ive been trying unsuccessfully for two months now to find four u-bolts to finish up one of the projects in the shop. they have to fit a 3 1/2 inch diameter axle, be 11 inches long, and have a round top. the kicker is, theyve gotta be 1/2 inch diameter. ive tried NAPA, the junkyard, Advance, Autozone, Pep Boys, even my local big rig shop. no dice. any ideas? Michael
That's what I was gonna say - bend 'em from 1/2" round stock and use a die to cut the threads. Y'all can get fancy and do fine threads while you're at it, too!
couldnt find a spring shop in my area, and the 4X4 boys didnt have 'em. id thought about making them. my only question is of how strong theyll be. im afraid of one breaking going down the road. michael
believe it or not i bought some like that from napa. that was about 3 years ago though. local spring shop sounds good though.
1/2 inch 4140 steel should do well. you will know it from cold rolled because it has a black mill scale look to it. its not hard to cut threads into. just use a high speed steel die (HSS). you can also take it to a pipe shop and they should have dies to cut threads on their power pony or pipe machine. 4140 is what they make sway bars and break dies from so its pretty tough.
There should be spring shops in Charlote that could help you, any shop that repairs big trucks should be able to point you to a source. Bill
A spring shop is going to be your best chance. I just happen to work at one and could bend some up and ship them to you. If your interested just pm me and I can get them out to you.
Never tried to use them so I'm not 100% sure it would fit the bill, but some trucks use a square U bolt that wraps the spring and has a nut plate shaped to fit around the axle. I'm wondering, if you used the nut plates off one of those trucks and a regular U bolt spring plate on the other side, couldn't you then join them together with proper length grade 8 bolts and not need U bolts at all? Should be easy to find...just take a walk thru the scrapyard. For that matter...they wouldn't be too hard to fabricate at home!!! Some thick tube that fits the outer diameter of your rear axle, slice it, open it up and heat bend it back to form the tabs that the bolts will pass thru. Or shape some flat plate to conform to the axle. If your really good at welding you could simply half the pipe and weld on 4 pieces of thick seamless tube for the bolts to pass thru...give it that custom made look... Lots of ways around this without even using U bolts.
Go with Springer here.I've dealt with a big truck spring shop through my work, and the guys in there can make any size shape etc of spring, ubolt, supply bushings, sping pins etc....That place even reamed out my spindle bushings for my new kingpins on my 55 Dodge 1/2 ton. In fact they can do it with a newer typr of hydrauilc bender, or the old fashioned way of heating the stock in a open gas kiln and bend them that way...they'll even flatten the inside surface that faces the leaf spring on the square jobbies..... Give Springer a shout if he's offering he'll be the best direct route...friendly craftsmanship is hard to come by. Best, Derek
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