Changing Leaf Spring U Bolts On My Truck (2023)

Introduction

Today I change rear U bolts on my truck. It's a pretty straightforward repair that potentially could have saved me from having an automobile accident and causing harm to myself or others.

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Content

Hey it's Chris here we're working on the truck today, we're outside it's nice and sunny a nice fall day.

We're gonna get this truck worked on here.

We're going to do a little bit of suspension parts.

We're gonna, do some uu bolts and some bottom shackles, so stick around we'll do talk about why these fail and what might be able to avoid what you might be able to do to avoid them.

So stick around first step is to Jack the vehicle up, of course, put it on stands or whatever and block the make sure you block the front wheel, so it doesn't move uh you'll see the Pittsburgh Jack underneath there that's only there for honestly emotional support just holds the it just holds the axle up a little bit, so it doesn't travel the whole way down.

So I have another Jack here, I'm, actually gonna put it underneath here as well.

These are new Universal, bolts or u-bolts, so I'll bring this other Jack in here in the frame.

This is the new plate.

So what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to put this second Jack I.

Have that one on the on the middle of the axle kind of just holds everything in place.

This one here will go underneath the shock, as you can tell foreign, to make sure this axle doesn't shift, because when we drop this out, your Springs are right here, your plates right there I don't want to I, don't want to lose the position of it and have to worry about wiggling it so I'll.

Take the uh impact here.

Get these loose as simple as that four bolts.

Now you have to make sure I've already been in here once before.

So I knew that those were going to come off easy.

Sometimes they just go bad so a lot of times.

You need a hammer to get these out, so I'll bring you back here in a little bit.

Okay.

So let me get this hammed out of the way so foreign we'll get this one changed and I'll uh I'll, bring you guys back here and I'll.

Show you exactly what's wrong and what happened all right.

So, let's make sure we got the the right way on this check.

Your axle make sure your axle didn't rust up.

That's what actually looks okay tap a little bit of the dust and debris off it.

Okay, now your bolt goes over top, just like so slide right down there there's a bracket there that'll ride on this one go over here now these are Universal u-bolts, so, yes, they will be longer, they'll be trimmed, so you don't have to worry foreign and just bring them up just like so up like that, and now with your kit, or what I have at least is a kiddo nuts and stuff got a lock washer and a large nut here, get a nut on here thread it up hold it in place enough that I don't have to keep holding the plate.

We will be trimming these two bolts off here at the end, I'll show you here as you've seen how it's set up there's this plate.

Here you have to put the the bolts up in so they are going to be longer.

These are Universal bolts for multiple different sizes, so I, just I, normally just run them up in.

If I can get the phone get everything to focus come on, but, as you can tell with the sun blaring down four bolts, they have lock nuts on them just to hold them in place and what I'll do is as I hit the exhaust I'm just going to tighten those up, bring them up to tight and then I'll just cut these off whenever I get them up far enough, I'll cut off leave about an inch or so I'll cut those off and then I'll put like my impact on it to drag them down.

I just want to make sure that I get them enough that I'm not cutting them down here and they're too long still so I might see if I can set you guys up somewhere and video that, if not I'll show you the end result here so I'll bring you eight back.

Maybe thank you all right, so these are tightened up.

Some I'm gonna go grab a grinder and you'll see it here.

I'm gonna cut all these off here.

These are Universal, like I, said before they're up in the amount like I should be, but these are like I said Universal just so, if you are putting like four inch lift blocks or something like that which I'm going to keep my truck stock height, that's fine as it is, and on top it you can see, there's a lot of rust because I haven't been driving it much just due to the fact of fuel prices.

I can't really afford to so, but you'll see that where I cut it and then we'll uh I'll take the impact, I'll tighten them up and then we'll go over the other side and then we'll wrap up the video and, as always, Safety First.

Thank you foreign.

So now those are all cut off.

Let's take our impact and run them up.

Foreign I know: they're gonna be tight.

I can't move, it always double check.

Your work can't move it.

Thank you.

So we're going to do this side here.

Just get the other side done as well.

It's going to be on time lapse.

You guys already seen pretty much the the way to do it.

On the other side, so foreign foreign, so basically that's changing them.

We're going to hear a little bit of road noise still, but why do they go bad? What causes it? That's the biggest question.

Well, this is the driver's side.

You can see.

That's the main thing.

These are basically like cups.

Now, this one's not rusted through or anything I just changed, because I was there.

This is the passenger side, we have a hole here.

We have a large hole here and we have a hole over here.

This is this is no good, so they rust out the two bolts itself will Rust Out in these? You can see where especially threads up the whole way like the other ones like they're, starting to go away because of dirt debris.

This is actually a better show for it.

So that's what happens in total.

I probably have I'm trying to think 180 200 actually into that it's a little bit higher, but this is something you have to have to keep the rear end of your vehicle, centered and secure.

So that's, basically it we're done.

You know we got her all cleaned up here, so I just have to get the tools put away for the night and uh call it a day.

So, thanks for sticking around uh comment down below if you're interested, you know, if you have any questions or any comments, concerns and hit the like button.

If, if you think this is a good video, if you know somebody that might be interested, you know share it out with others.

So that being said, I'm going to catch everybody later uh stay safe out there with everything that's going on and God bless.