Has anyone ever broke the crossmember
 

welded nuts loose from the inside of the frame when trying to remove the crossmember bolts?
Well I just did 2 on my 83 4x4 while trying to pull the 5 spd out for a swap:bang: I thought I had put enough penetrating sauce on.....guess not and a little to much love from the breaker bar:pop:
So how the hell do I get these bolts out? Thought about grinding the heads off but then I still have 2 headless bolts and 2 unwelded nuts to deal with inside the frame!
Any suggestions to help a brother out?

Yep, I stripped one out when installing the BudBuilt cross member. You could go to most any 4x4 shop that does welding (or an welding shop really) and get them fix it. I looked into it but it was like 200 bucks and I said no thanks. So, I am one bolt shy. How many did you say you stripped?

2 inside on same side

do whatever work you need done. bolt it up. have a shop 'tack weld' in 2 spots.

If you need to take it off again use a crow bar and break the tackwelds.

They'll hold better than bolts, but you can snap it back off if needed? I've done that on my other trucks before.

p.s. if you can't crowbar the cross beam off, use a grinder and just grind down the tack welds, you're going to do this before you remount the crossmember again anyways.

mine are broken off as well...both on the passenger side. i only have 2 bolts holding. i was going to have a plate welded on the inside of the frame rail to look like the outside and use some nuts and bolts. haven't done it yet. spot weld would be the easiest.

EVERY frame I have worked on , has the same issues ..

what I did was, first cut the head off the bolt , and freeing the crossmember to get it out of the way .. Then you can easily use a magnet to get the old one out from one of the "jig" holes .
I then found some grade 9 bolts and nuts that would work in place of the stock ones ..
through the same hole I removed the old rusted nut and bolt , I made a SST , out of 16G to hold the new bolt and lock washer in place while I tightened the new bolt into place . Nothing fancy , just something to hold it untill the lock washer can start to do it's job .

it was fairly easy .. you just need to think about it for a second !


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Slacker, this is an old post, but I'm having the same problem now. What is an SSt? I can easily cut the bolt heads off but I can't even reach far enough through that access hole in the frame member to feel the front frame bolt locked nut turn. I can reach the rear one with my fingers but not with a wrench.

:coffee:

SST = Special Service Tool

:safari: