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It began out yesterday when some mates came visiting to wrench on their Jeeps. One of the fellows needed to undergo and torque his management arm and monitor bar bolts because it had been some time since he final did it. If you’ve pushed a TJ off-road very a lot, I’m certain you’ll be able to respect how annoying (and probably damaging) a unfastened bolt may be.
We broke out the torque wrench and a few sockets and went to city. All was going properly till we received again to the driving force aspect, body finish, decrease management arm bolt. With the torque wrench set to 130 ft. lbs, Jake put the wrench on the nut whereas I held the pinnacle of the bolt with one other wrench. He proceeded to torque the bolt. It turned, and it turned, and it turned. I might clearly see that the nut (with a shoulder washer on it) was turning and I might definitely really feel the pressure performing on my wrench.
All of a sudden it snapped, easy as that. The bolt merely twisted in two, alongside the realm the place the threads are. The nut by no means moved off the top of the threads….it by no means turned a bit, from what we might inform. It was as if the nut was welded to the bolt itself. As we mentioned this relatively odd scenario, Jake instructed me about the identical assume occurring to his buddy’s TJ. In reality, it was the identical finish of the management arm bracket.
Fast ahead to this afternoon. I’ve a grease zirk that’s not taking grease correctly. It is on my RE decrease management arm. With a wrench and ratchet in hand, I proceeded to take away the bolt that holds the decrease management arm bracket in place on the axle.
Although mine didn’t twist in half, it took appreciable effort to take away the nut….I imply appreciable effort….and for your complete size of the threads. Enough effort that the nut was sizzling to the contact….not so sizzling that you may not hold onto it, however it was fairly darn heat in any case. You can see the nut and bolt above. The final 1/2″ of the bolt…observe the threads are all chewed up. When I began, there was not a ding within the threads….they had been pristine, so to talk. There was a tiny quantity of rust about and inch down the threads, however as you’ll be able to see, the threads there should not injury. This rust might have been on that portion of the bolt that rests simply inside the bracket, now that I give it some thought and take a look at the image.
A detailed-up of the nut. You can see, inside, the place the threads had been really torn from the physique of the nut. Yes, I did say torn. I peeled them out of the thread bolts with nice effort, by the best way.
Here is the top of the bolt. As you’ll be able to see, it’s fairly unhealthy off. I didn’t even wish to take into account making an attempt to get the nut again on that pet. The threads are just about trashed so far as I’m involved.
So…what’s with these management arm bolts? This one had been in its present setup for one yr, to the month. I put in it final March after I did the 2nd raise and the RE arms went on.
Have you ever had chrome steel gall on you? It is as if among the materials from each components trade sides and makes for a extremely messy scenario. When I took the nut off, this time, it felt as if this was what had occurred. And within the case of Jake’s bolt, the nut was seized on the bolt.
I’ve no thought what’s inflicting this. By the best way, the above nut and bolt prices about $9 from the supplier and the reality be know, makes for a sloppy slot in a RE management arms due to the shoulder that’s proper up subsequent to the bolt head. I ended by my native ACE {hardware} and picked up some 14mm x 100mm bolts and nuts at present, to exchange the one I took out of the management arm. They had been metric grade 8.8 as an alternative of the ten.9 that was stamped on the manufacturing unit bolt. I did some checking on-line and located that tensile energy smart, a ten.9 metric is just about the equal to a Grade 8 SAE bolt and the 8.8 metric is equal to a Grade 5. (once more, that is based mostly on tensile energy scores of each grading techniques) I plan on changing the 8.8 with a ten.9 as quickly as I can get all the way down to the native fastener retailer right here in Phoenix.
So, I simply although I might cross this alongside. I’ve not skilled this with any of the opposite manufacturing unit bolts on my TJ, albeit there are some that I’ve not tried to take away previously yr both. Maybe it’s time to test them and spherical up some spares, simply in case!
Update: 9/15/2002
I noticed that it has been some time since I up to date this web page and determined it was time to get that taken care of. I changed all of my current decrease management arm bolts with a batch of 9/16″ Grade 8 bolts, lock washers, and nuts. The match is ideal and hopefully I will likely be rid of those troublesome manufacturing unit bolts. Since this write-up was posted on my website online, I’ve obtained a lot of e-mails from different TJ homeowners who’ve skilled the identical issues. I’ve additionally talked with homeowners which have repeatedly eliminated and put in the identical manufacturing unit bolt/nut over and over (as in like a dozen instances). Anyway, I’ve not seen any extra points since switching mine to 9/16″ and I don’t consider I’ll.