Use Once and Throw Away Control Arm Bolts

[Daless2]

Use Once and Throw Away Control Arm Bolts

Yesterday I finished my very pleasant trip back from Missouri with a last 100-mile adventure.

While traveling along fat dumb and happy at 65 MPH on the interstate suddenly my TJ became very Squirrelly to handle. It felt like I had the old Detroit Locker in the rear or suddenly had a tire deflate.

I stopped to check things out and found the driver side Upper Control Arm Bolt, axle end had broken. Specifically the head of the bolt had come off, not the nut.

I managed to limp the Jeep home (at 20 - 25 MPH) with a screwdriver holding the control arm in place and a hose clamp holding the screwdriver in place.

Yesterday afternoon I went over to Ace Hardware and purchased enough Stainless Steel bolts to replace all my control arm bolts. While I have replaced the rear upper on both sides now I have also put a stop to this effort. On Blaine's advice I will go to the dealer and order the stock bolts and nuts

But I must tell you, I now consider Control Arm Bolts in the same category as Ring Gear Bolts, "Use Once and Throw Away". This experience at high speed was not pleasant and could easily have been disastrous. I do not want this to happen again.

Hope some may find this helpful.

Frank

[ABQ TJ]

Dang, glad to hear you made it home and nothing was too terrible.

What's the pro/con on the stock bolt thing, though?? Would Grade 5 or Grade 8 not be ok? Just wondering what the reasoning is...thx.

[underDAWG]

Use Once and Throw Away Control Arm Bolts


Hmmm. that is going to be expensive for me if I do this . I have been taking it on and off more than 20 or so times. I have have never any any problem. I agree that after awhile the lock nut will loose its locking ability. I just usally double nut it.

Is there a chance the nut was defected or over tightened in the past? I will be more careful next itme I take the CA off, thanks for sharing.

[Daless2]

To be honest I am not sure what the advantage to the stock bolts are. I just don't know enough about them. I would be afraid to go with a grade 8 bolt as I have seen them make some very funky elongated holes in the mounts over time on some other Jeeps. Bottom line, in my conversation with Blaine he advised this and I didn't think to ask why. I figure I have never been given bad advice before from Blaine, I'm willing to accept it now, especially given I have no better personally knowledge to pull at.

Brad (Hellbender has also told me of a rash of problems there were with a batch of bad Control Arm Bolts. Perhaps I had one. I simply do not know.

The bolts actually broke at the bolt head.

The head broke off cleanly. I don't know when it happened. It could have been at any time but it wasn't until the bolt worked it's way completely out that I notice anything funny at all. (I found what was left of the bolt laying in the bracket of my AiRock Spring.) I suppose anything is possible, but I am somewhat religious when it comes to torqueing everything to spec. Maybe I screwed up the last time. But then again, could I have screwed things up so much to break the bolt? I don't know.

Replacing Control Arm Bolts after one use may be excessive, but I do not take them off very often. To me it's worth the minimal cost for the little extra peace of mind. I mean How much can they be at the Dealer???? I'll let you know.

Frank

[Stu Olson]

Originally posted by Daless2
I mean How much can they be at the Dealer???? I'll let you know.

About $9 for a nut and bolt here in Phoenix. I hope they grown them cheaper out East!


And this is one of the main reasons I stopped using the DC supplied bolts....





The above damage occured while taking the nut off the bolt (and the threads) were in perfect condition when I started. I watched a friend of mine snap one in half with a properly setup torque wrench. Perhaps DC got a bad batch of hardware in from one of their subcontractors. Wouldn't be the first time a company had quality control issues.

[Allen]

What did Blaine have to say regarding the strength of the bolts?

Stainless usually comes in somewhere between Grade 3 and 5.....

Allen

[Allen]

Hmmmm.

Nevermind. I see you're abandoning the stainless bolts. Good idea.....

Hmmmm.

If it were me.....I'd mic the bolts and go to a good nut and bolt house and order the same metric bolt, slightly longer to accomodate the 2 washers you'll need, in metric 10.9.

But that's just me. No way in hell I'm paying $9 for a bolt made of steel.....(unless it's over 1" in diameter and pretty long.....)

8 x $9 = insanity.....

At a good hardware place you could likely get 6-9 of the above mentioned bolts, washers, and nuts for $9, and have the same strength.



Allen

[JMyerz]

I have found that my stock bolts will not keep tight, while the grade 8 bolts I have switched out have been doing an excellent job of keeping tight.

Just an observation.

Justin

[Daless2]

Just came back from a New Jeep Dealer a few more miles from my home.

They sold me the Rear Upper Control Arm Bolts (Axle end) for $3.47 each. The shouldered nuts were $1.07 each.

Two Front Upper Control Arm Bolts (Axle End) for $3.42 each. Nuts $1.42

And 12 "larger" Control Arm Bolts for all the rest for $4.42 each, nuts were $1.45

Total cost was $89.20 I am a happy camper. I have also decided to use a jam nut on those that I can fit it.


Like I said, may not be worth the expense to some folks, but it is to me.

Frank


PS: Not all were in stock so I have to do this project in phases.

[Robert J. Yates]

I swapped to grade 8's after snapping 2 front uppers with a torque wrench and then finding 2 extremely stretched lowers. Then again , I was running Tera arms and they are not known for being nice to control arm brackets whcih probably put quite a bit more stress on them than DC ever intended.