blasted bolt! ugh...

[brockeverly]

Two of my four bolts on my front diff skid were gorilla'd on from the factory. When I took them out the bolts looked fine, but when I put them back in they were very tight fitting. I dropped the skid plate again to double check when I thought I had a leak they looked like the first couple threads were flattened so I picked up some new bolts which were also pretty rough to get in so I think they are going to strip next time. Not super happy as I planned on grabbing some BudBuilt skids and now I will have to do work to make it work.

 

[Rubberdown]

If its ever hard to put in a bolt something is wrong. Go buy a tap and die set and run a tap through to clean the threads, and a die on the bolt.

 

[STLDAVE]

Two of my four bolts on my front diff skid were gorilla'd on from the factory. When I took them out the bolts looked fine, but when I put them back in they were very tight fitting. I dropped the skid plate again to double check when I thought I had a leak they looked like the first couple threads were flattened so I picked up some new bolts which were also pretty rough to get in so I think they are going to strip next time. Not super happy as I planned on grabbing some BudBuilt skids and now I will have to do work to make it work.

I didn't have any problem with the skid bolts, but I had a similar problem with the bolts holding the running boards on. One bolt was so tight I actually broke the weld holding the nut. When I tried to get the other bolts back in I really had to apply a lot of torque and was worried I would break another nut loose. I took them all out and took a wire brush to the threads to clean the locktite off the bolts, and ran a thread chaser throught the holes to clear it out there. After that, everything was easy. Might be worth a try.

 

[brockeverly]

If its ever hard to put in a bolt something is wrong. Go buy a tap and die set and run a tap through to clean the threads, and a die on the bolt.

I know. It was bothering me so I went out and took it out and back in. I think the roughness is coming from the bolt touching the skidplate as this time it went in fine after the initial "roughness". I will go to Harbor Freight and grab a tap and die set when we get back from our road trip mid July so I can run the tap. Hopefully it will just clean up without requiring drilling it out to a larger size.