Changed the oil today and I have a question for those of you with rusted underbellys (which may be everyone). First off, the skid plate was attached by only 4 bolts, former owner must have taken it to a quick lube place. It took some serious elbow grease and PB Blaster to get them off. Once off, changed the oil, filter, etc. went to put it back on and it was ten times harder to put the same f'ing bolts back in the same holes. I didn't get one of them all the way back on.

What the hell do you do with rusted out holes? Even if I get 10 all new bolts, there's no way they're threading into those holes. Cleaner? Re-thread? Any ideas?

 

Chase the threads with a tap would be the simplest. I would question how they got that bad, considering they should be spun out every 5-7500 miles or so. At that stage, treated? Cross threaded perhaps?

 

I put never sieze on ours they were rusted, I also always start by hand

 

Aren't the holes just heavy duty nuts that you could order and replace? I don't think they are actual threaded holes that are drilled into the frame or anything like that. Kind of like the ones used for the air compressor...

 

I think you are referring to the larger skid plate that is supposed to be held in by something like 10 bolts. Perhaps you can get a small wire brush to thoroughly clean the holes and bolts. If it's really bad, a squirt of WD40 will help with the rust removal.

 

That's what he was talking about, right? The larger skid plate? The small plate that protects the oil cooler has two threaded holes in the plate itself, but every other bolt for the large skid plate goes into a removable/replaceable nut. At least, I'm pretty sure of this.