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broken center pin.. lil help?

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82K5_6.5L

1/2 ton status
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Dec 4, 2002
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Tucson, Az
cruising home today and i notice a weird shake in the K5. i took a corner into my neighborhood, and i kid u not, it felt like i had 4 wheel steering. :confused: im like wtf? somethings broken?? get home and discover the rear driver side center pin in the springs has broken off and the springs moved foward a good 5 inches or so.. is this a common thing to happen? also, how the hell can i fix this :wink1: btw, its a 12 bolt rear end, stock springs with a homemae shackle flip..
 
take it apart and get new pin and ubolts. if all the leafs are still good. it hapens with rust in there over time.
 
Yes, its fairly common on stock leaves

I broke one on my 88, on 33s with light to moderate wheeling. It was being driven on the street when the problem started surfacing.

You can use a regular bolt to fix it, use grade 8 though...

Make sure nothing is putting to much undue stress on the pin, like anything that might have gone wrong in the shackle flip...
 
I would also suggest that you make sure you torque your new u-bolts (you are going to get new ones, right?) down properly, and re-torque them in a week or so. The only times I have ever seen an issue with a broken pin was when the U-bolts were old and had stretched, or when someone replaced the u-bolts and didn't re-torque them after driving for a bit.
 
this is a prime examply of not to reuse ubolts. and the center pin is only grd 2 . all of this is just advice not to blam you on any part. i use to work at a spring shop. you can also up the ubolt size from stock size at grd 5 rod to 5/8 ubolts that are grd 8 rod. just a good bit of info for ya.
 
sweetk30 said:
this is a prime examply of not to reuse ubolts. and the center pin is only grd 2 . all of this is just advice not to blam you on any part. i use to work at a spring shop. you can also up the ubolt size from stock size at grd 5 rod to 5/8 ubolts that are grd 8 rod. just a good bit of info for ya.
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Yep. Go to the local hardware store and ask for a Grade 8, zinc plated, 3/8"x3.5" long Hex socket cap screw, washer and nylock nut. That'll hold the springs together and the head of the cap screw is the same size as the spring pin. Those things are pretty much junk.

Also, on the u-bolts, when I lifted my rig, I went to a local manufacturer and had them make me up some u-bolts. I went with grade 8 zinc plated 9/16" fine thread u-bolts. Sure, it may be over kill, but I'll be danged if they're gonna break!
 
hey guys, thanks for the quick respones.. the first thing that came to mind when u said "stress on the axle or springs" i thought of the 12 bolt, because its welded up and its a DD.. but the springs look like they are fine, just the pin snapped. so can i go down and just buy a new bolt? like u said grade 8.. anybody know exact size? or am i just dumb and shane74 told me to do this...
Grade 8, zinc plated, 3/8"x3.5" long Hex socket cap screw, washer and nylock nut.
Click to expand...

thanx again
 
like he said . then install it. best get a full set of ubolts (4) if one side went bad from the damage best do both. like thay say do them in pairs. do it one time.:wink1:
 
I second the loose U bolt theory, not that much rain here in AZ so rust through isn't as much an issue. I have broken them after installing a lift with and impact and not checking the torque on the ubolt when done. the impact just "twists" the long leg of the ubolt back and forth after about 30 foot pounds. lost a center pin and a lift block in the salt river cause of that one night. I wouldn't be all that worried about re-using your ubolts, just make sure they are tight! and often, they can loosen from wheeling
 
not going to agree with that . sorry. but i had a new set on my front axle . thay were only 1 month old and took them off and installed some other spring stuff and reused them. thay were tight . but found out the hard way dont trust them after reuse. frt axle almost came out of truck at 60+ mph on highway. this was the first and only time i had this happen to me.


just my opinon and do what you want its your ride .
 
SweetK30, I hear what you are saying. I Usually use new u bolts too, but if this guy can't afford new ones or is maybe getting a lift in the near future that has new ubolts, I just think he could use the old ones for a while. Should have made that more clear, next time I will try. I have beat on trucks with used one hard in the distant (read poorer) past and never had one fail. maybe there was more to your front end coming apart, or maybe I just have been dumb lucky.

BTW, the lift block I lost was with NEW u bolts, but as I stated that was my own fault.
 
thanx guys for the input.. i used my old ubolts from when i got the truck (oops) i had a 4" block awhile ago and of course they came with long ubolts, but i didnt need them when i did the shackle flip, so i used my old ones. maybe i will switch back to the other ones.. well looks like i will be doing this tomorrow after work. thanx again
 
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