Seatbelt bottom bolt suggestions before I blow something up

[drcomanche]

So, today started well enough with me replacing my primarily tan interior with a grey that matched my dash and console. Everything was going fine, parts were fairly pain free to install. Until I got to the drivers side seatbelt... I have the T50(I think) Torx bit to get the bolts out, but when I got to the drivers side bottom, it didn't budge at all. It's probably worth noting that it had some decent rust on the bolt, but the bit seemed to grab really well. It just didn't move. I hit it with some pb blaster and waited a while, finishing up some other parts and came back. This time it began to move slightly with some forceful pushes on the ratchet. Or so I thought. At this point, the head of the bolt sheared off. It just broke in half somehow.... slamming my hands into the back of the cab, possibly breaking my knuckle, and making me VERY angry. I switched to my grip bits to get some bite on the stem, but, I'll put this simply, it ended with the end of the bolt being mangled beyond belief. It would grip, and then promptly strip of a section of metal on the stud. :wall:

 

What do you guys suggest I do now? I'm at a loss, and I had to stop trying anything today to avoid destroying something in my anger that could not be repaired. How do I go about removing this bolt?

[MJRemi]

Wow, that's a tough spot. I've never had to but I've read posts about drilling out the bolt or even welding a head back on. Hopefully someone with actual experience can help out on this one.

[HOrnbrod]

The seat belt Torx bolts protrude thru the floorpan, some longer than others. Did you check and see if you can back it out from underneath with vicegrips? That's how I did mine.

[drcomanche]

I'll check that tomorrow and hopefully I can get this thing out. I don't want to spend too long driving a DD that has no seat belt for me.

[drcomanche]

Grabbed some new vice grips from the store, and went to work on it today. I couldn't find it sticking through the floor it seemed to go into my rocker area, so no access that way. I put the grips on it as tightly as I could possibly muster, turned it, and, it stripped the metal from my grips before stripping the metal from the bolt... No matter what, I think this thing is just permanently stuck there. My last options are: Drill it out and re tap the hole, weld a bolt onto the top and see if some real heavy torque will work it out(with heat, of course).

 

On another note, I had thought about the for a while, but where my door latch is has holes on the top and bottom where they weren't welded on completely(whereas the opposite side seems to have been a bolt on application). I had always thought that it was a pretty convenient way for water to get into my rockers and cab corners, so I took a look at them. The all sound good when tapped, but along my rockers, when I pushed on it, I could tell there were some parts that were a bit too thin. I suppose now is just as good as any to cut the rockers off and put on some 2x6 steel.

[1987Comanche]

Try using a dremel to grind 2 or more flats on the outside of the bolt. You can then use vice grips or perhaps hammer a socket on it for removal.

[Jeep Driver]

Drill out.........use easy out.....tap to clean threads. If that does not work......drill and tap.

[mvusse]

 

Use a Dremel first to flatten the top and make a small dimple in the middle so you can start the drill bit centered.

[dave92cherokee]

When i was stripping the interior out of the manche and had to remove the belts i ran into the same problem. I have already cut the rockers off so had access to both sides of the bolt. The location of the bolt and welded nut is a bad one as water collects in the area and will cause it to rust and lock itself i to position as shown here, and no amount of heat or pb blaster would do anything to it. I was finally able to get it out by taking a torch and old candle, heat up the bolt from either end or both if you have access and when the bolt and entire area is good and hot rub the candle on it allowing the wax to melt and creep back into the threads. I did this a few times and the heated it up very well one last time and it came out with ease.

[drcomanche]

Tried an easy out, it just mangled it more. I tried the dremel tool and made some flats, but again, it just slipped the bolt. I found a great deal on a tap and die set and tried that, but it wouldn't grip it. I guess I'll try the candle idea here, and if worse comes to worse, I'll just drill it out and retap it.

[Jeep Driver]

Tried an easy out, it just mangled it more. I tried the dremel tool and made some flats, but again, it just slipped the bolt. I found a great deal on a tap and die set and tried that, but it wouldn't grip it. I guess I'll try the candle idea here, and if worse comes to worse, I'll just drill it out and retap it.

 

 

 

tap and die wouldn't grip??????

 

Drill the bolt out completely, tap the nut.

[Pete M]

Not saying this is the best way, but at this point in time I'd likely be drilling a new hole to the broken one all the way through the frame and put in a long grade 8 bolt with wide washers. I'd trust that way more than my attempt at re-tapping a rusty nut. :dunno:

[Spinnakerblue89]

On 8/11/2012 at 6:04 PM, Pete M said:

Not saying this is the best way, but at this point in time I'd likely be drilling a new hole nextto the broken one all the way through the frame and put in a long grade 8 bolt with wide washers. I'd trust that way more than my attempt at re-tapping a rusty nut.

 

I really don't like reviving such old threads, however, I certainly will not be the last person that runs into this issue, and since the question will inevitably be searched up by a future MJ enthusiast, I would like to say something regarding this advice for those who stumble upon this thread.

 

This is the best thing I've read. Let me put it into perspective, if you're stuck on the lower seat belt bolts.

 

1. This bolt is in a prime spot to not only rust and completely seize up inside the body. The heads by now may be so rotted that no Torx T50 will get a good grip (mine sure we're). And to top it off, I seeing comments that from the factory these bolts were applied thread locker- making them that much harder to remove. 

 

2. The bolt may be so frozen that welding a nut onto it and torquing it may just shear the bolt itself- happened recently to a friend of mine on his truck, actually. 

 

So if none of the advice given works. Easy out makes things harder, drill bit hates the ultra hard steel, candle wax won't budge it, liquid wrench doesn't wrench anything... Then you'll be in the same boat that I was. So I used a metal-cutting oscillating saw to hack off the bolts flush with the inside of the truck. Cleaned up the rust, and did exactly what Pete above suggested.

 

Because in the end, it may save time, money, sweat, blood, KNUCKLES, and heartache. Will it it be like it was new? No, and your truck certainly isn't at this point anyway, so save yourselves some agony and just drill a new hole next to the old. 

 

There are some battles not worth waging, and some hills not worth dying on. Harsh, but true. 

[ghetdjc320]

I had a similar situation with a stuck bumper bolt. Those are some hard bolts. My ultimate go to for a truly stuck bolt is a plasma cutter. It’s like a mini light saber. Once the metal has turned to liquid it’s smooth sailing 

[Salvagedcircuit]

Plasma cutter is a nice trick

My driver side front lower bolt head sheared clean off too. It took three welded nuts to finally remove it, but it came out.

[Spinnakerblue89]

One really should invest in a decent plasma cutter for situations such as this, I suppose.

[ghetdjc320]

I bought a little Forney 20a plasma cutter that connects to a 110 20A circuit. Quite surprising what that little plasma cutter could knock out. Clean 3/16 cuts in plate steel. It rips through thinner materials like sheet metals quite fast. Super easy to use

[gogmorgo]

The lower seat belt bolts shouldn't be that bad to deal with. Make sure you're using the correct size torx bit and use a pick and clean out the hole before putting the bit into it.

If you do strip out the head (or like me you got sick of breaking torx bits off in it), very carefully cut the bolt behind the seat belt, pull everything out of the way including the carpet, and you should have a pretty sizeable stub of bolt left sticking out. You might be able to grab it with vice grips at this point but if not definitely weld a nut on.
You don't want a little nut, get a big one like a 9/16 or 5/8" that you can slide over the end of the bolt stub, don't try welding something little to the face of the stub that you can barely get your welder tip into or you'll just fill the nut with weld and barely penetrate the bolt. Give the end of the bolt a bit of a taper and clean up the sides really well. Push the nut on so it's flush with the tip of the bolt. Don't quite throw the welding rulebook out the window because you still need the weld to hold but you want to get that bolt HOT while you're doing it almost as much as you want to fill the gap with weld.

The heat does two things. First it breaks down any locktight still in there. Second, it expands the bolt, but because the bolt is constrained by the hole it's not going to expand as much in that direction, but then as it cools it shrinks down in all directions, making it less tight in the hole. Even if you don't have a nut to weld on, just heating up the bolt with a torch or induction heater and letting it cool down again might be enough you can grab it with vicegrips and spin it loose. 

Let the nut cool down before you put a socket on it, don't accelerate the cool down process too much or you risk making the bolt and weld brittle. I find you're less likely to snap a bolt off with an impact wrench, but the latest high torque cordless impacts definitely have the capacity to break a bolt that size so go gentle at first if you're using something like that.

One of my coworkers likes to weld a washer to the broken bolt and then weld a nut to the washer when he's doing an extraction. There's probably an argument to be made about better penetration into the bolt by doing it that way, which definitely seems like the issue I deal with most often if a welded on nut breaks off. But I suspect the second heating cycle also helps there.