Snapped my seat belt retractor bolts

[ivorton74]

Over the weekend I decided to install new carpet and tried to remove the seat belt retractor. The bolts snapped and now I’m wondering how to get em out and also where to get new bolts. What’s the size of these bolts?

[Palf70Step]

I wouls say drill them out. They are grade 8 bolts, so they are tuff. If you have a big enough one, try and easy out. I did one of mine that way. Got it mostly drilled out, soaked it in PBlaster, the used the easy-out.

I have had to drill them out and basically replace it with a grade 8 bolt and nut since I have damaged the threads too much.

[Killer Bee]

hammering the the bolt with a punch from either side may help loosen threads..

floorboard flex can be an issue so supporting the nut plate from the bottom with blocks or stand may help..

if the floor can be held firm, a good blow with round punch and heavy hammer should help break threads..

if enough of the bolt is protruding underneath, lock onto it with vise grips and back it out from there..

generally easier to run the better threads from the top down through the nut plate than running corroded threads back through the top..

if you can get on it, work the bolt back and forth, adding penetrant each time it moves..

continue working it slowly back and forth until it's out, patience is the key..

if you have to drill, try doing so from the bottom for same reason and grind the bolt tail flat across for a good center punch..

this also removes all or most of the exposed corroded threads which is helpful if it has to be removed from the top..

drill a small pilot as close to center as possible and increase hole size to an adequate extractor size..

if threads are locked solid and won't turn without risk of snapping extractor, continue drilling larger hole just under thread diameter..

sometimes the bolt threads can be punched into the hole releasing tension in the nut..

if you have to drill to final tap size for that thread pitch, run a tap through there and it should clean threads..

if you end up off center and enlarging the hole, longer bolt and jam nut underneath as mentioned above may be necessary..

here's a seat belt vendor that carries hardware for reference;
https://www.seatbeltplanet.com/seatb...kits/#Hardware

good luck!

[Mattchu60]

I broke one last year when replacing my carpet - had to drill it out as i could not get to it from underneath (gas tank and bed are in the way). Ended up wrecking the treads when i drilled it - so I had to tap it for new threads, put a grade 8 bolt in, and then also ran a nut on the bottom side (had the cab off a few months later) for extra holding power.

[ivorton74]

Thanks for the info guys. I was searching and found out these trucks used M12 10.9 bolts. I went to the parts store n got some so later I’m going to try to get out the broken ones

[superdav]

This stuff is awesome for stuck bolts