leaf spring install...OEM's seized

So my new Dakars are sittin in the corner of the garage for the second straight day and here I am still struggling with the original leaf spring bolts. I have done everything humanly possible to free the front main eye bolt on the drivers side, but it is so seized with the bushing sleeve that I am going to have to cut. I've got my angle grinder out but before getting after it I realized I am inevitably going to be slop cutting into the hanger. I only want to cut the bolt-head-side so that it slides out when I'm done, but of course it is seized such that the leaf is pushed up against that side, giving no room to cut. Yes I tried PBlaster and a sledge to try and nudge the leaf over for suffucient cutting space but no love. I am wondering what you guys used to cut your front main eye bolt. Thanks for any help. Oh yeah one last thing...does Toyota dealerships supply these bolts? If not I suppose Home Depot grade 8 equivelants will do fine...

 

sawzall would do it, you might go through a few blades though.

 

I feel your pain, having gone through the very same thing with BOTH my eye bolts. I ended up biting the bullet, and having a garage remove them. Doing so involved multiple cutting/grinding wheels, an air chisel, a cutting torch. and several hours of labor.

 

For the main spring eye bolts you'll definitly need either a grinder or sawzall. The passenger side one you can just cut off the bolt head and pop it out the other side but for the driverside one you'll need to cut off both bolt and nut since the gastanks prevents u from pushing it directly out. A holesaw works good for gettin the seized bushing out from the spring eye as well, I assume you've got new ones to go in after eh.

 

Had the same thing happen to me when I put Dakars on. Didn't have a sawzall at the time. My dremel tool with about 5 cutoff wheels cut through it and I didn't mess up the hanger.

 

It's been a while but I thought the bolt was a standard one I was able to get at a local hardware store. Just so the OP knows he doesn't have to worry about hunting down a specific bolt. Although I wish mine was greasable, I'm pretty sure the main point of squeaking in my leafs is coming from this bolt.

 

^ THIS!

Same thing happened to me! It took me a good 2.5 hrs of sawing, hammering, and cussing to get it off, but eventually it came out.


You can also order those bolts from Wheelers Offroad. If you go to Home depot, or similar I would definitely make sure its a grade 8 Bolt.

 

Have you tried giving it a little heat to remove the bolt? Obviously you'd have to be very careful since it's on the truck and I wouldn't recommend trying it if you've never used a torch before.

Otherwise, sawzall or a dremel with a cut-off wheel are probably your best bet as mentioned above to cut it off. If the botl is seized up solid, have you thought about using a long extension or pipe on a breaker bar and snapping the head of the bolt off?

 

Thanks for replys guys....rollin up the sleeves once again...

 

Same thing happened to me with both front eye bolts. Took a few hours and multiple blades on a sawzall as well as an angle grinder. Major pita, good luck.

 

I used another bolt and a bfh to hammer it through in coordination with a grinder

 

Finally got it....took about 2 hours and multiple trips to home depot for more and more blades for the sawzsall. Finally tracked down some thin grinder discs for my angle grinder and those went through the bolt like butter. Wish I woulda started it with those..

Anyway, time to get Dakars on!

 

Nice. I thought you already had the thin cutting wheel and it wasn't working

 

Nevermind you got it, Nice !!
Yeah sawzall would, I don't think he'd use too many blades, steel is fairly soft, OP did you use a torch to heat shit nice & toasty ? (heat around the bolt, not directly on it) get a single jack (small sledge) & smack it hard a couple times (I'm assuming the thread side of bolt is sticking out enough to hit it)

Edit: Forget the heat if your trying to salvage the rubber bushings

Shit edit again, you got it Nice !!

 

Okay new question

Got everything on, went to tighten the shock mount bolts (the lower ones that attach to the u-bolt plate) and over torqued one of them. Busted the head right off the bolt. I managed to get the threaded portion out of the u-bolt-plate female end thank god (2.5 hours later....might have shoulda just bought a new u-bolt plate). Anyways, anybody know the specs on this bolt? I ran real quick to home depot and they dont have anything close to this thing, the threads are very fine. If I knew the thread pitch and so on I will have a head start with calling nut-n-bolt companies tomorrow. Thanks

 

For some reason 65 ft.lbs comes to mind

 

yeah I was surprised how little torque those bolts take.

sorry OP, I have no idea what the specs are for the bolt. You may just have to take the other one into a specialty store and match it up.

 

1st gens are 90 ft lbs on the u-bolts.

 

Steve O.....I see your from (or partially) the ABQ area...any recommendations?