I started taking the front axle out today to swap in a different set of springs and axle. I got the axle out and started removing the springs. The drivers side came fairly easily, but once I got it out I found the bolt hole in the front spring hanger is oblonged. The passenger side front bolt is rusted to the inner bushing sleeve, so I guess it's time to get the sawzall out and cut it out. At least that spring hanger looks okay (for now).

So, what to do about the ovaled out bolt hole? I do have a donor truck I could remove the spring hanger from and replace the whole thing. Will bolts holding it in place be as strong as the factory rivets?

 

All I know about rivets as fasteners is from the aircraft application and primarily aluminum. If you want, I'd say give Terry a call. But a good bolt with a good fit will provide excellent shear capability but you wouldn't want any play in there, otherwise you'd get the oblong effect from the constant shear forces, like on your other spring hanger. see PM

 

The bolts should work fine. They should be 7/16ths holes from the factory. I always drilled them out and upgraded to 1/2" bolts.

 

After some thought, I think what may do is use the wire feed welder and fill in the holes, then reinforce them with some plate steel. I'll need a little longer bolt, but that shouldn't be a problem. I might see if I can find a 3/4" drill bit and some kind of 3/4" OD x 7/16" ID steel sleeve that I can fab into either side, so the new bolt has a nice clean and uniform surface to ride on.

Before I do that, though, I'm going to see how hard it is to remove the spring bracket from the donor truck. It's a 1/2 ton, but the bracket looks the same for both. If it's not too difficult to get out (minimal swearing involved, I'll got that route and probably reinforce the holes with plates or thick washers welded to the outside to give the bolt more surface to ride on.

It looks like the bolt I took out of that hole was a grade 8, which may be the cause of the problem. I think the originals were grade 5 or less, so they wouldn't be harder than the steel they ride on.

 

Grade 8 bolts are a fine replacement for rivets. If you have a good fastener supply house try to get Huck frame bolts, though.

 

It'll have to be grade 8's.. I doubt Ace Hardware has anything that specialized.

 

Don't make this little fix any harder than it has to be.

You should have miles of room on each side of those hangers.

What I would do is to make a plate to fit over the outside of the hanger, line it up where it goes and mark the bolt hole center, lay the plate on the press and drill for the spring bolt, make one of these plates for both sides of the spring, run a longer bolt through a Grade-8 flat washer - a plate - the old hanger - the spring itself - the other side of the hanger - the other plate - another flat washer, then the nut and tighten, then weld along the edges of the plate, sewing it to the old hanger.

I can't say for certain without first looking under one of my trucks, but you may also be able to brace all of this with some gussets or such.



It probably took seventeen or so years to wallow out the holes, so this fix should be good for a long time.

 

Or try and find F911 bolts

 

Easiest way to remove the stock hangers is to torch of the head of the rivet and while it is hot have a good punch ready and wale on that baby and they usally pop right out.... I have done quite a few and I found that method works the best... Like others have said, any 1/2" grade 8 bolt will be more than sufficant...

Also, what size were your factory bolts in the front?? I know you can by the new sleves from auto zone or anywhere else with 9/16 hole.. So, in therory you could just drill out the front shackle for the bigger front bolt

 

A good air chisel wil cut off the riviets. Makes alot of noise, but it about the easiest way I have found.

Also, don't diesel's have larger bolts (5/8?) on the front of the spring pack. Not that drilling a hole bigger is a big deal, but something to ponder.

 

Well, like I tell my son...

If it was easy, nobody would do it. If it wasn't called "work", folks would be lined up around the block to do it for free!

 

So true...

I got it done. I took the plate from one of the front leaf spring shackles, which is thicker than the original hanger, cut it in half and welded the two pieces on either side of the spring hanger. The inner one actually butts up to the frame, so I know that'll be good support. I got some rather ugly, but deep and large welds into the other side so I think that'll be fine. I'll wire brush it and paint it tomorrow and post some pics, if anybody is interested is seeing it.

It turns out the inner hole was wallowed out a lot more than the outer hole, so that could've been causing some interesting spring twist. I expect with this fixed and the rebuilt / raised springs, I'll have a much better ride. Plus, I ordered a set of 255/85R16 Dunlop Rover RVXT tires for the beast.

 

Let us know what you think of the 255/85 Dunlops, they're one of the few 255's I can find. What tires did you have on there before?

 

I've got Dunlop 245/75R16 highway tires on there now. They're almost new and ride fine, but I wanted something taller for better MPG, something that will let me do 80 in double overdrive at about 2000 RPM. Also, I wanted a little more aggressive tread, so I think these'll work out nicely.

 

The new front axle is in! I've got the axle in the truck and sitting on jackstands. The negative arch to the leaf springs is gone, they're just flat now.

The front wheels aren't on yet, but nearest I can tell the front is going to be sitting about 1/2" to 1" higher than the rear, so I'll have to do a little tweaking to the rear springs to bring them up. I was thinking about doing a shackle flip, but then I'd need to do something about the exhaust tail pipe. Any suggestions?

I'm thinking a 2" lift "add-a-leaf" will probably take care of it, or for a short term fix, I could probably replace the factory 2" block with a 3" block.