Baystate Jeepers

I hate spinners, almost as much as manure (obscure Back to the Future reference)

Being a perfect day, I dropped my soft top and ditched my doors to enjoy the weather. And listen to the noises my rig was making. Not being overwhelmed with squeaks from my rusty, creaky old frame, I was able to isolate and cure a few. The last (?) noise seems to be coming from my track bar. It has vertical AND lateral play. The fact I have no death wobble kind of floors me. But in a good way. Tightening the nut probably won't fix the vertical play but it should clean up the lateral slop and that can only help until I find how to rebuild that end

Here's todays quandary: I can't tighten that bolt. It feeds through the track bar and into a cavity with a nut, and the nut has a tail on it. The tails supposed to catch and keep the nut from turning but the tail detached from the nut so when I turn the bolt, the whole thing spins and the tail doesn't do anything for me. I'm sure there's a tech term for this POS but I don't know what it is



Here's the nut and bolt spinning, while the tail just says 'whatever dude'

http://vid431.photobucket.com/albums/qq ... vp6soc.mp4

The nut is rounded. Or something. I can fit an offset box wrench in the cavity and over the nut but it doesn't bite. My goal is to fix this and hopefully not have my rig out of commission for long. Here's what I'm thinking but I'm open to ideas

Option 1 - tack weld the tail back onto the nut, and pray it not only holds but I don't weld the nut to the bolt or the bolt to the frame. Yeah, those are worst case scenarios but when you're laying there staring at it? These things cross your mind

Option 2 - cut the nut off with an oxy torch

I'm leaning towards the MIG option first. If I can get the tail to keep the nut from spinning, that's money right there. Thoughts? Opinions?

Thanks

Your on the right track in my eyes. Id try welding the nut to the tab first . Then cut the biach off if you have that option. Chances are the bushing in that end is shot , therfore the play. It cant rely on bolt torque to hold it in place. I have an adjustable torque rod from an LJ with heim joints if you go that route. Which is the best way to center the axle due to the lift it brings the axle to the drivers side , but you knew that ! FjR68

Frank wrote:Your on the right track in my eyes. Id try welding the nut to the tab first . Then cut the biach off if you have that option. Chances are the bushing in that end is shot , therfore the play. It cant rely on bolt torque to hold it in place. I have an adjustable torque rod from an LJ with heim joints if you go that route. Which is the best way to center the axle due to the lift it brings the axle to the drivers side , but you knew that ! FjR68

tx Frank. The track bar is adjustable, and it's equipped with pissah heim joints. Not sure who makes it but it's wicked beefy. It's bigger around than my (spare) RC track bar, and the RC has a 1.25in OD

I'll try tacking it and see how that goes. And if I find one of my 3 HF mic's? I'll get the heim dimensions so I can pick up a replacement

Any news on this ??????? I had to exhale , sorry . FjR68

You end up accidentally welding the bolt to the spinner yet

Worst case (been there, done that) is you grind the head off the bolt, spring the track bar and lower part of the bracket out some for clearance then have at it with a sawzall and the proper length blade between the inner part of the joint and the bracket.

Don't be surprised if you end up having to weld some washers in the bracket to have round holes again

Frank wrote:Any news on this ??????? I had to exhale , sorry . FjR68

Yup





The Jeep gods have a sense of humor that knows no bounds. I really thought it was going to work, got what *appeared* to be some good tacks on there, got to torquing the bolt and........... >plink<

Next stop is ARCO, for a bottle of O2. Tomorrows forecast calls for oxy-acetylene and c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y torching the nut off. Ideally, I torch the nut down to the threads and chisel it off. Or if things get ugly the whole EFFIN THING is coming out. But burning to much? That would be a big ole suckfest. Patience and a methodical approach is what I need, no matter HOW FRUSTRATED I get

johnsxj wrote:
Don't be surprised if you end up having to weld some washers in the bracket to have round holes again

oh crap didn't think of that.......... I'll add that to my list thanks!

One more question. I know the head of the bolt is 15 mm and the length is 80mm or 3 1/8 inches and it looks like a course thread. I can't get my mic in to the measure the diameter of the bolt itself and I could google it but you guys probably know better. My question is, do bolts with a 15mm head have different diameters on the threads?

Thanks guys. My list so far: bottle of oxygen, 15mm high grade bolt, nut, several washers,...........

The more I think about it, the more I like John's sawzall idea. Now if I only had one.............

Found a Ryobi 10 amp for $65 at the Depot, think that's a winner. Tx again for the advice John

Carl, I do believe the bolt is a 10x1.25mm.
Thread pitch doesn't really matter much as you'll be needing to get a new nut (and make your own retainer out of heavier steel and real welds).
Just make sure it's at least a grade 8.8

If it is cadmium plated welding it may be toxic.

johnsxj wrote:Carl, I do believe the bolt is a 10x1.25mm.
Thread pitch doesn't really matter much as you'll be needing to get a new nut (and make your own retainer out of heavier steel and real welds).
Just make sure it's at least a grade 8.8

As usual, you are correct sir. There was a 9mm in there just kind of floating around. Got the metric version of a Grade 8, a 10 something IIRC

nostaw wrote:If it is cadmium plated welding it may be toxic.

Ii was plated but I was outside, thanks Jon

Bottom line? It's done. I'm doing a tech write up for the June ish of Tracks with more details and pics but basically, I followed John's recipe. Prolly handed down through the generations, and now I get to share it with everyone.

I'd go with a chemical filter mask for any and all welding. You can get them from Home Depot or Lowes... look for N95, or better is a P100 grade filter.