Fabricating Skid Plates: Bolt sizes on Tranny Crossmember Support??? (1 Viewer)

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Jul 29, 2005
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Hey folks, I am designing skid plated for my '94. They are belly style and one will cover from the transmission crossmember forward to the sway bar and the other from the crossmember back to the muffler.

I have them drawn up in 3D Autocad and a buddy who will be fabricating them. I am considering making and selling these in the future but for now, I need to get a prototype built.

Anyway, can anyone tell me the size, TPI and lenght of the stock crossmember bolts? I did some searching and maybe have some leads but...

There are 4 on each end boling through the frame and two in the middle. Also, there are various threaded holes in the frame that I was going to use so any help with those?

Here is a rough teaser:

TransSkid1.jpg
 
Just go and remove one of the bolts and find out
should not be a problem
 
Just go and remove one of the bolts and find out
should not be a problem

There is the problem. The middle crossmember bolts and bolts on the frame are missing. Only bolts I have are the larger 8 on the ends of the crossmember.
 
I have a 94 also. Might be interested in a skid plate. Let me know what it takes to build one at the same time as yours.
 
Just about every bolt on a Land Cruiser is 1.25 thread pitch. The center 2 bolts on the crossmember are for the rear transmission mount and they should be studs from the bottom of the mount.

I'm fairly certain the other 8 frame mounted bolts are 10mm x 1.25, but pull one out to measure it to be certain.
 
Just about every bolt on a Land Cruiser is 1.25 thread pitch. The center 2 bolts on the crossmember are for the rear transmission mount and they should be studs from the bottom of the mount.

I'm fairly certain the other 8 frame mounted bolts are 10mm x 1.25, but pull one out to measure it to be certain.

Thanks a lot for your help. If I end up building these, I want to sell them for as cheap as I can so people on a strict budget like me can still afford some armor.

I am working on the transfer case side and hopefully will have a design by next week. Then we go to fabrication of the prototypes and 'as built' the drawings.
 
Yea - the 8 bolts on the outside are 10mm (likely x 1.25), and the two in the middle are 12 mm studs (not sure about threads-1.5 maybe?). The studs are around 30-35mm long, and the bolts look to be ~ 40mm long.
 
Any way to protect the drive shafts more? I bent one. It was still functional. But was thinking of protection more.
 
Good idea. I don't think that would be a problem on the front but on the rear, I would be helpful.

I have all the bolts now and here is the transfer case model.

A couple more weeks and I hope to get started on these.
XFerSkid.jpg
 
Maybe I missed it above, but is the trans crossmember replaced by either concept? Or are these just skids that work around a factory crossmember? I like the idea, but I think if you worked in a new beefy crossmember in the mix it would be cool, or at least take into account the use of these skids with IPOR, bumpit or other aftermarket offerings.

Will be interested to see how this takes shape.
 
It does not replace the factory cross member and I did not want to.

I wanted the vehicle to be serviceable and with this much protection, you would have to drop the cross member to do much of anything to the tranny or transfer case and that presents its own challenges. Some of the kits out there do replace the cross member but only have a plate here and there for protection. Maybe that is enough and Maybe I am going overboard.

I do like the idea of driveshaft protection so we will see if that changes anything.

Who knows what will happen once I get in the shop but it is a start. It looks like it will be the end of July before I can get started with all I have going on at the moment.
 

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