Leaf Spring Torque

[PrairieDrifter]

Now you are being a little bit dramatic, I've reused lots of rearend ubolts,so have my friends,family and coworkers. I can and have broken plenty of lug studs by hand,but never broke a rearend ubolt that wasn't rusty AF,and I don't tell everybody change their lugs everytime they take off their wheels or they will for sure crash and die.

Reused sure. But to what extent? 100 miles? Farm rig? 70,000 miles? Rock bouncer? Grandpa rig? I like to run my stuff hard. Doesn't mean I'm not good to it, but it's not gonna have a peachy life. I put on mileage too.

Lug studs are such a far comparison. 3 inches vs 10+ inches of material. Different load, different job. I've seen plenty of wheels fly off other peoples ****, right before my eyes. I've taken lugs too far for too long before. Never lost a wheel, worst I ever had was losing brake pedal, still got home safely.

Luck of the draw. If you're feeling lucky, go for it. I'll always tell people to never reuse u bolts. $100 is some cheap ass life insurance.

 

[PrairieDrifter]

….you’re buying junk hardware. Seriously.

It wasn't. Maybe overtorqued, but not junk.

Y'all are acting like I got some kind of deal with the u bolt guys... I'm one of the least saftey sally guys you'll find. It's cool though, it don't matter to me, just don't drive your death trap around me!

 

[Ricko1966]

Reused sure. But to what extent? 100 miles? Farm rig? 70,000 miles? Rock bouncer? Grandpa rig? I like to run my stuff hard. Doesn't mean I'm not good to it, but it's not gonna have a peachy life. I put on mileage too.

Lug studs are such a far comparison. 3 inches vs 10+ inches of material. Different load, different job. I've seen plenty of wheels fly off other peoples ****, right before my eyes. I've taken lugs too far for too long before. Never lost a wheel, worst I ever had was losing brake pedal, still got home safely.

Luck of the draw. If you're feeling lucky, go for it. I'll always tell people to never reuse u bolts. $100 is some cheap ass life insurance.

1/4 mile rigs. I've blown up diffs,I've twisted driveshafts in 1/2, I can't remember all the sh!t I've broke,but never had a ubolt fail me and this isn't on farm rigs or grandpa rigs and lots more than 100 miles.

 

[hack_man]

I installed an add a leaf lift kit on my '83 K10 truck when it was a youngster, had to replace most of the Ubolts but I'm pretty sure I reused the ones that were long enough.
When I replace the bed and rebuild the truck I'll think about getting new ones. Where are the stresses on these bolts?

 

[idahovette]

We are talking u-bolts when any one of a thousand things can go South and cause death..........under the right cicumstances............do I replace EVERYTHING???????

 

[PrairieDrifter]

It's not that hard to understand that anything else falling off, other than a wheel, steering, or u bolts, isn't bad.

Shame the guy looking out for newbie. Makes sense.

Y'all sound like boomers real bad right now. It's $100. Like I said, it don't bother me, I tried, just keep it out of my neighborhood.

 

[Ricko1966]

It's not that hard to understand that anything else falling off, other than a wheel, steering, or u bolts, isn't bad.

Shame the guy looking out for newbie. Makes sense.

Y'all sound like boomers real bad right now. It's $100. Like I said, it don't bother me, I tried, just keep it out of my neighborhood.

I'm not sure what you are sounding like right now. You're all going to die! Stay out of my neighborhood!!! I never even said it was a bad idea to replace them,it's just so common to reuse them that I never thought about it Some ubolt manufacturers and parts sellers recommend not to reuse,but how do they make their living? Some manufacturers in some vehicles anyway,don't list them as a necessary replacement. I'll feel more compromised when everyone starts ordering up new ubolts of questionable origin,from Rockauto,Amazon,Ebay etc.to replace their over engineered factory GM bolts. For any instance you can find me if an axle ubolt causing a failure,I can find you 50 of a wheel spacer causing a problem. But no one is on here going you're going to die,you're going to die,stay of my street. When people replace their well engineered GM headlight circuit protected by a breaker to prevent loss if lights in a short, with an aftermarket harness that leaves them with no lights at all in the event of a short. I don't get on here saying you're going to die you're going to die,stay off my street.

 

[Frankenchevy]

Just throwing it out there, I’d you are using 5/8-18 grade 8 hardware, it would take close to 700ft-lbs of torque to stretch the fastener to the point of tensile failure; or 70,000 lbs of tensile load.

I have been told to never reuse u-bolts too. High grade fasteners are very rarely tty, so if they are in really good shape, not showing any signs of corrosion or fatigue and are from a reputable manufacturer they would seem okay to reuse to me. However, once torqued, I deform the threads above the nut with a hammer to keep the nut from coming off. Again, something I was told to do that I’m not sure really does much.

 

[Frankenchevy]

Here’s a simple video:

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[hack_man]

Wow we are not the only ones going around on this topic.
Consensus seems to be not re-using is the safe bet but that's not surprising

re using basically new u bolts

I bought 3rd gen leaf springs for my tacoma and a set of u bolts that were taken off a tacoma after 1,000 miles. Are they safe/ok to use for my new...

www.tacomaworld.com

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[idahovette]

I guess when you all see me comin', you better get the he!! out of the way, cause I re-use them.......I gotta say I ALWAYS inspect them and make sure they are still serviceable.

 

[bucket]

It's not that hard to understand that anything else falling off, other than a wheel, steering, or u bolts, isn't bad.

Shame the guy looking out for newbie. Makes sense.

Y'all sound like boomers real bad right now. It's $100. Like I said, it don't bother me, I tried, just keep it out of my neighborhood.

I believe that it is best to replace u-bolts simply because of the stresses they can see upon removal if they have been installed for a while. They tend to be long and there is room for twist if the nuts don't want to come off. It can also build up a lot of heat from removing seized nuts. I can't speak about reusing old u-bolts because in the rust belt, that opportunity is never there.

But with that said, all fasteners stretch when torqued. Torque to yield bolts are different than a bolt that is designed to be torqued to a specific amount and you are done. Torque to yield bolts are designed to be tightened to a certain amount of stretch and once done, it cannot be duplicated again.

Also, I've witnessed literally hundreds of broken u-bolts, due to rust. It can be said with certainty that if a u-bolt breaks, the axle does not simply come flying out from under the truck. It just stays put for an undetermined amount of time, usually until someone points it out and says "Hey, you know you've got a couple broken u-bolts under there?"

 

[PrairieDrifter]

I'm not sure what you are sounding like right now. You're all going to die! Stay out of my neighborhood!!! I never even said it was a bad idea to replace them,it's just so common to reuse them that I never thought about it Some ubolt manufacturers and parts sellers recommend not to reuse,but how do they make their living? Some manufacturers in some vehicles anyway,don't list them as a necessary replacement. I'll feel more compromised when everyone starts ordering up new ubolts of questionable origin,from Rockauto,Amazon,Ebay etc.to replace their over engineered factory GM bolts. For any instance you can find me if an axle ubolt causing a failure,I can find you 50 of a wheel spacer causing a problem. But no one is on here going you're going to die,you're going to die,stay of my street. When people replace their well engineered GM headlight circuit protected by a breaker to prevent loss if lights in a short, with an aftermarket harness that leaves them with no lights at all in the event of a short. I don't get on here saying you're going to die you're going to die,stay off my street.

Call me Chicken little. I don't really give a **** lol. I will not be ashamed of my stance.

If you think there's companies that just sell u bolts you're crazy. They don't make money on em anyways lol. It's a piece of rod bent and threaded.

Cheap wheel spacers are in a whole different level of stupidity, not the same.

The world is unforgiving. I'm not gonna tell you it's gonna be roses and butterflies if you lose a u bolt? Is "you're gonna have a bad time" PC enough?

 

[PrairieDrifter]

I believe that it is best to replace u-bolts simply because of the stresses they can see upon removal if they have been installed for a while. They tend to be long and there is room for twist if the nuts don't want to come off. It can also build up a lot of heat from removing seized nuts. I can't speak about reusing old u-bolts because in the rust belt, that opportunity is never there.

But with that said, all fasteners stretch when torqued. Torque to yield bolts are different than a bolt that is designed to be torqued to a specific amount and you are done. Torque to yield bolts are designed to be tightened to a certain amount of stretch and once done, it cannot be duplicated again.

Also, I've witnessed literally hundreds of broken u-bolts, due to rust. It can be said with certainty that if a u-bolt breaks, the axle does not simply come flying out from under the truck. It just stays put for an undetermined amount of time, usually until someone points it out and says "Hey, you know you've got a couple broken u-bolts under there?"

I'd say if an old u bolt breaks it will probably stay there awhile with no spirited driving. Since everything has been mated together and a lot of friction from rust and dust.

I've never seen a broken u bolt roll in. Seen close to it, rusted away basically, usually 1 tons with the upside down plate. Seen more axles hanging out than broken u bolts...

Also let's be real, how many vehicles rolling down the road do you really think the u bolts have been messed with recently, or even at all? Even our old trucks? Very few. Especially in ratio with every other solid axle vehicle.

I've never had an issue on ANY of my vehicles, and I'll keep it that way.

 

[Ricko1966]

Call me Chicken little. I don't really give a **** lol. I will not be ashamed of my stance.

If you think there's companies that just sell u bolts you're crazy. They don't make money on em anyways lol. It's a piece of rod bent and threaded.

Cheap wheel spacers are in a whole different level of stupidity, not the same.

The world is unforgiving. I'm not gonna tell you it's gonna be roses and butterflies if you lose a u bolt? Is "you're gonna have a bad time" PC enough?

Who said cheap wheel spacers? And 4 pieces of bent rod for $100.00 sounds like someone's making money. As for my bad day I'll take my chances. Back when these trucks were new,they didn't have all the testing for hardware we now have,so the answer was overcompensate, these bolts are not near stressed enough to be close to their limit. And look at the diaghram above Toyotas not recommending at least on that model replacement. Again I never said it was a bad idea,I just don't agree that it's as big a deal as you are making it into. All four are not going to break at once. Pinion angle is going to start changing on accel and decel long before you are in danger of the rearend falling out of the vehicle. Even if all 4 break,you now have 4 j bolts holding the rearend not all the sudden zero hardware. I agree changing them sounds like a good idea if you buy quality replacements. Not Rockauto,Ebay,or Amazon. FWIW Rockauto doesn't own the parts,warehouse tge parts or even know for certain where the parts came from,they are just an auction house,like Ebay and Amazon,selling g other people's car parts,good ones and bad ones.