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Leaf bolt...serious problem.

T

teevexj

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Poco, BC, Canada
I was swapping out my leafs and ran into a snag..the front bolt with the nut welded inside the frame kind of broke, but not the bolt, the welds. Yes the welded nut inside the frame broke free from the weld, now I need to know what to do.

I do not have a welder but can borrow one, would I have to cut the frame open and weld a patch on afterwards? Cut into the floor from inside the cab? I just need a solution cause this is my daily driver and work truck and I'm at a loss on how to do this fix.
 
Not sure what to say, this is one of those things that keeps coming up. I was just outside loosening bolts(preparing for a spring swap) and the front spring eye bolt won't turn on my rig. I stopped and put everything back together before anything broke.

The 2 solutions I recall are to open the frame extension where the weld nut rides to get a wrench/pliers/welder at it, or cut the bolt on both sides of the spring with a sawzall, then get in to do the repair after hacking the spring out. Not sure which is more work. Good luck,...
 
Yeah, cut open the pocket on the frame and go at it that way. I know some people have had success re-welding the weldnut, or welding a piece of scrap stock to it so they could get some leverage on it.

When I took my leafs out I ended up cutting one of the bolts on both sides of the leaf because the damn bolt was frozen to the bushing liner and wasn't coming out, but I had no trouble with the nuts luckily.
 
Would it be possible to cut a small enough hole to get a wrench in and just leave the small hole there for future access? If so would I have to re-weld the nut or could I just use a lock washer and leave it like that to make it easier to install new springs each time?
 
teevexj said:
Would it be possible to cut a small enough hole to get a wrench in and just leave the small hole there for future access? If so would I have to re-weld the nut or could I just use a lock washer and leave it like that to make it easier to install new springs each time?
Click to expand...
I've got permanent pockets cut in my 90, I see no issue with that, but if you just use a standard bolt/washer/nut combo there is some slop in the hole since it's significantly bigger without the welded nut in there. I think you really need to try getting a nut welded back on there if possible, otherwise, I fear the bolt is going to slide back and forth in the pocket.
 
The same thing happened to me. What I did was lift the carpet inside and drilled a hole just above the nut. This way the hole is inside and just replaced the welded nut with a chunk of flat stock and a new nut a washer. Hope this helps
 
Cut open the pocket, cut the bolt off as flush as you can to the pocket with sawzall. Remove the spring, fish the remaining bolt/nut out of the pocket. Install new spring, use regular bolt/nut/washer combo. Weld nut to pocket after installation if so desired. I didn't and it worked fine for me.
 
gump said:
Cut open the pocket, cut the bolt off as flush as you can to the pocket with sawzall. Remove the spring, fish the remaining bolt/nut out of the pocket. Install new spring, use regular bolt/nut/washer combo. Weld nut to pocket after installation if so desired. I didn't and it worked fine for me.
Click to expand...

Thank you, that was actually my idea was to leave it unwelded so when I upgrade to bigger leafs its simple enough to change
 
I'd weld it. You really don't want that thing moving around - and it's not going to take much time to weld, you don't have to do so till after you've tightened it down. In fact I would not do so until after tightening because the heat might warp the metal and result in it sitting funny and not being aligned as well as if you just crank it down and weld it.
 
Ok so I have the spring pocket cut open and a 3/4" wrench does not seem to be locking onto the bolt, would it be a bigger size? I cleared all the dirt and rust off the nut and surrounding and still the wrench doesn't fit.
 
I tried a 22mm and even that was too small, it seems like somebody replaced it with a larger nut before and put the spring pocket back on or something...I dunno, It's just been going on now for 2 nights and I'm hoping its not too much longer I wanna go wheelin!

Can I cut away the old leaf spring chop off the bolt at the inside of the spring pocket and drop the nut and part of the bolt down through the hole I made? If I can what size bolt do I replace it with, length and width?
 
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