removing frame rivets is easy!!

[check35]

My neighbor and brother were telling me how impossible it was to remove frame rivets. I had to remove the rivets because i had to replace my shackle braket because they were rotted and snapped last week.

Well here's what i did: I grinded the heads off with an angle grinder, then pried of the old bracket with a screw driver, and popped the rivets off with my hammer and punch took not even 5 minutes a rivet lol. THe old braket was sooo rotted i just broke it off with my hammer, didnt need to cut it haha. Now i gotta find out how to take the rubber bushing off the leafspring to proceed with this project.............

rot!

tools

 

[BradR]

I've seen people use gear pullers on those bushings with success, no personal experience there.

Great work though. Those blasted shackles on those Rangers always go. lol.

 

[check35]

well i finally removed the bolt from the bushing with the hammer and punch as well. It took 6 hours to remove both the bushings and bolt with my hammer and punch. I couldnt give up because i gotta drive this thing to school tomorrow

that was the hardest part of the project, not the rivets

i feel bad for you explorer guys, I couldnt imagine doing this with the bed on the truck! But I hear the explorers dont have a problem with their shackles rotting though?

 

[delexploder]

Some explorers do it. I have done shackles on my brother in laws ranger with the bed on cause we knew we couldn't get it off cause the whole truck was a rust pile with shiny paint! Its about the same on either and I did what u did but I cut the nut off the spring bolt first then soaked it with pb blaster got it started with the hamer and punch then switched to a crowbar behind the head of the bolt and worked it out as far as it would go then broke the shackle loose dropped the mess down and finished smacking the bolt out....it still alot of work but a little faster anyway glad you made it through one of the more horrible jobs on these chasis.

 

[FIND]

I use a little propane torch and burn the rubber if I can't get them out easily, then wire brush off whatever is left. As for the rivets, that is pretty much the method we all use. I hope you attached that bracket using grade 8 hardware.

 

[adamsbro2]

for future reference what works well on the leaf spring bushings is allthread with a washer and sockets kinda hard to explain but if you do a search on youtube there is a couple guys that have posted videos.. i will try to explain a bit more. you get all thread long enough to stick out each side by a few inches. on one side you put a nut with a washer just small enough to fit through the leaf spring "hole" if you will. then on the other side you put a BIG socket that the bushing can fit INSIDE at least diameter not necesarrily depth. then the all thread goes through the drive hole which is probably 1/2" with a nut and washer on the other side of the socket. as you tighten the nut on the socket side it will pull the bushing through the leaf into the socket. Go as far as you can and if you use a deep socket and set it up right you can even use an impact on it and once you get more than half way you can usually grease it up with wd-40 enough to make it MUCH easier to get out. This works very well for installing the new bushings as well. I hope i made sense here and you didn't get bored reading it.

Edit: Of course this is after the bolt is out!!! but you could drill through the bolt and do the same thing if need be!!