anyone know offhand how close 14mm is to a 9/16" bolt? changed my rear springs yesterday & had to cut 3 of the 4 9/16 bolts that hold the leaf springs to the bushings/hangers. cannot find 9/16 bolts locally, have found some 14mm though, only 2 things, 1-not sure if its close enough to work, and 2- has a hardness of 8.8, idont know what that translates to, is 8.8 metric hardness compareable to a grade 5 or 8? i know where i can get the correct bolts, but if i can get it back on the road today vs 2days from now, it would be better, my loaner vehicle from dad is the '96 bronco, needless to say the 351 likes its fule alot more than my 4.0, even if it is a much nicer ride.

 

9/16" = 14.28mm. Everything I'm reading is saying 14mm and 9/16" are close enough to substitute.

Also, I'm reading that 8.8 metric is close to grade 5 and 12.9 metric is close to grade 8.

I pulled this info from various Google searches - I don't claim to know what I'm talking about...

 

I use 14mm in place of 9/16 and visa versa all the time,depends what is closer to reach in the tool box!! 8mm and 5/16 and 19mm and 3/4 are close enough as well. May be others as well,but those are the common ones.

 

Just to go the other way

14 mm is ~.552"
9/16 is ~ .5625

What's .01" between friends

hj

 

ended up going with the 14mm, theres a little bit of play between the bolt & bushing, but very little, i dont think you could wrap a .010 shim around the bolt then get it through the sleeve. i thought long & hard about the hardness issue, and for being a 19 y/o truck that rarely sees more than 500# in the bed i think im good. the bolts are probly harder than the brackets they go through anyways. the "new" springs did help a couple of things, as well as confirmed my bent frame, had to not use the factory lift block on the right side due to the wheelwell measurement being almost 3" more on the right side vs the left, took the block out & right side is only 1" higher. what really surprized me was that the steering wheel is now pretty much straight when before it was almost a 1/4 turn to the right when driving straight. theres no doubt theres less days ahead of this truck than are behind it, but with a 12 mile daily (round trip) commute, i think it will do me a while longer. there is a local fastenal store, very pricey & they arent open on the weekends. of all places i got my hardware at a local farm store (rural king) wish they would have had the 10.7 instead of the 8.8, but for some reason they only came in that hardness for that size. if it was a 3/4 ton that really saw a regualr load, then i would have worried more about the bolt hardness

 

It would be a .005" shim.