Hi guys,

I'm new here. Great stuff here. Has helped me tremendously.
But I have encountered what I perceive to be a huge problem. As it seems happens often, my tach welded nut on forward part of leaf spring broke loose. I used the trick of cutting off the spring, then cutting the eye on each side, etc, til I got to the bushing. No prob. Still could not get bushing free so I angle cut bushing/bolt on both ends. Got bolt head out, nut dropped in frame rail/ spring mount box. Fine. Angle ground frame rail box and pulled it open to pull out nut and replace. PROBLEM: I cannot get that **** nut outta there!!!! The bolt protruded through the back of nut and its too long to fit through the narrow area inside. I would consider cutting through floor but it's still gonna be too narrow to extract the nut. The nut is loose, but no way its gonna drop through that hole without utterly mangling the spring box. HELP! I'm totally stuck.

 

Just dealt with this myself.

So the bolt is long enough to go through the nut, and into another hole behind the "pocket" on the frame rail. I used a pry bar to hold the nut inside the pocket, where it should have been, then ground it flush as close as possible to the leaf spring hangar. Still wasn't enough. Ended up using the pry bar to push the nut against the opposite side of the pocket, then prying it into the frame rail, which bent the metal just enough to fish it out. Took a bit of doing, but got it out.

 

Got that dang thing out. I had to stick a dremmel in there and slowly grind down an edge of the nut on each opposite side in order to allow the nut to rotate out of the frame rail pocket. What a pain! But its out. Now the question is do I need to get the pocket rewelded?

 

Nice work. Sometimes hard work and persistence is the only thing that gets the job done.

Yeah, I'd get that thing re-welded, if it were me.

 

I had to go through the floor on my '88 donor Jeep as my nut broke off the weld nut too. Not sure if it was easier than what you did. I didn't care on the donor vehicle but it took some extra cutting to find the exact spot where you could get in the pocket.

 

I'm post on what the problem is. You want the nut back where it is supposed to be? Or just don't want it bouncing around? Can u weld it to something?

 

Best is to weld another nut inside. Can weld a nut to a washer and then weld the washer/nut inside. Then weld up the box. Been there, done that.

 

The weld nut was frozen. Had to cut it to get it out. The piece inside the pocket was too big to come out of the hole cut. He fished it out. He can now put new hardware in there.

 

Thanks for the replies. I dont have welding stuff nor know enough how to properly do it, but now that is back on wheels I can drive it to a shop to get welded. I'll have him tack the new nut then close it up.

 

Dear Lord! Now both my lower control arms are seized at the frame. This "6 hr install" is rapidly becoming a 6 day install.

 

An oil change usually burns up a Saturday afternoon, so you're not doing too bad.

 

It's a Jeep...

 

THIS RIGHT HERE. SO MUCH OF THIS I wish my customers would have experienced before flying off the handle at extended install times. A lift may have an install time of 6 hours but in reality, when you're working on a high-mileage vehicle in the rust belt, there is no install time. It's done when it's done.

 

^
No this is so very wrong you are running a "stealership", peeps think you should fix their ride for free.
lmao

 

HAHA yes anything after the "install time" is free!