My Saturday, Frustrating!!

So, where to begin.....?

well my truck had a bulging/deformed bushing on my TC UCA so i ordered a new one and was ready to replace it, the fact i work in a hangar and a good buddy works as vehicle maintenance in the same hangar seemed like it would make it a breeze to change... wrong.

well i pulled the truck into the hangar and got it up on the jack and the wheel off









well i got on with changing the bushing, no major problems other that getting the through bolt back in being a PITA, a bit of the plastic on the fuel line came off and gave me an oh shit i F'd something up moment, but after inspecting the line was fine, so i to put it all back together. here is where the fun begins, i had a bit of rust on the ball joints so i figured while i had everything apart I'd take them apart and clean/lube them up with a dry teflon lube... bad idea. as i start to take the bolt that runs through the ball joint and spindle i get about three or four turns and then it stops, so i get the breaker bar, half a turn and then nothing..... so being the buddy is vehicle maintenance we back in his work truck and get out the impact wrench, nothing..... so we up the force and get the breaker bar back out with about a 4ft pipe on the end, got about a 1/4 turn and SNAP, broke the bolt off at the threads!!! i figured hey at least its off, i'll just run and get a new one at NAPA, wrong! i spent the next 4 hrs calling around tring to find a grade 8 bolt that was 9/16 X 5in, the biggest anyone had was 4in. as a last ditch try i called Lowes, guess what they had one, of all places Lowes??

The snapped bolt and the new one. only diff is the threads.


At least the ball joint got cleaned. before on the right, good as new on the left.


The bushing that caused the whole issue and the snapped bolt


Wheel well after I gave it a quick general cleaning


all this on my day off, where i work, i've decided my truck and i have a love hate relationship, i love it, it hates me working on it. but at least its all fixed, buuuut i think i may be a bit crazy, i now want to take the other side apart to clean it up the same way, at least i bought another bolt to replace the old one while i'm in there. so all in all a 45 min job took 8 hrs.

while i'm in the typing mood, here are some pics of the other project going on









you can see it on the truck in the first pics up top

already moved the horns and re-routed the wires for them.


i separated the wire for the thermometer and re-wrapped in that plastic wire wrap stuff and ran it back to the original location



and replaced the disgusting cabin air filter


all i have left is to paint the radiator with some grill paint, and sand/re-paint the lower center portion of the bumper to get rid of all the nicks from rocks.

 

long and tedious day...but it all pays off in the end...nice job and keep it up bro...

 

Nice job!

 

Good work. The grill looks great.

 

Before you do the other side take a small wire brush and clean the threads off any bolt you plan to remove.
The bolts will come off much easier!
Just a small bit of contamination will make it almost impossible to remove them. (It's because they are fine thread bolts.)

You may want to install a nylon locking nut on the new bolt also. Lasting you want is that thing coming off while you're driving.

 

Good job,
By the way all this time you where in the clock? You-re saying that you did this on your' work hangar? Good place to work, I'll bet only the federal government.
Take care

 

I do have a question, the threads on the original bolt were 20, the new one is 12, will there be any issues with the difference in coarseness of the threads?

 

Depends on how you will be using your truck.
The larger threads can loosen easier than the finer threads.

For the UCA's? I don't think they will be too bad. I don't think you'll push them to their design limits.

The type of threads used in any application allows them to handle different types of stresses.

It's expensive but you can call Pat over at TC and he can hook you up with new bolts.

Good Luck!

 

Thanks Chris, I'm going to put a bit of paint on the bolt just to be able to do a quick visual check on it periodically, we use the same method on the jets at work for their tires.

 

just as a heads up i called Total Chaos and they confirmed what chris had said, bolts will be fine as long as they are torqued correctly

 

OP said it was his day off, he just used work's facilities. He did not get paid to work on his truck.

 

Totally agree! I say the same thing after I do anything serious to the truck.

 

Well finally got the other side done this weekend, cleaned/lubed the bolt first this time, huge help. only thing to note is that the rust on the ball joint on the passangers side was a bit worse and caused some minor pitting, def something i will have to stay on top of maintenance wise.

And yes i did the first day of work at work facilities but was not on the clock, would be nice to get paid for working on it though, although i am getting paid to be on here so i guess it all evens out.

 

Sounds like when I did my icon lift install on my truck. I stripped a nut and had to cut it off, what a huge pita!!! I also lightly scarred the gas line lol, seems like we have the same luck

 

resurrecting old threads baby