Rear spring hanger rust

[donnyeagle]

Anyone have suggestions for repairing badly rusted rear spring front (fixed) hangers? The frame looks good.

[donnyeagle]

Here are some photos of the rust.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ep1/sets/72157631414295038/

[Baskinator]

If you can't do the metal work yourself, you can probably get shackles for a wrangler and bolt them securely to the floor with some thick metal. I think 1" lift shackles for a wrangler will work, Captspillane would know better. You'll also need new bushings most likely, spring for the good ones while you're in there doing it because the job is a pain.

[captspillane]

I can't look at those photos because that website is blocked on the company computer.

The metal in the front of the leaf springs is the main area I look at when deciding which cars are to be repaired. Right now I park all the ones rotted there until I've repaired all the ones that are not. It's a tricky repair to make.

In the rear of the leaf spring I had the eye poke through the back of my floorboard after jumping the vehicle. I plated the rear of my SX4 and tied the plate into the subframe at the same time I added a rear tow hitch. I then used heavy spring eyes for a CJ7 and greasable shackles for a CJ7. I measured my stock CJ7 to find out that the shackles are the correct width but the wrong length in comparison to the Eagle stock shackles. An Eagle shackle is about an inch longer than a CJ7 shackle. When I plated across my floorboards the half inch hump downward was made flat, so my shackle eye was another half inch higher than stock. I ordered a shackle designed to lift a CJ7 about an inch and a half and it worked to put the Eagle springs in the correct spot. Pictures are posted in my project thread "Perkiomen Project pics".

[donnyeagle]

Thanks for your reply.

How do you make the repair to a rusted front leaf spring hanger?

[captspillane]

The bolt goes through two holes made from sheet metal. I can't see what yours look like unless you post an imbedded picture. The hardest part will be removing that bolt. It is a terrible challenge when heavily rusted. Their is a metal pipe in the center of the rubber leaf spring bushing. That often rusts to the bolt and then shears from the rubber. If that happens you're stuck spinning the bolt without being able to push or pull it out. I rigged up a big C clamp with a piece of steering wheel puller to be able to push against the bolt at the same time I spun it with the ratchet. I couldn't grind it off without terrible fumes from the burning of the rubber bushing. Consider yourself quite lucky if the bolt is removed easily. Once you have that off you should be able to sister the rusted sheet metal with new metal on either side. If it is too far gone you'll have to cut it out and weld in new metal. It's a very tough place to cut out and reweld.

[donnyeagle]

Thanks very much for your reply.
I will give it a try and post my results.
I'm gonna try bolting in a Jeep spring hanger OMIX-ADA   1827005 (18270.05) from Rockauto.
I don't have a welder and it looks like I can access the top side by just removing the back seat.
What bolt/nut should I use as a replacement?

[carnuck]

Here's the underside of the Eagle wagon Max98059 and I parted

It's on the for sale pile till the big scrap truck run when my arm heals.

[donnyeagle]

Well it took a long time just to get the old bolt/bushing out and replaced. I had to cut the bolt off with a sawzaw between the frame and the bushing. It took an hour with two fresh metal cutting blades, must be hardened steel. I wasted allot of time trying to use a ball joint c-clamp tool to the remove the bushing. In the end this video really helped allot for getting the old bushing out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ9IKbRu91o  You wouldn't believe it if I told you but once I got the bolt cut the rubber came out just like this and the metal sleeve was then easily hammered out all in about 30 minutes. Now comes the fabricating and welding I post pics when I am done.