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So…I had put off changing my body mount bushings for 2 years in my 87 GW. Finally got around to doing it and it made a huge difference in my ride quality. Most of the bumps / rattles are gone!!

The good news is every single bolt came out without issue (Spent it’s whole life in Arizona and California). But…I found one bracket was broken in half. One part is still attached to the frame with the big rivets and the other part was bolted to the body.

Have any of you replaced one of these brackets before? I was planning on drilling out the rivets and bolting it in place with some grade 8 bolts and lock washers. But, wanted to check other’s experiences with doing this and get opinions. I’ve already got the replacement from BJ’s. Thanks-Brian!

Do you have any photos showing how it is broken?

Without seeing it, I am inclined to say repair the one you have as its probably going to be a lot less work. But as you already have a replacement, you could go that route too. Bolts may work depending on which mount it is. Since half the frame is boxed, so getting to an inside nut would be tough if its in the front half.

Unfortunately it is in the front half with the boxed frame. I was still working that part out on how to bolt it in... Here is a pic of the broken bracket with the replacement next to it. It broke off all around the flange that mounts to the frame.

I do have a welder but saying I am a novice at welding is giving me too much credit...

About 2-3 months ago I pulled up in front of my house, put it into park, and shut down the engine...then I heard a loud BANG. Checked things out, started it up again and drove it around the block and everything seemed fine. Had no clue what it was until I saw this...

Thanks - Brian

There may be access holes near the mount into which you could fish a bolt plate. You could make a bolt plate from mild steel and grade 5 bolts by welding the bolts to the plate. Don’t use bolts greater than grade 5 as the carbon content of grade 8 bolts will make the weld questionable.

Thanks for the reply! There isn't any access holes that I can see... but I'm kicking around a few ideas.

1. Just weld it to the frame and clean up all my booger welds with a grinder.
2. Run a bolt all the way through the frame with a spacer in between to prevent the frame rails from crushing in
3. Rivet Nuts (rivnuts, crush nut, nutsert, etc...) although I'm not sure those would be strong enough

You could rivnut and weld it. The higher quality rivnuts hold pretty well.

JMO - there's no shame in hiring someone to do your welding. Check with your local Jeep/4x4 forums and clubs for someone that can weld for you. Often there are Jeepers that do jobs like bumpers and roll bars with excellent welding skills.

You can also rivnut in place and have welded when back on the road as well.

Are you able to get a hole saw in there on the back side and drill a couple holes the use some bolts the put some body plugs in the holes?

I think I will end up using a rivnut to install it then weld it in place afterwards. I bough my welder a while back with the intention of learning / teaching myself to weld, so this might be the opportunity to finally do it.

I can get a holesaw behind it and thought about that but didn't want to leave holes in the frame. The body plugs are a good idea!

Still kicking around ideas and trying to find the time to actually get out there and do it. Thanks for all the suggestions and I will post the fix up once I get to it! - Brian

tgreese wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 11:11 am JMO - there's no shame in hiring someone to do your welding.

Perhaps, if one is blind or otherwise physically disabled. With the amount of easily accessible information and low cost welders available today I would expect anyone who owns an old car would be able to do any welding on it. I found playing video games much more of a challenge than welding.