I am about to swap in a 5 lug rear in my '72. Would it be a good idea to replace the U Bolts? If so, where do I get them? How tight should they be torqued? Don't want to lose my rearend while driving down the interstate or something.
I'd replace them. They're inexpensive enough. Just get them "tight". The nut goes so far past the end of the bolt threads that there is no way it can back itself all the way off and cause the rearend to fall off. Sorry I don't have an exact Lb.-Ft. torque number for you, but "tight" should be sufficent...
any rear end place or an auto parts store... make sure you cut off the excess bolt after putting the nut on...make suer you leave 1/2" to 1" past the nut... and then i like to grab a screw driver and a hammer and smash the threads a bit, so that if the nut does loosen.. it wont vibrate off
I got my new U-bolts from ESPO, and since they're the same size as the originals, no cutting was necessary. Just bolt 'em on and go....
We have one here too, but the guy is expensive and I was ordering bushings from ESPO anyway, so I got the U-bolts from them while I was at it...
Probably be easiest for me to just get them at the auto parts store. Didn't realize they would have things like U bolts there.
U Bolts Auto Parts Store Wont Be Close So Go Where Others Got Them Saves You Alot Of Time I Have Returned A Lot That Was Not Close
Anyone in a Fleet Farm state (upper midwest) - they have a great selection of them. Warning: thread stealing! I have a great u-bolt story. Back in my 4x4'n days, we had a guy in our group that pulled apart the complete underside of his F250 high boy to clean it all up and paint it. Since money was always tight, he reused all the u-bolts. But he thought that to beef up the truck some down there, he would harden up the u-bolts. He case hardened them with the oxy-acetelene torch and quenched them in a pan of old drain oil. They looked beautiful, all shiny and black. They also shattered like glass the next time he went 4 wheeling. That was wild!
