while taking off my leaf springs the bolt that holds the front part of the leaf on broke at the threads, now i have a headless bolt covered up by the spring that is still atached still threaded into the frame/shackle . any ideas on what i should do?

-i was thinking to ether drill out the rest of the bolt or cut the other side til the leaf falls , but then im stuck with part of the bolt stil in the threads i need.

im in deperate need of help im thinking im screwed,

 

If you have a welder you may get lucky and try welding another bolt to the broken bolt head. However, I am guessing if it broke the original bolt its going to break the new welded bolt. But it could be worth a shot. The only other option is to bust out the plasma cutter and start cutting. Thats what I had to do.






For me it was one of those things I could spend all day trying to get the old one out and fix the threads and everything else, or I could just bite the bullet and do something I KNOW would fix it.

 

sawzaw with GOOD METAL CUTTING BLADE.. cut between the leaf perch and leaf... get the spring out of way.. then you will have to do what he did ^ weld in new nut...but a good blade will cut bolt and you can then get the spring out of way...

 

wish i had access to those types of tools:C. lol i wouldnt of even thought twice if i did, my dad came up with a solution using a grinder, im going to try it tomorrow, it involes grinding the spring getting it out of the way, then grind a wedge out of the eye and try to slip the eye off leaving the bolt hopefully, then visegrips/pipewrench and try to get it out, if it doesnt work im going to have to spend some of my jeep money on some new sweet tools. haha

thanks for those photos though, ill know exactly what i need to do when the above strategy fails

 

Your gonna grind the spring?? Im not sure if I understood that right but it doesnt sound like it will work

 

Hopefully he means cut off wheel

 

yea cut off wheel, im sorry.

 

Ha, this happened to me, but I didn't weld in a new nut. I cut the bolt off with a sawzaw. I then cut a small hole in the floor to get to the welded in nut inside the "frame rail". Once I got that out I held a new nut in its place with a wrench while I put a new bolt through and tightened it down. Yes it was a pain in the *** but it worked. Good luck.

Don't give up man

 

good luck man. post what u end up doin and let us know how it works. i have a feeling ill be going through this next week when i lift mine.

 

Good luck man. Let us know if you get it. This sure sucks!

 

im slightly intimidated to do my lift.....i may have to go through this as well.....and like him i dont have a welder. just a grinder, a sawzall and other standard garage tools. i think ill wait till motorcycle weather....so when it takes longer than expected at least i have some mode of transportation lol

 

heres my update:

I did what i said i was going to do with the grinder, i got the leaf eye out of the way pretty easily, and was left with the broken bolt in the bracket, got out my visegrips and pipewrench, worked with it for about 45mins til it broke off again flush with the bracket lamo.

new plan:
now im going to get a long drill bit a couple sizes smaller than the hole and drill out the old broken bolt and hopefully it will crumble out leaving the threads intact. haha probally not but wish me luck!!

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/welding...der-98871.html

 

I can assure you that the drilled bolt wont crumble.Even if you drill enough of it away to be able to break it out bit by bit you wont be able to do it without damaging the threads.It is nearly impossible to drill something like that in a position like that, strait with a hand drill.
My suggestions:
1-Use a bolt extractor ( I hate them, they never work for me) but if you break the extractor off inside the bolt you are screwed because they are nearly impossible to drill through.
Try soaking the broken bolt in some good penetrating oil for a few days and maybe heat the broken bolt before attempting the removal.

2- Drill 3/4 of the way through the broken bolt and tap that with a slightly smaller size tap than the original bolt.
Thread a new grade 8 or higher bolt into that and again soak and heat the broken bolt as hot as you can get it (cherry is best) then try to wrench the bolt through. If you do it this way you will have to cut the head off of the new bolt after the old bolt is out so you can push the entire thing through.

I have used a plumbers torch before to heat things up.Use the yellow cylinder ( MAP Gas) it is much hotter than regular propane. I think I paid like $40 for mine at home depot and it came with the MAP gas and heating tip.
If you have an oxy-acetylene torch it would be better and faster but the above will work too.

Either way if you manage to get the old bolt out with out destroying the original nut and threads make sure to chase the old threads with a tap to clean them out.

 

That's probably your best plan. Center punch the old bolt as near to the center as you can then use a bit just large enough to barely hit the threads to drill out the old bolt. You might be able to use an easy out to get the old bolt out. Plan on soaking it for a day or so with PL Blaster first. If the easy out doesn't work you can use a punch to "collapse" the the side of old bolt and get it out that way.