Caution: Broken Body Mount Bolt When Installing Frame Mount Rock Sliders / Rails / Sidesteps

[DocTwinkie]

From what I've read the only real method of heat that works is the bolt induction gun type. I tried a torch on mine, then a heat gun. Still broke on first pull.

Good luck!!!

I wonder if there is anywhere to rent one. They’re like 300-400 bucks.

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[Chipe]

Maybe your local Taylor Rental? Or a car parts store?

 

[Fire Burns]

From what I gather heat gun seems to be the safest and most economical option though the effectiveness is debatable. Heat goes up and metal conducts well so I imagine a heat gun setting there for a long time will do the trick eventually. I only plan on listening then tightening them without fully removing per the rock slide engineering instructions.

I’ll post when I get them if all goes well.

Just unscrewing the bolts far enough to slide on the Rockslide Engineering brackets was my plan as well. However it turned out in my case that either the bracket slots need to be widened, or you'll need to grind off some threads to make it fit. I went the thread grinding method requiring full removal of my bolts. Just be ready.

 

[DocTwinkie]

Just unscrewing the bolts far enough to slide on the Rockslide Engineering brackets was my plan as well. However it turned out in my case that either the bracket slots need to be widened, or you'll need to grind off some threads to make it fit. I went the thread grinding method requiring full removal of my bolts. Just be ready.

I had read that might be needed. My rototool should make short work if wisening the plate. As for the bolt hearing starting to seem like a bolt buster might be a worthwhile investment to do it right.

 

[Az-jewel]

I don’t think I ever updated this. I called Jeep cares about my broken boldly mount bolt, they said it’s definitely not covered but a kind dealership might offer to fix it for free.

took it to my dealer and they would not. In fact, they had repaired someone else’s and had such a bad time of it they would not do mine! They said to just leave it as there are 8 other body mounts in place and it’ll be fine. I hesitated, but left since they wouldn’t do it.

I’ve been driving it thaf way for months but it’s making a creaking sound so I’m having a mobile mechanic try drilling it out. Not sure what else to do at this point.

So today I had my Mobile mechanic work on this bolt. He loosened the others, jacked up the body, welded something to the broken bolt then extracted it, put it all back together (I got a bolt from the dealer for $4.38) and charged me $140 for it. I think that was a great deal! Jeep feels tight, o more creaking sound, and I’m excited and confident to hit the trail this weekend!

 

[Chipe]

So today I had my Mobile mechanic work on this bolt. He loosened the others, jacked up the body, welded something to the broken bolt then extracted it, put it all back together (I got a bolt from the dealer for $4.38) and charged me $140 for it. I think that was a great deal! Jeep feels tight, o more creaking sound, and I’m excited and confident to hit the trail this weekend!

That is great news! Sure beats the 900+ a dealer would charge!!

 

[DocTwinkie]

I emailed the companies that make the induction heaters to see if the end of a long bolt like that will even get hot. Most of the demos are on nuts that they can surround but whether the heat conducts very far down a long bolt isn’t clear.

if it doesn’t then there’s really no way to loosen them but roll the dice.

 

[DocTwinkie]

So I emailed the makers of the miniductor. They said basically you would just need to heat the head repeatedly over a few mins to allow the heat to conduct down the bolt which makes sense.

Which makes me wonder why a heat gun wouldn’t work assuming that heat gets to roughly 1k was t should just take time to heat the head and allow the heat to travel up the bolt.

I need a heat gun anyway so may do an experiment to se how long it takes to heat the bolt head. Might take 30mins but it’s only a few bolts and $30 vs $400.

local shop wants $400 labor to install so would still make sense to do it myself and get a tool I can use out of it.

 

[Portmod7]

I did mine on my 2020 JLUR yesterday. I started by heating the heads of the front two body bolts with a plumbers torch until I was concerned about melting the body mount, then removing the Rubicon rock rails while I let the heat in the bolts migrate to the threads.

By the time I got the Rubicon rock rails off, the bolt heads were pretty much cool again. I kinda felt like it was a lost cause, or I got impatient, however you want to look at it.

I went ahead and jumped lnto it on the passenger side. The front bolt was no problem at all. The other two on the passenger side felt worse, mostly like dry threads that kept popping and creaking. But everything came out fine.

The driver's side front bolt was a different story. It was scary from the beginning. I was able to loosen it a turn or two by alternating between loosening an 1/8 of a turn and tightening a 1/16. Then I stopped and tried the heat again, but still felt like I probably wasnt getting it to the threads where I needed it. So I continued with the back and forth method a little at a time. It was tough the whole way. When it finally came out, the threads on the bolt were slightly deformed, but I got it out.

The other two on the drivers side were similar to the ones on the passenger side. Dry, sticky threads that popped and creaked most of the way.

I used a 1/2" breaker bar while the bolts were tight and switched to a ratchet when/if they freed up. When I went back together, I put blue loctite on everything.

One thing I noticed was that the torque spec for the fronts, 49ft-lbs + 155°, seemed excessive. When I did the passenger side I set my torque wrench to 49, tightened the bolt till it clicked, then reset my wrench to the spec for the rest of the bolts, 80ft-lbs, just to see where it ended up after the 155° rotation. I think I got to 90° when my wrench clicked on 80ft-lbs. I started to take it further and I thought I could feel some thread damage happening, so I stopped. I figure if 80 is good enough for the other 4, it's good enough for the front two.

I am wondering if factory over tightening of the front two bolts is contributing to the problem? I sure didn't like the way it felt on mine getting them that tight. And the deformed threads on my drivers side front kinda raised my suspicions. I know they have a team of engineers and all, but sometimes the real world doesn't play like the engineers want.

Anyway, that's my experience after successfully mounting some new rock rails to the factory body mount locations. Hope it helps!

 

[DocTwinkie]

I did mine on my 2020 JLUR yesterday. I started by heating the heads of the front two body bolts with a plumbers torch until I was concerned about melting the body mount, then removing the Rubicon rock rails while I let the heat in the bolts migrate to the threads.

By the time I got the Rubicon rock rails off, the bolt heads were pretty much cool again. I kinda felt like it was a lost cause, or I got impatient, however you want to look at it.

I went ahead and jumped lnto it on the passenger side. The front bolt was no problem at all. The other two on the passenger side felt worse, mostly like dry threads that kept popping and creaking. But everything came out fine.

The driver's side front bolt was a different story. It was scary from the beginning. I was able to loosen it a turn or two by alternating between loosening an 1/8 of a turn and tightening a 1/16. Then I stopped and tried the heat again, but still felt like I probably wasnt getting it to the threads where I needed it. So I continued with the back and forth method a little at a time. It was tough the whole way. When it finally came out, the threads on the bolt were slightly deformed, but I got it out.

The other two on the drivers side were similar to the ones on the passenger side. Dry, sticky threads that popped and creaked most of the way.

I used a 1/2" breaker bar while the bolts were tight and switched to a ratchet when/if they freed up. When I went back together, I put blue loctite on everything.

One thing I noticed was that the torque spec for the fronts, 49ft-lbs + 155°, seemed excessive. When I did the passenger side I set my torque wrench to 49, tightened the bolt till it clicked, then reset my wrench to the spec for the rest of the bolts, 80ft-lbs, just to see where it ended up after the 155° rotation. I think I got to 90° when my wrench clicked on 80ft-lbs. I started to take it further and I thought I could feel some thread damage happening, so I stopped. I figure if 80 is good enough for the other 4, it's good enough for the front two.

I am wondering if factory over tightening of the front two bolts is contributing to the problem? I sure didn't like the way it felt on mine getting them that tight. And the deformed threads on my drivers side front kinda raised my suspicions. I know they have a team of engineers and all, but sometimes the real world doesn't play like the engineers want.

Anyway, that's my experience after successfully mounting some new rock rails to the factory body mount locations. Hope it helps!

I’m torn. There’s hundreds(probably thousands) of folks and shops who just use an impact wrench and no problems but then you see the few horror stories. I don’t have or want to use a torch. An induction bolt heater is about $350. That would certainly do the trick as you can keep the bolt head a pretty constant 800 degrees for several minutes just engaging it on and off for a minute or two.

That said my understanding is that a broken bolt fix is about $400 so is it worth it when it seems so rare. I’ve checked with several shops and they all report no issues.

 

[Foggy47]

I did those bolts today. Three of six were no big deal. The other three fought me all the way. I used a breaker bar and would alternately tighten and loosen until finally getting them off. I used the replacement body bolts furnished with my Rock Hard Sliders and some blue locktite for the re-install. I was guessing on the torque when tightening these bolts. May buy a torque wrench at HF tomorrow......or get a shop to torque to 80 lbs. Glad this job is D O N E.

 

[twisty]

Got is all done. Finally.

My method (YMMV):
Plumbers torch is the way to go. One full minute on the front ones. Wait about a minute, torch again for 15-20 seconds.
I used a 1/2 socket with extension, it's a mother but I wanted more control so I didnt break the bolt.
Loosen a few arcs, then tighten half as many. Torch 12 seconds
Loosen a few more arcs then the spot you stopped at, tighten half as many, Torch 12 seconds
Now loosen until it gets tight or sometimes makes a creaking noise STOP. TIghten again half as many, torch 12 seconds
Continue same method. As you progress the it will take a while before it tightens up.

I used the torch on the other 4 bolts just to loosen them but they cam out easily. Except for the capture washer, you have to pry them out with a large closed end wrench in a jerking motion. LiteBrite has a video on it using a screw driver, my method was better.

Putting them in is a PITA, but sometimes you get lucky. I ended up shining a flashlight in there and moving the capture ring out of the way. Real easy after that.

I torqued at 85, book says 92. Funny no one chimed in on this, guessin must just tighten them not knowing. I will put mine in spec once I get a better torque wrench. Also I didnt loctite them in but instead used antiseize. Not sure how smart that is but I did it on my old CJ and was fine.

One reason mine took so long is I also applied some adhesive protection where your foot MIGHT hit the body when using the step. Went on real nice but still time consuming. Looks pretty good too.

Hope this helps someone. The job still sucked but the TORCH is the way to go. YMMV

The above is my post and how I did it. Others have tried it and had success as well. If anyone has tried this EXACT method and still failed post up to let others know.

 

[Fire Burns]

The above is my post and how I did it. Others have tried it and had success as well. If anyone has tried this EXACT method and still failed post up to let others know.

Did this method, but with a heat gun on high. Perhaps need to hold the gun on a bit longer, but at (supposedly) 1200 degrees, got plenty hot. Most importantly, take time to loosen then tighten, then loosen again to clear the Loctite.

 

[twisty]

Did this method, but with a heat gun on high. Perhaps need to hold the gun on a bit longer, but at (supposedly) 1200 degrees, got plenty hot. Most importantly, take time to loosen then tighten, then loosen again to clear the Loctite.

Yeah dont know about a heat gun. I and others tried my method with the plumbers torch and had success. That doesnt mean it will be the same for everyone. And yeah, it took some time and was nerve racking. lol

 

[Fire Burns]

Yeah dont know about a heat gun. I and others tried my method with the plumbers torch and had success. That doesnt mean it will be the same for everyone. And yeah, it took some time and was nerve racking. lol

Oh, heat gun on high will indeed work. I used the loosen, tighten, loosen method with heat. Whenever it started to feel like there was too much bind/friction, I hit the bolt face with the heat for a couple of minutes and could definitely feel the binding subside enough to move forward. I only offer this perspective to give an alternate solution, but using the same methodology.

And yeah nerve racking for sure, but satisfying in the end!

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