Can these be fitted without using the special tool? Was thinking about pulling them up with a steel bolt. Will this work? Or am I dilusional?

Absolutely!

Three hands are useful, but not essential...

Take one piece of strip steel, about 12" long. Drill a clearance hole for whatever bolt the rivnut is for, near one end. Put a nut on a bolt, then put the end through the hole and fully into the rivnut.

Insert the rivnut into the hole (try to get the size exact), then use a spanner to wind the nut towards the strip. You'll probably have to hold the head of the bolt with a socket while you're doing this. This action will pull on the bolt and pull up the back of the rivnut.

So you've got one hand holding the steel strip in place, one working the spanner and the 3rd holding the socket wrench! Ingenuity helps...

This does take a fair bit of effort and is likely to wreck the bolt eventually, so use loads of grease and a washer under the nut also helps a lot.

HTH,
David

[Edited on 13/9/07 by David Jenkins]

Hi there

Yes is the answer, I've done that with both steal and aluminuim ones, I just used a flat bar with a hole in it to act as a spacer between the rivnut and the bolt if that makes sence.

Cheers

Ian

http://www.fjr1300.info/howto/rivnut-tool.html

is pretty much what's already been said!!!

oooooh how clever!

Or the Rolls Royce version from Mr Jenkins site (assuming you have access to a lathe).

Under 'Special Tools'

Ta muchly!!

Ive fitted them quite successfully with just a long bolt with a plain nut on it. Run nut to end of thread, spin bolt into rivnut, insert into whole and wind the nut against the rivnut with two spanners. Job done!