carver1420

Good afternoon, I just finished up Raptor lining my interior and am re-installing the interior components. I am having a hell of a time with getting the main seat belt bolts back in the whole way. The first 3/4 is no big deal BUT the last half inch is a bear. I damaged a heavy duty socket wrench already. I am thinking I need to use a breaker bar to get more leverage for the final few threads. If anyone has experience with this PLEASE let me know what you recommend or share some best practices. It feels like I almost broke my hand when the socket wrench failed and I slammed my hand against the floor of the jeep. LOL.

OscarMlke

I suspect that the industrial grade Loctite is on the reverse side of the floor mounts. One thing you can do is re-tap the holes.

karls10jk

I've never had an issue through the years of removing the seats after soaking it at Rausch Creek or the Outer Banks. Check to see that your threads are clean and that you've got the seat in straight- that could cause binding. I don't think the loctite is going to be your problem....again- I've not encountered that in 10 years with my 2010 or on my friend's jeeps (a couple 2015's, a 2016, and a few older ones).

resharp001

Believe the OP is talking about the seat BELT bolt guys. That is a real bitch too. That stuff they have on those assemblies at the b-pillar is like no other. I recall removing mine before....stripped the torx heads trying to get em out and that was even with heat. Replaced with grade 8 hex head. My experience seems to be when you're forcing something that much you're just effing it up. I'd remove it, retap/clean up the threads, and use a new bolt. I'd probably put new bolt in first to make sure all is well, then remove and put some red loctite on it before re-inserting.

carver1420

It is the bolt itself. I stripped one getting them out which was difficult in itself. I ordered 4 new bolts to be safe and used that to put in. They were a pain to get out and now being a pain to get back in. I'm not very familiar with re-tapping threads. Is there an easier way to loosen up the residual loctite in left in the inside threads? Maybe PB breaker? Thank you all for the input!!! Side note, the new bolts come with blue loctite on them already.

resharp001

If you have a small torch that is what i'd try. when you heat that stuff up it does make it a bit more pliable. If you don't have a torch, HD/Lowes would have a small butane one over by their limited welding section. If you have a Harbor Frieght around they should have something too. Walmart might even have one in their camping section by the 1lb Coleman propane tanks.

I finally bought a thread chaser kit, and I can't tell you how often I use these suckers. They are great to have -
https://amzn.to/3awQCjr


Makes me think back to why I was removing that before I bedlined my tub. My passenger seat belt had locked up. I had to remove the whole assembly to see what the heck was causing that. Interesting to see that the locking mechanism was just controlled by a little ball bearing and when it move out of it's craddle (when jeep wouldn't be level) the belt locked. I had the tiniest crispy elm tree leaf down in the place the bearing would normally sit and it cause the bearing to be out of place....locking the seat belt permanently. No wonder these seat belts lock up all the time when offroading!

carver1420

Thanks for the link and advice!

resharp001

Was going through some old pictures and ran across this one that I had snapped at the time. Just adding it here for anyone that doesn't know what its controlling the lock on your front seat belts. I had a tiny brittle elm leaf stuck under that ball which caused the seatbelt to remain in a locked state -

Sixty4x4

Resharp has hit the nail on the head. Heat the bolt up with a propane torch, not super hot, then very briefly shove the flame down the thread hole and oil it a bit once it cools a bit. Do up the bolt straight away then it goes in easy and never locks on you. GD manufacturer makes it so tight my air ratchet wouldn't touch them on mine. In the old days we just torqued em up - never needed a lawyer tied to them.

karls10jk

So that little bit of plastic is what locks my seatbelt up when I'm on the dirt roads? It sure feels like it has a better grip on me than that.