Sheared seat belt bolt - advice please

[towe0609]

Bought a dual cab 130 ... has had seat box in back removed and replaced (yes replaced) with a steel tank. Front seat mounts are welded to tank. Tank slightly higher than old seat box. Seat belts stalks now not quite long enough.

Car goes in for roadworthy today and inspection picks me up for one of the buckles not working - in his attempt to pull the stalk further out he has jammed the buckle between the bolts of the single and double seats causing it to not release properly. I manage to get it free.

In an attempt to gain a little extra length, as per middle seat seatbelt mount, I decide to put a spacer under the stalk base - so try to remove bolt. Bolt is very tight, but continues to turn, so I soak in WD40 and stick at it - but it shears off after it was up approx 8mm .

What now?

[Basil135]

Guessing it is a decent sized bolt, so maybe grab a set of Easy Outs.

Drill a hold in the remainder of the bolt, then screw the easy out in, in the reverse direction. They bite into the bolt, and get tighter until they unscrew.

[bee utey]

Guessing it is a decent sized bolt, so maybe grab a set of Easy Outs.

Drill a hold in the remainder of the bolt, then screw the easy out in, in the reverse direction. They bite into the bolt, and get tighter until they unscrew.

Easy outs really only work on bolts that have snapped off due to over tightening or metal fatigue. A rust seized bolt won't come out with an easy out. If the bolt sheared off, putting in an extractor and rotating it expands the bolt even further. The easy out can snap off and make the job triply hard. Snapped off easy outs are the mark of the unexperienced! Far better to centre punch the busted bit, drill it out in stages and re-tap the hole, possible with a bigger thread or a helicoil.

[SimonM]

So how did you go?

I had a similar thing happen but it was the drivers seat belt mount that bolts to the bottom of the door pillar. I am thinking of trying bee uteys method and investing in a helicoil kit.

[lebanon]

I would suggest using a small, sharp flat steel chisel to drive out the screw.

Gouge and punch into the screw head. Do this off center and in the right direction ( counter-clockwise ).

The difficult part is to create a slot to stop the chisel from slipping when tapped.

The tapping will also help loosen the screw.