Keeping U-bolt nuts un-stuck

RatLabGuy

RatLabGuy

You look like a monkey and smell like one too
Joined
May 18, 2005
Location
Churchville, MD
removing my U-bolt to adds some axle shims (resolving driveline issues).

*holy cow* those nuts were a pain to get off, hours w/ a 4' pipe on a ratchet rowing-machine style. Good excercise at least.
I don't remember the OE ones being this tough.
Biggest pain is knowing I'll be doing this again, w/ some luck in the near future for a suspension upgrade project.

Now obviously thsi isn't something you'd want to back off/loosen on it's own... but would it be safe to add anti-seize or lube w/ the new ones? Or what about just primer/painting them to cut down in the rust?
 
Cut them off and buy new ones. Personally, I don't like to re-use u-bolts after they've been stretched out real good.
 
good morning- antisieze the crap out of em. also use it on other stuff like studs/lugnuts
 
One word- air impact- ok that was two words. Just kidding. Just torch them of or cut them some how and replace them cause I've always heard to not reuse u-bolts especially on onroad vehicles. but if you insist-air impact
 
I re-use them on my Jeep. Wally World black paint to keep them from rusting. Wire brush before taking them off and some good penetrating spray. When and if they start getting hot, let them cool, or run the risk of striping off threads. Another method for hard to turn is to put the blue wrench to just the nut. When putting them back on, use the thickest, tallest nut you can get. That gives you plenty of thread contact.
 
FWIW Ubolts *should* be a 1 time use application....that said we ALL re use them..
 
Well I didn't mention above, by the time posted I already had one side off and the other is just a few threads shy.
One the stock 2nd gen Toy mounts, they are kind of tucked up under the bracket holding the bolts to teh axle (nuts on bottom) and du to teh lip of the thing, hacksaw/torch etc not easy to get to.
I planned to replace w/ new ones from the get-go, as soon as I realized how stuck they were I knew they would not be re-usable when I was done. Which was good b/c one of them was stuck enough that the 9/16 bolt would rather snap off than let that nut go! i love the physics of 4' leverage.
Oh and my !@#$ HF compressor/tank/cheap reg only allows 100 psi so I don't egt super strength out of the impact. Now if only the new CO2 tank were full....

I'm mostly just wondeirng how to avoid thsi in the future. Will probably just quick spray paint the new ones, then anti-seize to boot.
 
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