15 minute Hitch Install.

[ChiefRudy]

Yea it's sounds that easy but it's not when I got a defective Bolt with the Hitch. Then because of that bolt the 15 minute install turn into a 4 hour install.

The last bolt I hadda put on wasn't machined correctly and there was metal between the treads near the beginning of the Bolt. I didn’t even notice it because it was so little. WELL... when it went on by hand okay and when I Took the impact Drill to it... the defect bolt chewed up the beginning threads that where inside of the frame of the Jeep!!!. Boy was I Pissed. So I went back to the vendor I where bought the hitch and got a new bolt. But then I was on a 3 hour crusade to find a re-thread that was 12mm X 1.75. I went to 7 stores before I found one.

My pain still wasn't over yet...

I started to Re-thread the Frame whole. All was going well and BAM. The re-threader shatters into pieces leaves a hug junk of it still in frame whole. So between using needle nose pliers and channel locks my Father and I eventually got the junk out. Amazingly we didn't damage the new threads and the bolt finally went up into the frame.

So for all the pain and misery I went through today. I had to tell someone about it and now I feel better

Here is a picture of the hitch before I installed. I’ll Try to get some pictures tomorrow of it on the Jeep.

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[AbsoluteRenegade]

i have a thread kit and frequently clean powder coated parts to rethreading things is a good habit to start anyways would have saved ya some time in the end

 

[K Dje Ryu]

And use cutting oil whenever you're cutting threads. Makes the job 100x easier.

 

[ChiefRudy]

Thanks for the Tips. It was my frist time cutting my own threads. Now that explains why the kit i bought smelled like oil when I opened it.

By the way, I Took the thread kit back and got it replaced because there was no way it should have failed that easily and break apart. Because as I was cutting the threads it started to get easier to turn and then when I went to revserse it and take it out is when it broke.

 

[JC]

Don't feel bad, I don't think you're the only one whose hitch took more that 15 minutes. I had to tap out all 6 on mine, as they were rusted nearly shut. I just finally got the last bolt in a few weeks back and got everything torqued up right.

 

[K Dje Ryu]

Thanks for the Tips. It was my frist time cutting my own threads. Now that explains why the kit i bought smelled like oil when I opened it.

By the way, I Took the thread kit back and got it replaced because there was no way it should have failed that easily and break apart. Because as I was cutting the threads it started to get easier to turn and then when I went to revserse it and take it out is when it broke.

Another tip would be to tap in about a full turn, then back it out a half-turn, then in a turn and a half, back a half... until you get to that "easy point" going in, then you can back all the way out. Basically, the metal that you cut out was still sitting in the relief of the tap and they're not made to have much pressure put on them backward.

 

[ChiefRudy]

I'll have to keep all these tips in mind for the next time I thread something.

Here are some of pictures of the Hitch on the Jeep.
I like how well it tucks up under the bumpers.

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[ffemtreed]

Took me a couple hours to get mine done as well. I used an old airbrush and shot a penetrating oil into each of the screwholes and used a pipe cleaner brush to get all the gunk out. I also used a dremel with a couple different wire wheel attachments to speed things up.

 

[ChiefRudy]

Took me a couple hours to get mine done as well. I used an old airbrush and shot a penetrating oil into each of the screwholes and used a pipe cleaner brush to get all the gunk out. I also used a dremel with a couple different wire wheel attachments to speed things up.

Speaking of gunk... I constantly had mud/dirt coming down on me that was underneath the Jeep. Every time I took the impact Drill to the Jeep It would start snowing dirt