Well if MR Muscle lived in the deep south he wouldn't need air tools or a torch. However he lives in New England, where they put lots of salt and sand down. After a few years those bolts tend to rust themselves to the inner shells of the springs. Usually you have to cut them off. They usually won't come out no matter how big a hammer you have. LOL When I got my Sonoma all the lower parts of the springs were broken. I ended up taking the new springs I got from the JY apart and using the lower parts, I still have the main leafs and want to put them in my Blazer this spring/summer sometime. Good Luck!!!

 

Oh jeez I see what you mean. Well I just slapped a deposit down on new leaf springs at the junkyard today (they'll pull em for me). I'm getting them for 53 bucks a piece including tax. I might get them tomorrow IF I'm lucky lol. I'll go out and soak the bolts with WD-40 and let them sit, hopefully that stuff will help. Any other recommendations?

And I'm sure there's a big enough hammer lol.

 

Get the large economy size can of PB Blaster. Soak them repeatedly for a couple of days. That will make the nuts a lot easier to remove.

It looks like this.. LOL

 

Wow... that is probably the ugliest label I've ever seen LOL. I'll get some of the stuff tomorrow. For tonight I'll soak it with WD-40 since it's pretty late. I'm assuming I can get this at autozone or some hardware store?

 

Most any parts store will have this.

 

I had that same exact problem with my 94 blazer a few months ago. I was driving it for about 4 months not realizing that it was like that. I still drove it for about a month like that with no issues. I will tell you right now that you will need atleast a grinder if not torches. Trying to get all these bolts off by hand is a waste of time. They will not come off very well. Just take a grinder and grind off all the bolt heads and nuts and grind the u-bolts in the middle. You will also need a prybar and a punch to get the front bolt out of the spring and the back bolt out of the shackle. The bolts do not like to come out of the bushings very well. If you decide to get them apart by hand, then i would highly recommend getting new u-bolts for the axle, and new bolts to mount the springs to the frame. If the bushings are bad then replace those too. Good Luck!!!

 

The funny thing is ive actually seen trailers and other vehicles that have leaf springs like that. They are bolted in on one side and the other side just rests on whatever plate they have there its really strange. Id replace it though just for the simple fact of the spring breaking on the otherside

 

I see paint on the spring. Was the truck wrecked? If so, that is when it more than likely happened.
I would drive on it. If it was broken at the front of the spring, I wouldn't use it.

 

No that was just a cheap maaco paint job thankyouverymuch.

 

"if you take them apart by hand". i would guess you were saying this as opposed to using a torch or grinder?

regardless of disassembley, the u-bolt must always be replaced (even law in some places).

they're a "stretch fitting", like a head bolt, and should be replaced each time they're removed. i know we've all (probably) re-used the head bolts before, but if you've ever seen an accident due to the rearend of a truck coming of because of u-bolt failure, you'd never re-use them again.

besides, is anyone that cheap/hard up for $ that they couldn't drop the 5 to 10 bucks on new bolts?

besides all that, how'd you make out with the "new" used leafpacks, got them in yet?