- Location
- Curtis Bay, MD
So I need to remount my front skid (factory) which bolts to basically threaded punched holes in sheetmetal in the front. One of those holes stripped when I removed the skid, so I went to Fastenal and got some 8mm steel rivnuts and repaired that one hole. Appears to me to be a valid strong method of repair (as an aside, however, their web site recommends a 13.5mm drill for that hole; that works out to a little more than 17/32" but if you're using the nut and bolt method instead of the proper insertion tool, that is too large a hole for it to not spin. I had to clamp vice grips on the backside of the rivnut to keep the whole rivnut from spinning even though I'd oiled the nut and washer. 1/2" is too small; I do have a 33/64" drill but haven't tried it yet) although I don't know how these really compare to a traditional nut in terms of strength. Obviously the one that I've inserted is stronger than the factory method, but I have two more locations where I want to use these, one is on the transmission x-member where the transfer case skid mounts, and one is directly into the frame. In both cases the factory bolts are still present, but I can't remove them because the captive nuts have broken free of the bodywork to which they were originally tack welded. In one location, I can tack a nut on if that is really preferable; in the other, I'd have to cut the frame open to do so and therefore am really leaning towards using the rivnuts. In your collective opinion, is this a valid strong method of repair, or should I book some time at my friend's shop and plan on cutting the frame open?
