u-bolt nuts

I am adding some degree shims to get the pinion on my rear 8.25 up where it belongs. I had planned to reuse u-bolts (I now know that is bad) but ended up having to cut them off. I now have some replacement u-bolts from advance auto. They seem pretty crappy, but at least they are yellow like grade 8 hardware (I'd be surprised if it is actually grade 8). The really sketchy thing about these u-bolts is that they do not have the tall nuts like I expected. Has anyone run these with the short nuts? It looks like I could order some tall nuts from quadratec if I need to. I could also throw some jam nuts over the short nuts (there are lock washers already). Thoughts?

The yellow color is just cadmium plating to prevent rust and doesn't signify the grade of the hardware. The nuts that came with the set are fine.

I was in the same situation you are in and i searched every place i could think of and keep coming up dry.

So knowing how cheap nuts and bolts are these days i put a jam nut On just for an extra peace of mind

I'd probably run them... while waiting for a RuffStuff bolt order to come in with better ones.

Or if you have a nearby spring / truck rebuild shop (you almost certainly do) - head there with specs for the bolts you need and have them make them. My local shop will make them while I wait if they aren't busy when I show up, charges about what RuffStuff does, and has the same quality. All the info they need is how tall the bolts have to be, how long the threads need to be (so you don't have to stack washers... make sure you get this info), diameter of axle tubing, and desired bolt diameter. I had a full set of U-bolts in my hands 15 minutes after I walked through the door.

I've only had a few axles that had the long nuts. The D44 and D35 from the factory have short shoulder nuts. I imagine Dormans would have been sued by now if their u-bolts did not work no matter what country made them. From looking at the web site and the u-bolt picture, they look like a quality product. Not trying for a pi$$ing contest, just saying.

Thanks Locked98GC, I think I will run them for now and check them when I retourque and frequently after that too. These aren't anything nice like Dorman, the English instructions were "put on truck" and the Spanish instructions were the rest of the page. I don't think they were really meant for sale in the US. Even a really low quality 1/2 inch bolt is probably not going to break on a sprung-over vehicle so I will stick with them for now. The metal is probably harder than what I removed, one of the old bolts spun 3/4th of a turn before it broke.