Commando Crossmember

I'm getting ready to put the Turbo 400 back in and I saw that the threaded holes to mount the crossmember are old and stripped a little. Is there a fix for this or do I have to drill new holes and use thru bolts to mount it? They look like they are welded nuts on the inside of the frame tube. Thanks for any ideas, Bob

 

On my 71, they cut out little squares on the side of the rail on the right outside to access a nut with a wrench. Not my favorite way of doing things, but it worked. I will cut out one rectangle out of those two holes, fab a metal strip to hold down two nuts at the correct distance. Weld the nuts to the strip, never-seize the nut threads, lay the strip in the frame and fab a new rectangle to re-box in the frame. Done.chainsawguy

The through all the way with a long bolt is an option as well, I generally see it more done on YJ's though.

 

Never did like the up through the frame method. Repaired one using a piece of 1/4" plate cut to the same dimensions as one of the spacers. You could drill and tap holes in the plate or drill your holes and weld nuts to the plate, drill out the holes in the frame so the nuts sit up inside the frame then weld the plates to the frame. Was able to use the original fine thread bolts.

 

I got on some other 4x4 websites and they mentioned a fix for similar issues using nutserts or rivnuts.Any thoughts?

 

i think the nutserts or rivnuts will pull out

 

There's a time and a place for those, a crossmember wouldn't be one of them.