83

As I was putting my truck back together after replacing the leaf springs, I was torquing the bolts for my hitch, and one of the heads snapped off. There is no way to get a drill into this place at any angle that would actually drill out the bolt. The leaf spring is in the way. I have no interest in taking the leaf spring back off...There's not enough bolt body sticking out to grab with pliers. I'm considering taking it to a friend and having him just weld the hitch to the frame in this spot. Thoughts? There's no time I can see when I'd need this hitch off my truck, and a weld can always be broken anyway.

What would you do? I even have a right angle drill and it won't fit in that spot with a bit.

Discombobulated

If I had the same issue I would weld it and carry on, as you said you can always cut it off later if you ever remove it.

83

Thanks

Kolton5543

Could always just unbolt the leaf on one end and swing it out of the way a bit. Might get you just enough space for a drill.

83

Well I think I was still a bit too tired from the leaf spring job when I started dealing with this and just wanted a quick method.

I gave it another shot. Jacked up the side of the truck to get more space between the springs and frame. Tried to drill it out again, but that didn't go too well. I decided to take off the hitch and see if maybe there wasn't enough sticking out to grab with vice grips. There actually was just enough. Luckily without the head, the bolt wasn't super tight and I could turn it with the vice grips. Got it out. Thanks for the help. I'll take the matching bolt on the other side to the hardware store and replace them both with grade 8.

jakey poo

I'd suggest getting a tap and chasing all the threads out while your at the hardware store. I just put a hitch on my wife's Honda Pilot, and what should've been an hour job turned into 5 hours because two of the captured nuts snapped off inside the frame.