Leaf Spring Bump Stop Trick

Well I figured id give back to the community for all the contribution in building my 48. Well here it goes. So I was in the process of installing factory ride height leaf springs and notice that bumps would need to be installed but the original ones all but one of the rubber inserts was attached and these needed to be replaced. Upon removing them all but 2 of the bolts came out fine but the others broke off.  after bummed but not surprised I questioned what the next step would be. Drilling them out would have not worked and would have been on an angle I went into thinking mode. There was no access especially in the front for a wrench and drilling an access hole in an original 48 frame was out of the question. Upon inspection I noted these were captive nuts and usually not weld real well , at least not on my YJ wrangler, and after starring at my tool box and looking through all the tools that paid the bills for over ten years , I starred at the good ole air hammer. AH Ha I'll air hammer the captive nuts out and put a nut and bolt and life will go on as normal. The next problem was that there was  no access to even get your hand in the frame to hold a nut in place to even remotely thread a bolt but I proceeded to knock out each one of the captive nuts anyway. The next task was to figure a way to thread a nut and bolt to make this happen. Then the thought came to me . I used mechanics wire a locking nut with the star washer attached to the nut , feed it through the frame and thread the bolt.   The key was to make sure the bolt thread easily as I would only have the tension from the mechanics wire to hold the nut in place. So I went to the local Ace and after 1/2 of making sure the bolts threaded on the nut easily it was off to the project. I compressed the so that it created a hex almost like a wrench and held the nut in place. Worked like a charm!!!

Dude, you're my hero! I thought I was going to have to pull the axle and bust out the drill.

I've done the grease trick, but make sure there's in there to get the box end wrench off of the nut after you get it started.  Don't ask how I know about that.