elohim1 : ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.

?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by elohim1 on May 7, 2006, 2:17pm

I am fliping the rear spring mount. I have removed the head of the rivets on one side and tried to take a strong air hammer and drive rivets through. The rivets are not moving.

What do I need to do to get these rivets out.
Also, it looks like the spindle in which the spring rides, possibly goes through the frame and is welded on the plate which is on the other side. If this is true, once remove rivets , do I need to remove spindle to turn the mount 180 degrees?
Thanks
Chris

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by socal715 on May 7, 2006, 3:03pm

Im surprised the air hammer/chissel didnt work .... time to grab the plasma cutter hehehhe...

i havent flipped mine and dont remember how you got about it.

cant you just flip the rear shackle instead of removing the entire front perch?

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by elohim1 on May 7, 2006, 8:22pm


Quote: <TABLE class=bordercolor cellSpacing=1 width="90%"><TBODY><TR><TD width="100%"><TABLE class=quote cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD width="100%">
cant you just flip the rear shackle instead of removing the entire front perch?</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


I am also fliping the rear shackle. I suppose I will just drill them out.

Has anyone reading this removed the rivets ?

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by porkchop on May 7, 2006, 8:32pm

I Removed them on a 67 wag I had. After I got the heads off I used a bolt that I ground into a point and punched it out. Are you going to move the mount forward and down some to get the right driveline angle?

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by brute4c on May 7, 2006, 8:47pm

From what members have said, its a full 4 1/2 inch grinding wheel per rivet, then knock them out, but the knock them out has never been a big issue...not sure why yours are.. The center pin is welded on the back ...need to break that weld point somehow...the back of the pin can be seen if I recall the right thing here...its only welded right on the pin to the hole that it sits in.

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by calpyro on May 7, 2006, 8:55pm

I used a hole saw to cut the welds around the rivet. I forgot the specific size, but it just fit around the rivet and made pretty quick work of it all.

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by elohim1 on May 7, 2006, 9:15pm


Quote: <TABLE class=bordercolor cellSpacing=1 width="90%"><TBODY><TR><TD width="100%"><TABLE class=quote cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD width="100%">I Removed them on a 67 wag I had. After I got the heads off I used a bolt that I ground into a point and punched it out. Are you going to move the mount forward and down some to get the right driveline angle? </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

What is the correct drive line angle 7degrees? I had aftermarket springs made at alcan spring and am in the process of installin Rockwells. The Front is in.

Thanks for the help fellows

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by warthog on Jun 9, 2006, 2:52pm

I had to redo my rear spring hanger. The shackle rusted to the bolt and twisted the bolt breaking the weld. I ground the heads off the rivets, drilled clean through the rivets, and then was finally able to pound out. I replaced the main bolt with a 7/8" x 5" grade 8 bolt. Ground down the sides of head to fit on backside and then welded in, like original. I drilled center and tapped for grease fittin.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...ringhanger.jpg

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by brute4c on Jun 9, 2006, 3:00pm

Where does the grease come out? Will that drilling significantly weaken the bolt? I realize stock had to be drilled as well...

Your work looks EXCELLENT!!

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by jeepistdougiowa on Jun 9, 2006, 3:18pm

Cross drill the bolt too JOn. I did the same thing when mine broke a few years back.... no worries about it breaking, mine put up with a ton of abuse...at least as strong as OEM.

Since then I shortened the truck and no longer have the stock mount, I did drill length wise and cross on my new bolts though.

The front (of the rear) spring hanger has a similar, if not identicle mount on the inside of the frame as you see on the outside, both must be flipped, a new pass thru hole for the spindle must be drilled.
I had little trouble grinding the heads off too, only used part of a 4.5 wheel to do all 8 rivets. Must have been some manufacturing tolerences in play with them as far as hardness goes. Make sure you grind flush or a little more, then beat the snot out of them, they should goo, if not, hopefully the seperation of material between them and the frame will be enough of a heat resistor to allow you to melt them out with a torch without doing too much to the frame..may want to drape a wet rag around the area to act as a further heat sink... GOOD LUCK!

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by warthog on Jun 9, 2006, 3:37pm

Don't remember drill bit size used, but wanted to keep it small so as to not weaken the bolt. Got the idea from the OEM bolt. Depth 3" and then cross drill down. I mounted the bolt with the hole on the topside, but later thought about it, I should have put on bottom side. As the most friction will be on the bottom side and harder to get the grease to ooze down there.

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by drvnkaiserdaily on Jun 9, 2006, 4:01pm

I found when removing the perchs on another truck,that the pointed tip of my air hammer had swelled the rivet where it made the dimple .I took an old tip and ground it flat,and the others came right out.Hope it helps. Drvn

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by brute4c on Jun 9, 2006, 4:49pm

Great stuff all 3 of you!! We have to save this as it does come up from time to time and this is the best answers for this problem I remember!

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by robertcowan on Jun 9, 2006, 10:50pm

always remember on rivets. when a rivet is bucked it not only flattens out the head but it increases in diameter to completely fill the hole its in. a rivet is soft until bucked then it gets hard. there buggers to remove sometimes. on tough ones i always drill a hole about 1/2 of the diameter of the rivet this helps most of the time.
bob

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by elliott on Jun 11, 2006, 7:44am

What Bob said, only if you drill real straight you can use a drill bit just undersize from the rivet diameter, then drill through the depth of the material leaving just the tail on the far side so you have something to punch against. I drilled some brackets yesterday and punched out the rivets with a hammer simple enough. This is how we did it on aircraft.

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by mikel on Jun 11, 2006, 6:17pm

I cut the heads off the bolts holding the post mounts in my J300 and the mounts came right out.

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by elohim1 on Jun 11, 2006, 8:22pm

I pilot drilled each rivot with a 1/4" drill. You need to center punch
each rivot in the center as best you can,(after you grind head off). This will help center the pilot drill.
I then drilled with a 3/8" drill, which I believe is the rivot size.
I opened mine up to 1/2" so i could use a 1/2" grade8 bolt.

Use Cobalt drills, they are more expensive, but will last alot longer than your typical drills, even the ones with the gold coating.

When all rivots are out the bracket will still not come off. You will need to remove the weld off the spindle.

I used a 1 1/8" hole saw to cut the weld on the stud which goes through the frame and holds your spring. It is just welded on the exterior, inside the frame , the 1 1/8" hole saw has an inside diameter of 1" which fits right over the 1" spindle and allows you to cut the weld. Of course you can not use the pilot drill in the hole saw when doing this.

Here is the finished prouct. I will probably reweld the spindle inside the frame.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h_DSCF0041.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h_DSCF0040.jpg

Re: ?? removing rivots on rear spring mount.
Post by robertcowan on Jun 12, 2006, 6:05pm

did you weld a reinforcing plate on the inside of the frame ? are you gonna have to use lift blocks on the rear end ?