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Not a good day today. :(

19K views 59 replies 37 participants last post by  RevScott 
#1 ·
I began the Bestop oversized tire carrier install. Everything was going good (besides having to find some T45 and 50 Torx bits... go to Pep Boys)

So I have my holes drilled, all the hard parts done... just gotta get two of the roll-bar Torx ****s out.. The first one takes a little bit of force, SNAP, then screws out... ok cool...

Second bolt, not so much... I put everything I've got into it, doesn't budge... get a pipe to go around the ratchet, I've got 2.5 feet of leverage, thing still won't budge, screw on the verge of stripping... blast WD-40 on it, try some more, screw strips..

Try to use some bolt extractores, none of them work because of the awckward position b/t the roll bar and lifted edge of body, can't fit the drill in very good..

So now that's stripped and I have empty holes in my tub.. Gonna try the dealership who sponsors my club and see what they can do, if they wanna charge $95, :brickwall: anybody got any ideas?

BTW, can't drill through it because of the vital threads, I can't **** those up or I'm looking at a $200 re-thread bill... ggaahhh
 
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#3 ·
Do you have room to run a tap up from the bottom if you drill it out ? Right angle drill maybe? Posibly drill out and JB weld a nut to the bottom side ?

Just throwin out idea's. :)
 
#5 ·
could have been worse...

 
#10 ·
A similar thing happened to me on my Bestop carrier install. Those torx bolts suck ***. Like you, I got one out then the other stripped the torx slot.

What worked for me was to cut stright edges onto the head of the bolt with my dremel. Then I was able to put a big wrench on it to remove the bolt.

Good luck!
 
#11 ·
A similar thing happened to me on my Bestop carrier install. Those torx bolts suck ***. Like you, I got one out then the other stripped the torx slot.

What worked for me was to cut stright edges onto the head of the bolt with my dremel. Then I was able to put a big wrench on it to remove the bolt.

Good luck!
 
#14 ·
BillR said:
I'm "guessing" he tried to drive without front axle shafts...:rolleyes:
Sadly, been there, done that...:brickwall
ding ding ding.. you win the grand prize:tea:
 
#15 ·
We ran into a similar problem on my friends YJ when we changed the tailgate hinges. I got a bunch of nuts with the center slightly smaller than the head of the screw. I welded the nut down onto the stripped screw by welding through the center of the nut and building the weld up to the top of the nut. The heat from the welding helped to loosen the bolt also. Good luck
 
#16 ·
BillR said:
I'm "guessing" he tried to drive without front axle shafts...:rolleyes:
Sadly, been there, done that...:brickwall
Ok, this is seriously not a flame, but how the hell could you think you could go down the road without front axles? Obviously more than one person has tried it, but it seems obvious to me, trying to figure out how one could come to the conclusion it would work.

To the OP, I would find someone to weld a nut on the screw head, then heat it up real good and wrench it out before you break it off and have to drill the whole thing out.
 
#17 ·
Awsome! I went to a local welding place today and they got it out easily! They heated it up, chizeled the **** out of the top, heated it some more, sprayed some stuff, welded on an entire Grade 8 bolt, and it came right out.. $45 and I'm happy.

These threads were far more rusted than the other one, so for no extra charge he sprayed some cutting oil in there and in a way re-cut/cut out the threads so they are smooth as butter now... :D
 
#18 ·
fromme said:
Ok, this is seriously not a flame, but how the hell could you think you could go down the road without front axles? Obviously more than one person has tried it, but it seems obvious to me, trying to figure out how one could come to the conclusion it would work.
The front wheel bolts to the unit bearing, which LOOKS like it's pressed together pretty well.:nono: Many people (including me) didn't know that the outer axle shaft is needed to keep the bearing together. You can run fine without INNER shafts in the front, but you NEED the stub shafts in place.
My "experience" happened on my old XJ, and was quite expensive to repair. I'm thankful I was only going a few MPH as I was turning into the parking lot of Wally World.:brickwall
It cost me a few :shhh: bucks to fix and no one got hurt. A cheap lesson IMO.
 
#19 ·
Sorry you had all those problems, but you really need to get some PB Blaster. I would bet that if you PB Blastered them and let it set for awhile and then used a 16-24" breaker bar and some slow and easy pressure, they would likely have backed right out. If not, resort to the heat treatment. Now that I know about PB, I blast all the nuts and bolts ahead of time on whatever we are working on. Quite the lifesaver.
 
#22 ·
LOL - I've done it before. Either through a search or just browsing and not realizing how far back you've gone.
 
#25 ·
I ended up having a badly stripped Torx and went to the search function. Unfortunately I didnt use the search for ***** but exclude older than dog s#$% filter. Sorry guys.
 
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