Bed Bolts Strike Again!

[ShiftyCapone]

So, in preparation for the SnoBall I have been working on my own homemade tire rack. Went to pull out the bed bolts yesterday to make sure everything lined up nice and neat before the final welds were done and of course one of the bed bolts wouldn't budge... I've read a number of posts with people bitching about pulling out the bolts so I figured I'd give them all a nice heavy dose of PB Blaster and let them sit awhile before even attempting removal. 3 of the 4 came out with ease. But of course the driver-side middle bed bolt gave me a big ... So, after stripping out the head, we decided to tack-weld a nut to the top of it. "That'll show you bed bolt...." BOOM! Broke it loose...."YESSS! I win!" But wait, now it just keeps spinning. "What the hell happened?" I think to myself. I must have broken the clip. Worst of all, there is no good way to access the clip/nut because the gas tank sits right up against the frame on one side, and the rear shock is in the way on the other side. I tried shoving a long flat head into the access cutout there in hopes of isolating the clip, but it didn't do much except pull up and down on the screwdriver while the bed bolt still just spins and spins and spins. I'm half-tempted to take my truck up to the dealership and tell them to just fix it some how some way...I don't care. Anyone have any other ideas!? Please?

 

[Yukon Joe]

Damn dude. PM PIRATE AIR or Hockster, they had some ideas.

You should drill it out? Run the snoball500 without it, then fix it later.

Yukon Joe
Delta Force
Snoball500 Support Raptor

 

[IRONMAN]

TORCH 30 seconds but NOW your gonna have to do what I did and lift the bed to put in a new one.
Total pain in the ass for sure. Cut off the head of the bolt then just tilt enough to remove from under.

 

[Hockster]

I feel for ya for sue. This is something that can happen and there are no tricky fixes... Sure sounds like the clip broke and you need to find a way to hold it or cut the bolt, remove the clip and replace.... if you cant see the clip because of the reasons you say umm, well you know the answer... Sorry...

 

[IRONMAN]

This is the exact same bolt that broke for me. Go buy another bolt which they're expensive and remove all the bolts from the bed, cut the head off the broken one, few screws in the gas fill area need to be removed , and the clamp that holds the gas fill tube accessed from wheel well.
Tip the bed up and cut the clip which your nut most likely is what snapped from the clip , slide in new clip and set bed down and reverse all the removal bolts.
Max 1 hour.

 

[Allied Offroad]

Yeah its pretty easy. If you will be pulling this rack on and off quite often, I would put a dab of anti seize on all the bed bolts, again , only if your taking those bolts out a couple times a year.

 

[shooterAMG]

Funny, I had the same bolt strip out. I like the "tack weld nut" trick. I have to buy a new bolt and then see if a local shop can help out.

Best of luck, sounds like you have some work ahead of you!

 

[MTUH3]

Yeah its pretty easy. If you will be pulling this rack on and off quite often, I would put a dab of anti seize on all the bed bolts, again , only if your taking those bolts out a couple times a year.

I told myself to do that when I was putting the rack in.... then of course I forgot. Hopefully I will remember after Snoball

 

[sinktheboat]

i'd start drilling, it won't take much to drill head off, might need tack a bar on it to stop it spinning to drill too!!!

 

[IRONMAN]

If you cut a cross pattern in the bolt head with a grinder and thin just snap off the edges it goes pretty quick, I tried to do the drilling meathod and held the bolt head with vise grips but it was just taking to long and I'm NOT that patient.