Front spring "U" bolts.

[rustystud]

I was working on my front brakes this week and I found my passenger side spring pack had a leaf twisted out about 1" . So I got the 3Ib hammer out and beat it back inline. It moved way to easy, so I tried to tighten the bolts and "U" bolts. The inner Bolts would not tighten at all, so I decided since I already had the truck up on jackstands I may as well take them out and clean them up. What a can of worms I found ! The front passenger spring pack is held to the axle by a 5/8" "U" bolt and two 5/8" NC bolts that go into the differential. These two bolts where so stuck it took my 3/4" drive 3ft long breaker bar to get them to come out ! The bolts go into a blind hole so they get rusted from all the water. After I got them out I tapped out the holes and went and bought 2ea. 5/8" grade 8 bolts to install in their place. After lightly lubing them with some Marine grade anti-seize I torqued them to 150ft Ibs.
I also cleaned up the "U" bolt and installed new stainless steel Nylock nuts. The reason I am mentioning this is because the bolts where no longer holding the springs and since they where so rusted up they could not be tightened. I feel everyone who has one of these trucks should check their "U" bolts and replace the inner bolts before they have a problem like I almost did.

 

[TGP (IL)]

Yup!
Been there done that.
Replaced the bolts with studs on all my K30's years ago.
Tom

 

[rustystud]

Yup!
Been there done that.
Replaced the bolts with studs on all my K30's years ago.
Tom

So you went with "studs" . I didn't even think about that. Where you able to find long enough studs to get down into the housing for a good solid grip ? If so I might take mine back apart and use studs too.

 

[fitz]

Off Road Design (ORD) has the stud kit for the Dana 60.

 

[tommys2patrick]

Good catch Rusty Stud! The stud suggestion sounds pretty smart too! Hmmm-theres a joke in there somewhere!

 

[cucvrus]

I am replacing 2 sets of springs at this time on M1008 trucks. What would make a stud more superior then a new 5/8" grade 8 bolt? I bought all new U Bolts and clamping plates.

 

[tommys2patrick]

No personal experience with this particular problem but the way Rusty Stud described it, the spring setup has one u bolt on one side of the spring and then two bolts going into the "pumpkin" to hold the other side down. on the pumpkin side the two bolts go into a blind hole in the pumpkin that has a tendency for wet dry cycles due to its location. the water has no where to drain and as a result tends to rust out the bolts. In those situations it becomes much more likely for either the threads to fail or rust solid into place. Either would make fixing the problem more labor intensive at best to fix or at the worse hide a catastrophic failure to the suspension system. Replacing them with studs would essentially mount the threads to the pumpkin and the antisieze would hopefully stop the threads rusting. making the spring plate/hardware more serviceable in the future. Pretty slick if you ask me.

 

[porkysplace]

I am replacing 2 sets of springs at this time on M1008 trucks. What would make a stud more superior then a new 5/8" grade 8 bolt? I bought all new U Bolts and clamping plates.

You would have a nut on top to re-tighten the spring (unless road salt rusts that up also) , as opposed to the thread rusting in the housing ( the stud will still rust in the housing)

 

[tommys2patrick]

yup. Anything underneath usually gets a pretty good coat of rust. Still seems like it has advantages over the original design.

 

[cucvrus]

I am just a knuckle head. I say if it lasted 32 hard use years like mine have. I see no need to improve the design. I just put new bolts in and anti-seized them. Same concept threads are threads no matter which end is down the treads are getting the same exposure on a stud and a bolt. The U bolts I understand. I just replaced them also. They have been under a lot of torque for a long time. Clamping strength is the same with a bolt or a nut. Just saying not looking for argument. Do as you wish. i just don't want to get the idea in someones head that one is superior to the other. They are one in the same doing the same job.

 

[TGP (IL)]

yup. Anything underneath usually gets a pretty good coat of rust. Still seems like it has advantages over the original design.

Studs is far superior than a bolt in a soft casing.
If the bolt works loose which happens more than being seized by rust the threads wobble out
The soft casing.

Just better clamping force.

Rusty
ORD or a quality fastener store can get what you need.

Works for me just easier to align and start a nut vs. poking a bolt in a soft hole and pulling the threads.

I'll stay my course.
Tom

 

[goldneagle]

Mine all got replaced when I did the lift to the truck. Mine is a Southern Truck so no road salts to be concerned with. There are some pluses to living below the snow belt (rust belt)

 

[rustystud]

View attachment Scan0112.pdf

It is well documented that studs are superior to bolts. This is just one of hundreds of articles on the subject from "ARP Bolts" explaining the principals behind this.

 

[Cucvnut]

https://www.wfoconcepts.com/pr/Chevy-D60-Stud-5-8-11-to-5-8-18/3208/3611/9547