind the very small gap there is to access it.

I also tried cutting the nut off from the bottom with a diamond blade. I am almost there, but the battery on my tool keeps dying. I am scared that even if I cut it off, it won't have been deep enough to free up the shock. If that is the case, any recommendations from that point? I have attached a couple pictures here for reference. One is of the shock mount, the other is of the small opening to access the top bolts. Again, the main problem is that the bolt spins with the nut and I have not figured out how to secure the bolt on top to stop it from spinning. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Gap to access top bolts, right under the wire and fuel line

shock mounting

 

Those look like nuts/bolts someone put in there, probably going to have to cut or grind them off

 

What exasemech said.
Those are not factory.
Actually if they did not bugger up the holes, think I have been spending to much time in the UK XJ Group on Facebook (LOL), they did you a favor.
If you want it to look clean go buy something like this:


All different ones out there with all different pricing so poke around to find ones you like.
Or you can just use some new Grade 8 bolts, washers, and nuts,
Fish the new bolt and washer through with some mechanics wire and nut from the bottom.
You can get a wrench in the cavity so you might even be able to reuse that hardware too.

 

Like Ralph said there in the last sentence, you need to get a wrench up in the cavity. A flex head, closed end would probably help in allowing it to sit square with the head, but an open end worked well enough for me to keep the head from spinning. I pretty much had to keep my hand in there holding the wrench tight to the nut. Having long fingers helps...

This right here is the reason that Bar Pin Eliminators (BPEs) are worth their weight in gold in the rear of the XJ; you only have to do this once...

 

A plain old combination wrench *correctly sized* on the head of the bolt should reach in there. Done this many times without much issue. Yea it's a little finicky but going by feel putting the mouth of the combo wrench at the head of the bolt and spin the nut slowly until you feel the wrench slip into the bolt head.

Otherwise, if the shocks are dead absolutely trash then rip the plastic cover off the shock shaft. Then after unbolting the shock from the axle cut through the shock shaft. Where you cut it is up to you either leaving yourself a length of metal to manipulate or cutting it real close to the bushing up top. Then you'll have more room to address cutting either the hardware or cutting through the shocks mounting pin.


*edit*
Realizing those are not plastic on the top half but never the less it's still just a thin metal dust cover that can be cut through/cutoff with ease

 

Those bolts are usually 5|16 therefore a 1/2 nut and bolthead. You can usually get a 1/2 6 point combo wrench up behind there 2 people makes the job easier but it can be done with 1. You will replace those bolts with the same style you took out

 

A combination of bar pin eliminators and flag nuts is the ideal situation. You could do just fine with getting just flag nuts as well.

 

As stated above, those bolts and nuts aren't original, as the factory setup had nuts welded to the back side of that plate, and bolts were inserted from the bottom. A previous owner has replaced the hardware at some point and used bolts through the top and nuts on the bottom. I did the same thing recently when replacing my rear shocks and breaking 3 out of 4 bolts. I used a fish wire to get the bolts in from the top, and I think I was able to get a combination wrench behind the bracket/plate mount thingy to keep the bolts from turning while tightening the nuts from below.