Replacement I-Beam Coil Spring Retainer Bolt

[Railer150]

Hello Forum,

I am fighting removing the bolt at the bottom of my 86' rangers coil spring, i have tried heat and PB Blaster and it still wont budge. does anyone know where i can get a replacement bolt, if i could just cut the old one off and put a new bolt in it would make things alot easier.

 

[JoshT]

I know LMC truck has them available. Possibly a dealer, the same bolt was used up to 97 on 2wd Rangers. Junk yard probably has a whole slew of them, but they will probably be about as easy to remove as the one you have.

Stupid question, you got all weight off the axle? I'm assuming that the spring is already removed.

 

[Railer150]

LMS has them really ? all I saw that was similar was a coil spring stud, but the picture makes it looks like a stud instead of a bolt

 

[Railer150]

Just Called Ford, they gave me a part number, one hell of a pricey bolt, hopefully i can find a cheaper one, part # is 390386S2 if thats any help

 

[JoshT]

Sorry, must have been in an older catalog. I thought that they used to have separate diagram for 2wd and 4wd as well. I'll have to see if I can find an older one.

 

[Railer150]

No problem, im hoping to find a set moderately priced, really dont wanna pay $90 for bolts

 

[BlackBII]

From the Part number, it looks like it's a 3/4-10 Bolt 7.75 inches long?

Here are a bunch on Fastenal's website, 7.5 inches long. It looks like they have 8 inchers as well.

Click Me!

I've never had a 2wd beam apart, does this bolt go from the bottom of the beam, through the whole thing and act like a stud for the coil spring? Seems strange that this would be 8 inches long, unless it goes all the though the beam from top to bottom (or vice versa)



Edit

I found a diagram. Looks like it is a big sucker.

 

[JoshT]

Yes, you got it right the first time. Goes through up through (from bottom to top) possibly a sway bar bracket if equipped, lower radius arm ear, beam, upper radius arm ear, washer, nut, spring seat, spring insulator, spring, spring retainer, and retainer nut.

Let me know if you can't find something reasonable that will work. I'll dig around in the back of the Explorer (it's my engine donor/part storage bin) to see if I can find any. I think I may have had an extra (possibly 2) when swapped over the second gen beams on the 86. Not sure what shape they would be in though.

 

[BlackBII]

Gotcha. I'm used to working on the 4wd beams, that use two seperate fasteners, one on top and one on bottom, as the axle shaft takes up the space in the middle.

 

[Railer150]

Wow you sir are a lifesaver, gonna look for a 8 inch long one, they need to be grade 8 right ?

 

[BlackBII]

Yes go for the Grade 8 bolts for sure.

 

[Railer150]

Alright then, I'm looking for 8 inch long ones now. nuts for it shouldn't be too hard to find either

 

[brinker88]

Depending on where you're at, I would look for a big rig suspension shop. The reason I mention it is because I work at one and we use that size of bolt frequently. Sometimes I think we have a larger selection of bolts than Fastenal (obviously an exaggeration)

 

[JoshT]

Not a larger selection but a more specialized selection, which is better a lot of the time. Our local Fastenal doesn't have a lot of the oversized stuff like that, they can get it but its not in stock. They're about useless for smaller stuff as well, because they don't stock much loose or small quantity stuff. They won't break the larger quantities, so if I need 1 bolt that I can only get there I'd have to buy a bag of 50 to get it. "Yes sir, that 50 cent bolt you need is going to cost 25 bucks because we only sell it in quantities of 50. Oh and good luck finding it anywhere else." Thankfully between the ACE (if nobody else has it check a small town ACE) and Tractor Supply I can find most of what I need. The internet helps for the rest.

 

[slammedxonair]

I think they are 3/4" if I remember right and think I found them at tractor supply once way back when I was working on my explorer lol