As some of you know I just recently had new leaf springs installed with new U bolts. Well I bought a new dual steering stabilizer and the instructions say to remove 2 of the U bolt nuts on the driver side to install the mounting bracket. Will this ruin the U bolts? I know you should never reuse U bolts but these are brand new. I wish I would've known this before hand.

 

No, it's no problem to unscrew the nuts.
The issue is when the U bolts have been torqued down, driven for years, stretched, strained, heated and cooled, wrenched on, etc. Then if they're removed and reused, they're not in the exact same position they were before, and the stresses are put onto a different area of the ubolt.
Then they may break.

 

Ubolts like head bolts are a torque to yield fastener.

The very act of tightening the ubolt to its specified torque value is what stretches the fastener. Once the bolt has been stretched it has has undergone plastic deformation and should not be reused.

 

Ok so I got two different answers. According to the instructions there is no mention of replacing U bolts. Are they saying that once the bracket is installed it's ok to use the U bolts because the nuts now torque at a lower point?

 

Try this
With the ubolt off the vehicle. Make sure the threads are clean, run a new nut down onto the bolt by hand. The part of the bolt that the nut freely turns has not been stretched, when or if the nut becomes hard to turn then you have encountered the stretched portion of fastener.

 

Is it one nut per u bolt or are both on the same u bolt that you are taking off?

 

Just the front nuts of the U bolts (one nut per bolt)

 

Just my personal opinion but if the ubolts are being held in their proper orientation--not moving on the hangar-I think it would probably be fine to put new nuts on. I would test the torque on them after a week to be sure they are properly tightened. Metal tends to creep over time. If you just had new springs put on recently it's probably not an issue. If they have been on, say a year, I'd replace the entire ubolt

 

If you want to know what actually happens to metal as it is being stressed then
Rather then get deep into an engineering rant that nobody is likely to read much less learn anything from I will just leave this link
Yield Strength - Strength ( Mechanics ) of Materials - Engineers Edge

 

And for good measure here is a explanation of torque to yield fasteners in laymen a terms
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torq...yield_fastener

And from that link.
A drawback with TTY hardware is that it normally has to be replaced when loosened.

 

After speaking with the good folks over at ATS I feel good about moving forward with my installation. The nuts will torque down on a different part of the threads than before so, there should not be any issues. They assured me that this is very common when installing the steering stabilizers.

 

that is a beefy bracket if it is thicker then the nut. If you can post some pics,

 

As you can see the bracket alone in 1/4 inch thick. Plus the added thickness of the washer. Now I know it's not as thick or thicker than the nut but I'm sure it will hold well.

 

If you were using a washer before then you have already accounted for its thickness in relation to where the nut engages the bolts treads. Did ATS recommend new nuts or just use the ones that the threads have already been torqued to yield ?

Any how, just because it is a common practice doesn't make it correct. But at least you know what to check first if you get, death wobble, wander or some other handeling quirk.

 

sounds like a recipe for disaster reusing the ubolts. they are cheap enough i wouldnt risk my life reusing them.