Just buy tubing with correct id for bolts and make your own sleeves.
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Do not use pipe nipples, I use them for various projects and have a bucket of them I bought at auction. I even have used them for making radiator support bushings, I would NOT use them for something critical such as a transmission cross member. "Pipe" that you find at Home Depot is FAR under rated then normal cold rolled steel or EWT in many ways including PSI.
I take it what you want to do is put a round tube to hold the bolt, into the cross member, weld it in place to seal the square tube, so water and mud do not get into the cross member. That is fine, BUT, as someone that has worked on boat trailers, a perfect seal is basically not going to happen. Put in a drain hole or two in the cross member at the lowest point. If it makes you fell better, from time to time you can mist the inside with oil or put a fitting in the top and spray oil in the top and have it leak out the bottom. Rather excessive since anything constructed with good steel 3/16 or 1/4" steel thick is not going to flake away into nothing in ten years unless you plan on driving through ocean surf all the time.
I bought on evil bay steel tubing 1" OD and "1/2" ID diameter to make bushings. I put a small camfer on them so I could press them into the blue poly bushings. Turns out the tube is actually too small to fit 1/2" grade 8 bolts through, so, I reamed them out to a true 1/2" on my drill press as pictured.
Do you think your cross member deserves WEAK (26,000?) thin wall pipe nipple or 1/4" wall 36,000+ PSI bushings welded in, held on with grade 8 bolts?
BTW: For a cross member I would make sure the shoulder, not the thread, sat inside the bushing. I was making a ghetto body lift for my $1200 Ford B2 that I have driven less then 5,000 miles in six years, so, I used 8" bolts I already had. BUT, if I was making a cross member for something of value, I would have used different and correct bolts.
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I take it what you want to do is put a round tube to hold the bolt, into the cross member, weld it in place to seal the square tube, so water and mud do not get into the cross member. That is fine, BUT, as someone that has worked on boat trailers, a perfect seal is basically not going to happen. Put in a drain hole or two in the cross member at the lowest point. If it makes you fell better, from time to time you can mist the inside with oil or put a fitting in the top and spray oil in the top and have it leak out the bottom. Rather excessive since anything constructed with good steel 3/16 or 1/4" steel thick is not going to flake away into nothing in ten years unless you plan on driving through ocean surf all the time.
I bought on evil bay steel tubing 1" OD and "1/2" ID diameter to make bushings. I put a small camfer on them so I could press them into the blue poly bushings. Turns out the tube is actually too small to fit 1/2" grade 8 bolts through, so, I reamed them out to a true 1/2" on my drill press as pictured.
Do you think your cross member deserves WEAK (26,000?) thin wall pipe nipple or 1/4" wall 36,000+ PSI bushings welded in, held on with grade 8 bolts?
BTW: For a cross member I would make sure the shoulder, not the thread, sat inside the bushing. I was making a ghetto body lift for my $1200 Ford B2 that I have driven less then 5,000 miles in six years, so, I used 8" bolts I already had. BUT, if I was making a cross member for something of value, I would have used different and correct bolts.
Here's an example of the 2x3" cross member on my Willys build that uses the countersunk cap screw approach described in my earlier post:
Steel tubes counterbored, , then chamfered:
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Ready to weld into the 2x3 cross member:
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Welded in place:
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The cross member bolts to a bracket on each frame rail, positioned so it sits flush with the bottom of the rails for a flat bottom. It uses a conventional rubber transmission mount at the center on a bracket, and the Spicer 18 t-case brace is a rubber pad and support piece designed to maintain the flat bottom, rather than use a standard dana 18 mount: (The bracket shown on the t-case / parking brake output was a temporary fixture used during fitting)
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Thought I'd put these up for ideas since initial poster danleym described a similar 2x3" tube cross member configuration - in addition to the other great ideas here!
Steel tubes counterbored, , then chamfered:
Ready to weld into the 2x3 cross member:
Welded in place:
The cross member bolts to a bracket on each frame rail, positioned so it sits flush with the bottom of the rails for a flat bottom. It uses a conventional rubber transmission mount at the center on a bracket, and the Spicer 18 t-case brace is a rubber pad and support piece designed to maintain the flat bottom, rather than use a standard dana 18 mount: (The bracket shown on the t-case / parking brake output was a temporary fixture used during fitting)
Thought I'd put these up for ideas since initial poster danleym described a similar 2x3" tube cross member configuration - in addition to the other great ideas here!
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