Lug nuts and bolts and stuff. . .

[kairo]

Ok, bear with me as I try and explain this...

When I went to get my tires balanced, Aaron's guys snapped a lug bolt. No big deal, Except, those bolts aren't typical lugs. they look like just plain old Grade 8 bolts. Denis, when you put the alloy shafts in, I guess you didn't need to get bolts pressed in? Why? Are those some sort of special bolt or just plain ole' grade 8's?

When I pulled the lug nuts off, two of the other studs were stripped. Keep an eye on your guys Aaron . Since I had to replace 3 now, I decided to just do all 5. Down to Lowes I went and picked up 5 grade 8s. I had to get shorter ones, cause the ones that were in the axle were about 1/20" too long to pull out, and I couldent figure out how to get the axle shaft out. 3 hours later (lol) I now have one of the bolts back in, and a stripped hole where one of the others needs to go in. Before I go buy a 1/2" tap tomorrow, Will I be ok just using grade 8 bolts to keep the wheel on? I've had about as much as I can stand tonight, so I'm gonna leave the jeep on stands for the time being. Any thoughts??

 

[PizzaJeep]

holy crap.. lug bolts are definately not just grade 8's that you can buy at lowes. generally are made out of a stronger alloy, since theyre up to so much stress. stripping lugs are a fact of life though, especially when you try to impact the last lug nut off underthe wheels weight sitting on it. ive stripped hundreds that way. i just carry extras around with me incase i break one off, along with extra lug nuts. the biggest difference between a grade 8 and a lug bolt though, is the simple fact that lugs have the knurles on them to keep them in the wheel and not spinning when torquing them down. a regular bolt will spin.
lug bolts are easy to find.. just go to the pick and pull with a sledgehammer. find an exact axle as yours, put a lug nut almost all the way on it, and pound them off. i do that all the time with spare axles to get them off and use them for my running axles. it wont damage the threads any and you dont care about the lug nut so screw it up if ya want. they are lying around the ground at the pnp like pebbles.
point is, lug bolts are easy to pound out of the shaft and then just impact them back on with a few washers between the shaft flange and the lug nut

 

[kairo]

*~-~The more you know~-~*

thanks tony

 

[kairo]

furthermore, you have to take the rear axleshaft out in order to impact the bolts on right?

 

[PizzaJeep]

oh not at all... everytime i do that, i just rotate the axle flange around so that i can slip in the new bolt, then crank it on.. its really easy. i was thinkin the same thing about it being a pain in the *ss to do it, but my neighbor showed me that trick...