ericinMN1970

Hello all,

I'm hoping someone might have some suggestions where I could find replacement nuts that are inside the frame? Is there a best practices method of repair/replace the nuts and bolts? When I search online, I find all kinds of write ups and parts for TJ's XJ's, YJ's, but nothing for JK's. Eight MN winters have taken a toll. I managed to get one bolt out, but it rolled the threads on the bolt so that it's no longer useable. When some of the other bolts showed they wouldn't come out easy, I stopped trying to remove them! Any advice is appreciated!

resharp001

I'd say penetrating oil and heat are your friend to remove the bolts, then clean the threads up with a restorer or tap and use new bolts with some anti-seize moving forward to prevent the same thing from happening. That's what I would do at least.

karls10jk

I bought a replacement crossmember and it had some of the threads boogered up from the PO but how do you say no when it's $50 for the or-fab? I bought a tap and helicoil kit for the severely trashed threads. It doesn't help you get your bolts out but it may help you after they're out and you've got nasty threads.

ericinMN1970

My first inclination was heat and I did try on the one bolt I managed to remove, that ended up with rolled threads. But these nut inserts are hidden within the frame pretty good. So I can’t get heat directly onto them, as far as I can see anyway. I can see parts of the nut inserts, just a section of the tops of them. I suppose I could apply heat through the bottom of the frame, around the bolt head. My concern there is both the bolt and nut heating evenly. My past experience is that I want the bolt or stud to remain cooler than the nut.

ericinMN1970

I’m wondering if that’s what my option is going to end up being; work all the bolts out with a breaker bar. Them drill, tap and helicoil. I have searched for hours online and I can not find any replacement nut inserts, factory or aftermarket, for a JK frame. Although, I’m unsure how to go about getting the old nuts out of the frame anyway.

karls10jk

You'd have a helluva time getting the nuts out of the frame. I had one rust out on the gas tank skid and I ended up welding it back on but I can only imagine trying to do that inside the frame rail. This isn't the old style nutsert that you can get away with on the TJ. Make sure you buy the right drill bit and coil kit. I got mine off eBay but it was a well-known kit (can't think of the name now).

In regards to your heat and freeze dilemma, CRC makes a freezing spray that may help with that. I think it's called freeze off but I don't have it in front of me right now to confirm. It's a freezer and penetrating fluid in one if I recall correctly.