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Quick hitch install question - Cannot get OEM one off

Northstar

Full Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2003
Messages
58
Browsed a little bit, didn't see it in the first couple of pages so sorry if it's been covered. I bought an upgrade receiver hitch (because I have zero faith in the factory junk) I did the same with my 02 2500hd and it was a five minute job, but I can't figure this out. It's an 04 2500 Av. I removed all the bolts but two on the passenger side, for some stupid reason they didn't use captured bolts on all of them like my hd pickup, and there are two I can't get at to hold a wrench or socket on the bits. There is a black plastic box in the way. I'm guessing it has to do with evap system. So I removed the small bolt at the bottom, but there's another one mounted upside down at the top that's inaccessible. Anyone know how to get this stupid thing out of the way so I can get the last two bolts?
 
Can you post a picture.
 
Northstar said:
Browsed a little bit, didn't see it in the first couple of pages so sorry if it's been covered. I bought an upgrade receiver hitch (because I have zero faith in the factory junk) I did the same with my 02 2500hd and it was a five minute job, but I can't figure this out. It's an 04 2500 Av. I removed all the bolts but two on the passenger side, for some stupid reason they didn't use captured bolts on all of them like my hd pickup, and there are two I can't get at to hold a wrench or socket on the bits. There is a black plastic box in the way. I'm guessing it has to do with evap system. So I removed the small bolt at the bottom, but there's another one mounted upside down at the top that's inaccessible. Anyone know how to get this stupid thing out of the way so I can get the last two bolts?

Yes.  That is the Evaporative Emissions Canister.  There is a bracket up against the inside surface of the top horizontal frame flange on the passenger side frame rail.  That bracket (GM Part # 15086549 so you can pull a parts explosion diagram print for reference) has two built in bolts that are retained by two nuts that are accessed by inserting a small open wrench on top of the passenger side frame rail..  With these two nuts removed, the bracket can drop down, which will release the entire canister on that side, so you can capture the hitch fastners and keep them from rotating as you remove and replace the hitch.

Probably too late to be of use to the OP, but I answered anyway in order to help future searchers.
 
i just replaced my hitch and the origional bolts were capture bolts with hex heads on the ends of the shaft. if you have some bolts that aren't stock you can try vice grips to old the bolt while you turn the nut. another option is to cut a slot in the head of the bolt to use a screw driver to keep it from turning.
 
generalpetres said:
the origional bolts were capture bolts with hex heads on the ends of the shaft. if you have some bolts that aren't stock you can try vice grips to old the bolt while you turn the nut. another option is to cut a slot in the head of the bolt to use a screw driver to keep it from turning.

What kind of deep socket tooling do you have that can break the torque on the big nut, while at the same time still holding a wrench on the hex tail shaft of the factory bolt, or holding vice grips to the threaded end of a non factory bolt, assuming that it was mounted threads down?

I have a fairly fancy open hole external hex capture socket set, that has an open bore diameter large enough for the hex tail shaft of the factory bolt to fit through for a secondary socket to capture it... yet I find that the U flanges of the factory hitch bracket extend down too low to make use of this tool. 

I would need deeper sockets to reach the big nut, and by the time the sockets get deep enough, the hex bolt wouldn't be long enough to poke through the center hole of the special tool in order to gain purchase on the hex tail of the bolt.

So I'm real curious what kind of socket set you've got that can accomplish this, 'cause I'd like to buy one.  In the meantime, with ordinary tools, I don't see how an open wrench or a box wrench can fit between the flanges of the hitch bracket to get even one degree of turn on the big nut while holding the tail of the bolt with anything.

That doesn't mean it isn't possible.  I just don't see how.  And I'd like to.  Because then I'd learn something!
 
put a box wrench on the nut and hold it still while you spin the bolt with an impact wrench. its how I removed the pos factory hitch on my 2500
 
Edited...

Whoops.  Reading deficiency over here.

Impact on the tail shaft of the BOLT, box wrench on the NUT.

Got it.  Whew.  I failed every grade except kindergarten.  They probably shouldn't have let me pass then.
 
As an update, I still haven't changed the hitch, I just towed the camper last year with the junk factory hitch and crossed my fingers. If I wasn't clear at first, it isn't a matter of using different tools, or having a box wrench on the nut, the issue is that two of the bolts have nuts that aren't welded capture nuts, they're just regular nuts with the bolts coming up from below. The problem here is that the nuts are completely inaccessible inside the frame rail. The only way I can see to get a tool on it is to remove the big plastic evap system thing that's in the way, however I could only get one bolt out of it, another bolt on the top I could not get at.
So the evap has to come out, I just can't get it out.
 
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