just push up hard on it and it will catch. they have retaines that are thin metal and some times it just takes some hard upward pressure

 

This.

I had one that was tough and thought about running the impact on it but some hard upward pressure on it did the trick. Good luck

 

Harbor Freight impact wrench and done. had a tricky one even with imact wrench but pushed up on it and she went too

 

I tried my impact and tried using full force upward pressure, even tried pulling down with a string while screwing in. I think I'm either down to cutting open the body from the inside or stealership... Thanks for the help though

 

When I installed mine I needed to use an impact wrench after carefully started the thread manualy.

 

So, the captive nut was stripped when the bolt was removed. I ended up cutting a 2 inch hole in the floor pan from inside.

Then reamed out the captive nut and threading a 5 inch grade 8 bolt through the hole and putting on a new washer and nut.

I will add some pictures later so that if it happens to someone else they can have a guide to help.

 

Pictures would be great. Would like to know exactly how ya fixed it.

 

Removed driver side base trim and pulled back carpet. Measured 5 inches in from the door and 10 inches up toward the front of the Jeep from door hinge for my bolt location. Measure five times, cut once. Used a 2 inch circle bit to cut out 90% of hole. I left it attached at the top to act as a hinge. Once exposed I could verify that the threads were in fact stripped. I then used my cordless impact to run the original bolt through the captive nut to remove any remaining threads.

I then purchased a new grade 8 bolt that is 1/2" longer than factory, along with grade 8 washers and nut. I then just dropped in the new bolt through the reamed out captive nut and tightened.




Sprayed bed liner inside and out side of the hole in the body to prevent rust. Now instead of welding or using JB weld to close the hole, I actually applied a stainless steel plate covered in electrical tape (to prevent rattles) over the hole and taped it down with HVAC metal tape. That way I can retighten or remove for resale at a later time.





Finished product. Absoluty positive that there are better ways to do this. But in a pinch it worked for me.