lurk520

It's been a while since I've posted on here but I believe I've solved a common WJ rear end noise that's very annoying.. Now I'm not the first one, but other versions I've read were overly complicated or there was missing or skewed information. If you've installed after market shocks on your WJ you need to remove the silver bolt on each side(the one with a taper in it) and replace it with an m12- 1.75 x 75 mm bolt. The existing black bolt is fine. Now I've seen kits with new sleeves and bolts, I've read write ups about also using washers as spacers in the top bracket, which I found to be unnecessary, all I did was change the silver bolt on each side. (There are 2 bolts that hold the rear shocks on each side, a black one and silver one.). I almost opted to replace the rear upper ball joint first but I'm glad I didn't. I got the replacement bolts at home depot, they were 2.25 a piece. Your Welcome :]

PS my shocks are Monroe reflex

dave1123

I just mounted Monroe Sensatracs and used the original bolts. No problems yet.

lurk520

No noises in the rear end when going over rough road? Could be it's a better shock so it's compensating for/dampening the problem. I wouldn't even run that tapered bolt with stock shocks if I knew any better. Gotta say my WJ rides so nice now I'm loving it, lol.

lurk520

Also I more so had the noise on the driver side where I had the black bolt on the top and silver (tapered) bolt on the bottom. Now on the passenger side I had black on bottom and silver on top and didn't here the noise as much from that side. So if you're running the black bolts on bottom that could also be why you have no noise. Not that I remember which way they go originally anyway but the real problem could be people mixing up bolts lol. The way I have it now though is blacks on top, new bolts on bottom.

dave1123

Actually, now that I think about it, the shocks that I replaced were not original and the bolts were both the same, probably not original either. I couldn't tell who's they were because they were so rusty. 165K miles.

lurk520

That could be. Mine were the originals. Fronts were leaking, rears were not, just replaced them as preventative. I'm at about 153k.

dave1123

Mine weren't leaking, but the upper sleeve covers had rusted off and were laying on top of the bottom half. they were working fine, just looked like they needed to be replaced. I have a history of using Monroe and have had good luck with them, even in racing.

The main reason I replaced them is there is a spot on I81 near my area where there is a couple of pavement joints that tend to make the rear end hop and slide just a touch sideways because they are in the middle of a turn. I don't get that now with the new shocks. Getting that little kick sideways gave me the ******* at 70 mph.

dacaur

You are awesome!
So here is my story.
About a month ago, I got a 2003 grand cherokee overland. It has a 2.5" lift already installed. There was a clunk comming from the rear passenger side. Upon inspection, the shock bushings were about 40% there. No metal sleeve, which explains why the bushings were so worn. The clunk was the shock body hitting the lower shock mount. I could wiggle the shock up and down by hand due to the play in the nearly gone bushings....

So, I orderd new shock bushings, installed them, and put the shock back on, careful to put the bolts back in the same holes they came out of..... Test drive, and now instead of clunking, I get a sort of rattling clunk, which is way more annoying than the original clunk.....

I was close to just ordering new shocks, when I came across this thread.... Hmmmmm, So I pulled the top bolt, yep it was the tapered one!! So, I swapped that one to the bottom and put the black one on top, and now have zero rattling or clunking, woohoo!!!

So my theory is the PO had the lift installed, the receipt in the glovebox shows it was installed about a year ago, and the installer put the tapered bolt on top, which caused a rattling clunk driving down the road. He complained to the shop, who simply removed the metal sleeves, which got rid of the noise, but of course, started to wear down the bushings, until it got to the point where I bought it, the bushings nearly total worn away...... when I replaced the bushings,I made sure to put the bolts in the same holes they came out of, but becuase they were in the wrong holes already, i got the rattle/clunk back....

Again, thank you so much for posting this!

CTarna

Hmmm

dave1123

The upper ones are usually silver and tapered to help align with the weldnut in the body. They are cadium plated for corrosion resistance. If you use standard grade 8 bolts, you should use antiseize on them so you can get them out later.

tom3holer

I am having a clunking noise in the rear when I hit a slight bump on the road my newly acquired 99 GC. I replaced all the shocks with Gabriel Proguard. The rears did not come with bolts. The ones I removed were markes with the Chrysler emblem so I am assuming they were done at the dealer at some point.
Both of the bolts although not rusted much looked the same to me with no color indication. I am wondering if being a Mopar old shock if one of the bolts was tapered and the other not and I mixed them up or if the Gabriel's require a straight bolt?
I never realized changing shocks could be so confusing.
Tom

dacaur

It doesn't make sense to me that the tapered one would need to be on top.
#1, Im not sure how the body of the bolt being stepped/ tapered would help it align with the weldnut.... only the threaded second would matter for that, and that's the same on both bolts,
#2, the black/upper bolt is considerably longer (close to 1/2" it looked like to me) than the lower silver bolt. Before taking mine out (when they were installed backward), I noted that quite a bit of threading was sticking out past the welded nut on the lower mount, way more than any normal OEM bolt I have seen .... With the silver tapered bolt installed in the bottom, the "correct" (to my eye) amount of bolt/threads is sticking out...
And #3, putting the tapered bolt on top caused a rattle/clunk, putting it on the bottom there is no rattle/clunk....

also, the taperd silver bolt was shorter than the black one, and several people have posted that when they removed their stock bolts, the upper was 10mm longer than the lower....

Pull the top bolt and look at the body of the bolt, the part between the head and threads. If its the tapered one it will be very obvious. I wish I had taken a picture, but you cant miss it.
This is not the right one, but it has the same type of taper that mine had (just in a different spot) you can see the step/taper in the bolt body between the head and the threads. https://www.ebay.com/itm/MOPAR-OEM-0...-/252510445049

dave1123

Well okay then. I stand corrected. As I said, when we did mine, both bolts were standard grade 8 bolts that were straight. I wasn't the original owner so anything is possible. I didn't actually do the work, but having heard about this problem, I looked at the bolts. I don't remember noticing they were different length.

dacaur

From what I have read, not having the taper on the bottom bolt isnt a problem. So replacement bolts are not an issue. Its only when you put the lower tapered bolt in the upper mount that it becomes an issue.... I can definatly see why the tapered bolt is a problem in the upper mount, as it allows the bolt to rattle in the metal sleeve, and because the bolt is directly connected to the thin uni body, its magnified and you hear it.... Its possible its also rattling in the bottom sleeve on replacment shocks, but because the lower shock mount is connected to the thicker axle tube, the sound isnt magified and you dont hear it....
Im actually pretty curious what the point of the taper/step is. You can see from my link above the design continued at least through the 2010 model year, and I see it on a whole bunch of vehicles from different brands, not only in shock mounts but control arm mounts as well........

dave1123

I believe the step is to provide clearance so the bolt will not rust-weld into the bushing, but if that's the case, it doesn't work very well.