Posted by Brett Wilsey on Monday, December 16, 2002 at 1:08AM :
Just thought I'd share my experience of trying, and succeeding, in removing rusted rear spring bolts. These are the pins that hold the springs to the brackets that attach to the frame on the front of the rear spring. They also hold the rear of the spring to the shackle and the shackle to the rear bracket. Part numbers in the Power Wagon Parts List are 17-14-1 (front of spring) and 17-16-15 (rear of spring).
When I first started looking at these to take them out, I couldn't believe Dodge didn't provide a hole on the back side to punch them out. I was pretty sure the bushings were shot, so I really wanted to get them apart to put in new ones. Well after a lot of head scratching I finally came up with an idea. I made a slide hammer with about a 3lb. slide on a 1/2" alloy steel rod with 1/2-20 threads on the pulling end. Then made a separate alloy steel piece with 1/2-20 internal thread on one end and 1/8" pipe thread on the other to screw into the grease zirk hole. Some of you are saying about now " there ain't no way in h_ _l this is going to work" and I don't blame you, I was thinking about the same thing right before I started to try it. I thought sure the 1/8" pipe threads would pull off the part I made. I had been soaking the rusted parts for over a month while I worked on other pieces of the truck and I'm sure this helped a lot. The time of truth had come so I screwed the tool in the first pin and started hammering. At first nothing moved, so I hammered as hard as I dared knowing the tool might brake at any time. It didn't, and the pin started to move slow but sure. One by one all 6 pins came out.
I've been a machinist for almost 20 years so it wasn't too hard for me to make this tool. All you need to make this is a lathe and a tap and a couple dies. If any one has questions feel free to ask. I'll gladly share more info if anyone is interested.
Keep the faded paint up and the old rubber down.
Brett
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