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Skid plate nut repair & what suspension lift?

RUSTYSPIKE

RUSTYSPIKE

RUSTYSPIKE
City
Cedar Springs
State
MI
I am at the assembly stage of my 82 cj8 resto.

Skid plate frame nuts are all junk and didn't get repaired when frame was redone. Most are missing or spinning free.

Rivnuts or fish a nut in and tack weld?

Also going to order a 4in lift. Lots of mixed reviews and most posts on here are 5years old that I found. What brand should I use?

Rubicon express best?
BDS 2nd best?
Rough country last?

Will be running a 360/t176/dana 300. Stock front axle. Dana 44 in rear from 86 cj7.

Any thoughts helpful. Thanks.
 
I think a rivnut or nutsert is fine for maybe one or two per side, but I really don’t know if I would trust replacing them all that way. There are nutserts that use a hexagonal hole and a matching insert. They are stronger but they take a special tool to make that hole.

Instead, I would punch out the free spinning ones, and make plates with the nuts welded to them. Fish them into position, and possibly drill a hole from the bottom and tack the plate into position.


Edit. I thought I would see just what kind of load the common nutsert would take. I have been using the common EBay/Amazon/Fastenall serrated body nutserts. But in my search I found out that the OEM style nutserts are now available, and a spiffy tool with a bearing makes installation easy. So- yes, with these nutserts I would fully trust them for a full repair. Here’s a video.




Lifts? Rubicon Express is super flexy, with the wrangler spring conversion. But it does sag out and the 4.5 Extreme ends up being about 3” in a few years. I’m running BDS right now, but only 2” and it’s not running yet. Rough Country? There’s a reason it’s named “Rough”.
 
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Great video. I now know more than I ever thought I wanted to about nutserts.
 
I was impatient. I placed a standard nut in a drill and ground half of it round. Drilled a hole in the frame to fit the round portion. Then inserted and welded it in place on the bottom of the frame.
 
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