or you will find yourself on the side of the road with steering box detached...or worse
Even though I was aware of this issue and there is a "sticky" thread on this forum, you dont get much warning
I heard a bang about 2 weeks ago, and my steering seemed a bit more vague, one of my sons borrowed the car and came running back to say that it had no steering, apparently the 2nd bolt let go with another bang, and the 3rd one within 5 minutes
flush with the lugs on the box, work hardened grade 8, blue loctite holding them
You should get a 16mm spanner and see if any spin, or even just replace them..I used 7/16 14 UNC x 4-1/2" (originals are 4"long)
Upon examination, you can see that once one of the 3 bolts snap, the other 2 are under immense stress, its a bad design
I pulled the box and took it home, spent nearly all day drilling out the stubs, you will need HS steel or cobalt bits x 3 for each bolt
(I tried welding a nut to the stub, but even though its clean shiny metal, and I used a hot mig, the weld just kept breaking, wouldnt stick to the metal in the high tensile bolts
Instead, once I drilled out to the depth of the lug, use a file or grinder to make a flat on the stub, then whack the hell out of the heated stub with a prick punch until I could get it rotating just a bit each way, then using multigrips and 8mm spanner, work it back and forth until I could twist them out
This was a
very nasty job indeed, the box is also heavy enough that you really need an assistant to hold it while you line up the bolts, or risk having your face smashed
Pain wasnt over as the HP power steer hose cross threaded, so I had to grab the one of my spare XJ, and also the auto cooler line had been punctured, so replace that
( today I very carefully took a small triangular file and tidied up the hose thread, and miraculously was able to install it back into my spare XJ)
These hoses are available from Rock Auto for $50, are different for 96 and before to 97 & later, and are a bit of a rare item from wreckers