Went in for typical spring cleaning: took the tires off, got all the salt, mud, dirt, and grime off the suspension components. I found this little problem on the drivers side leaf spring, one of the nuts were hanging on by a thread. My idiot self went and unscrewed it by hand, immediately after the stud disappeared, I think it fell through the lift block. But why would something like this happen?? Why would the stud simply fall through? Shouldn't it be connected onto something? And is this something I need to fix or is it not a big deal? Any help is appreciated.

 

 

All is not lost, that's one of the spring center bolts that hold your spring pack together. You've still got one there, so it's not a big emergency, but should be bolted back up. I'd be more concerned on how it came lose, weird.
Anyway, you're going to have to remove the lift block, and I'd use a new nut/bolt. They're a special bolt, but can be had at practically any parts store. Those things have a round head on them that makes it only slightly difficult to tighten.

 

I'd try a telescopic magnet, and try fishing the bolt back up thru the hole.
Then grab it with a pair of needle nose pliers, and start the nut on the bolt.
Then a quick zip with an impact gun will draw it tight.

 

I wondered the same thing, I got an impact and tried to remove the nut on the passenger side, the stud started coming loose and I knew if I removed the nut from the stud the same thing would happen. Weird, I would think the stud should not move, thats the whole point of a stud?

 

Do you have life insurance? Seem like someone is trying to cash in on it.

 

It’s not really a “stud”. It’s a leaf-spring center pin, which on these trucks, they use TWO on each spring pack. Look under an older truck of just about any manufacturer, and you’ll see the industry almost always only used ONE leaf-spring center pin on each spring pack.

You really don’t have much too worry to about here, because you still have the first one in place. The purpose of these center pins, is two fold; the first function is to keep the spring pack together, while installing the spring pack in the truck. Once installed, the only real purpose then, is to keep the spring pack perfectly positioned over the block. The block has a corresponding hole, that the head of the center-pin fits into. Then under the block, there is a similarly-sized stub that fits into a corresponding hole on the spring perch. All this is just for sake of alignment and orientation.

The reason I say the second center-pin bolt isn’t really necessary, is because there’s apparently only one corresponding hole in your lift block, because the pin/nut became loose, and fell below the surface of the u-bolt plate. And it’s certainly not needed to keep the individual leaf springs together, because that’s what the u-bolts are doing. Some lift blocks are solid, some are hollow, and some are manufactured from plate steel. They’re all effective, but it’s obvious yours are hollow, but it still has one center pin hole, bored into it, for the remaining center pin bolt. And then there’s a cavity under the area of the “misplaced” center pin bolt. You could literally go forever without addressing this “misplaced” center pin bolt, and be 100% safe. But it’s easily resolved if you’d just feel better with that peace-of-mind. And you don’t have to completely disassemble anything to address it. Could very easily be accomplished within twenty minutes n my shop, and that includes the time to get out the necessary tools, perform the work, put everything away, and sweep up. And you don’t need to replace the center pin, it’s perfectly fine to reuse the one you have.

 

Thank you! Glad its not a problem. So if I wanted to repair it what's the process? Would I have to remove the lift block?

 

See post #4. I would try that first.

 

Not entirely. I know it seems a bit intimidating if you’ve never done it before, but it’s easily accomplished. It’s really not that difficult. Not being familiar with your skillset or mechanical knowledge, it’s hard to pinpoint how challenging this could be for you, specifically. If you’d like, I could write a detailed list of instructions, in order, if you’d like. It’ll literally take longer to write the instructions, then actually perform the work.

But understand, you’ll need a few things to execute this. First and foremost, you’ll need a flat surface to work on the truck, along with a floor jack and jack stands. Do you have those, or access to those things? I wouldn’t even star5 this process, without those. If yes, then you’ll also need some handtools: 1/2” drive sockets to fit the u-bolt nuts, shock bolts, and center pin nut, 1/2” drive ratchet and/or impact.

Someone above mentioned trying post #4 first. That could work, but it might not too. If the magnet doesn’t pick up the center pin precisely on the threaded end (in line with it) it won’t come back up into the hole.