Had the worst Saturday wrenching on my Jeep last month

I was swapping out the front axle seals on my XJ and snapped a bolt off in the differential housing. Took me 4 hours just to drill and extract it, and I still ended up having to helicoil the hole. Anyone else have a simple job turn into a whole day project?

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2 Comments

betty_white392mo ago

Three times this year I've had a "simple Saturday job" turn into a two-day saga, including that time I tried to change the thermostat on my ZJ and the bolt housing was so corroded it basically crumbled to dust when I touched it (I had to tap new threads into the block, way deeper than I wanted to go). Then there was the rear brake job where I discovered the caliper slides were seized solid, so I spent three hours fighting those suckers with a torch and a sledgehammer before giving up and ordering new brackets online. That alternator story hits close to home though - I had one where the bracket bolts were rusted to the block and I ended up having to cut the whole bracket off with a grinder, which meant a three-hour trip to the junkyard for a replacement bracket and another two hours drilling out broken bolt holes in the block.

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oliver7192mo ago

Man I feel your pain, I once spent a whole Saturday trying to swap a simple alternator and ended up with TWO broken bolts and a trip to the parts store for a tap set.

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