Two weekends ago, I was attempting to upgrade my factory bump stops in the front to a set built by @plasticsguy (toyotabumpstops.com). These are quality parts engineered by a small business that produces all of it’s products in the good ole USA. Unfortunately, all the engineering in the world wouldn’t predict that the removal of my old bump stops would be a total pain in the butt!
The Saturday before I made my first attempt at an install, I sprayed the nuts and bolts very generously with PB Blaster. I let it sit all day and the first part of Sunday. Sunday afternoon, I eagerly slid under my truck and took a set of large channel locks to my passenger side bump stop. Easy as pie! The bump stop loosened up with no problem at all. Ten minutes later — beautiful new bump stop installed! Things are going great, right? Not so fast…
I slid under the driver’s side, hooked up the channel locks and turned and loosed the bolt with ease. About four clamp and turns later, it felt like the bolt already threaded out. Surprised, I reached up with my hand to do the last few turns only to find out that it was actually the bolt shearing. At a loss, I couldn’t believe what had just happened.
The lower control arm was too close to allow for a standard drill to fit, so I’d need a right angle drill or the removal of the LCA if I were to go the route of drilling. After some googling, I found an extraction method that was risky (to me), but exactly what I needed — welding a nut to the sheared bolt (see how to do it yourself, here!). This allows the frame threads to remain in tact while keeping the truck in one piece. After I got the bolt out, a quick minute later, my bump stop was installed!
