Archive Hanger Install Assistance/Motivation

They just gave me percocet lol

 

Those fuckin drops are INSTANT relief. Damn dude had me try and read the stupid eye chart too. I'm like dude I can't even open my eye. TF is wrong with you

 

I have removed so many of these style rivets than I care to count. I usually used a torch and burned the heads off and knocked the brackets off. Then a drift and a hammer will remove the remaining rivet. Now you don't mention a torch so a grinder is the next best thing. Grind off the heads. You will see a nice clean circle where the rivet is and the bracket is if done right. Once the bracket is off the rivets will knock out of the frame with no issue. Drilling is a waste of time. Grind off and knock out. These aren't pop rivets.

 

I wish it were that simple. They do not come out of the frame easily at all.

 

Need to stop hitting it with your purse . I have never had a problem knocking them out of the frame with a hammer or a hammer and a drift. If you cut the head off cleanly the rest of the rivet will pass through the frame with some resistance but it will pass through. If you have access to a quality air compressor you can even knock them out with an air hammer.

 

They sometimes call me "the air hammer"

 

Well...I drilled through the rivets entirely. I'm not sure why I did that as the instructions even say to not drill through. I think all the grinding deleted my last remaining brain cells. Lesson learned for the passenger side.

I do have a blowtorch, butane, I think, meant for basic plumbing work. I don't know if that's appropriate here. I don't mind grinding them off; it's the drilling that sucks.

How are people actually removing the hanger off of the frame? I've got all four rivet heads ground off and the thing won't budge even after several hits with a hammer. I have not tried a pry bar yet; will be buying that along with some punches and a bigger hammer today hopefully.

 

I carefully pounded a flat head screw driver between the hanger and the frame so that I could get in there with a pry bar. Then just popped it off with some effort. If your pry bar has a good end on it you could just use that but mine has seen better days.

 

I used a flat chisel and a 3lb hammer and wedged it in there.

 

Eh... no. I could be wrong, but I believe the hole in the bracket is larger than the hole in the frame, so the rivet bellies out and won't come out, regardless of the BFH treatment. If you go over to the AG or BAMF hanger pages, you'll see that everyone struggles with getting these rivets out. It seems like a simple task, but it thoroughly kicks everyone's ass. The only easy method is burning them out. With a torch or plasma cutter.

Edit:

Also be careful with pounding out the rivets. You can easily deform the frame. I dimpled my frame by being too careless with a ball joint press. I pressed the rivet out, but it pushed the frame with it. Not a huge deal, but something to be conscious of.

 

I just beat the f*ck out of the old hanger with a 2 or 3lb sledge. At first it looks like it's doing nothing but then you notice it has moved a bit. That's when you realize you can hit it even harder.

Also you cut the head of the rivet off first right?

Edit: You can drill through the whole thing it doesn't matter.

 

I cut the exposed heads, yes. Can't do jack about the other sides.

 

The picture I included is the style of rivet used to hold the bracket to the frame. The bracket hole and the frame hole are the same size. The bracket is placed on the frame, the rivet is inserted through and then rounded over to "rivet" the pieces together. There is no step in the rivet. I have removed a fair number of these rivets on small trucks all the way up to commercial vehicles. They are all the same, just different sizes. I have never damaged a frame. The bracket a time or 2 but never the frame. I have removed them as I described above with no issue.

 

Here's a picture of one of my removed rivets. Not sure it shows up in the picture, but the shaft is not straight, and it would not be coerced out with a BFH.







Agree to disagree on your technique, but just know, there's an entire sub forum that will disagree with you... not that that should matter to you. Who it does matter to, is OP and anyone else that is or will be struggling with these badtards.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tacoma-hammer-hangers-soa-sua-archive-garage.519625/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/bamf-hd-shackle-hangers.496200/

 

This is a forum of opinion. I shared my opinion and expressed my experience with the subject matter in hope of helping the OP. I appreciate and respect your experience with the job. I will agree to disagree.

 

Hanger cutoff https://imgur.com/a/Qpc3w2M

Once I got it to this point I just hit the hanger with the sledge until it came off.

 

Well I was going to do my hammer hangers this weekend but this thread has inspired me to do 2 things: 1) go out tomorrow to get punches and a BFH 2) put the truck on jack stands tomorrow and work on it over the next few days.

EDIT: and a prybar

Midaswell take advantage of it being a convenient time to take it slow since I’m working from home a lot right now and can always take the GFs car if I gotta go in since she’s 100% work from home.

 

I do have one question, have you done this hanger job on these trucks? Or are you just basing it off rivets on other vehicles?

 

I have not done 3rd gen but I have done earlier gen Toyota's.

 

And goggles. You're on your ass under the truck drilling up into the rivets and it's all falling on you.

Edit: and some hearing protection while you're bashing the shit out of the hangers