Bed Tie Down Hook Bolts!

[Mgrmax]

So, I was trying to remove the tie down hook bolts and bolt head snapped off. Looks like they used blue lock tight. Feels like red lock tight.

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[stuartmunto]

Yeah, you need to take these bolts out really really slow - even go back and forth to losen up the loctite. I suspect you'll need to have this drilled out and retapped. Looks like it scuffed the bed liner up some too

 

[Mgrmax]

Yeah, you need to take these bolts out really really slow - even go back and forth to losen up the loctite. I suspect you'll need to have this drilled out and retapped. Looks like it scuffed the bed liner up some too

This was SUPER surprising to me. I removed the hooks on my 23 Ranger with no issues. With regards to the bedliner, I sprayed it in myself and it’s an easy touchup. Thanks for the reply!

 

[Deleted member 9086]

Did you use an impact gun? Only way to get them out correctly.???

 

[Mgrmax]

Did you use an impact gun? Only way to get them out correctly.???

I did and they did not budge. Ended up using channel locks to try and get more purchase. When I say these suckers were glued in, it is an understatement. Someone went ham at the factory?

 

[Roverhound]

The part number for the bolts are W505594S450B .
Use a left hand drill to remove the broken bolt. They are a soft grade so they drill pretty easy.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Ford doubled-down on mine by spraying bed liner over them, filling the heads with bed liner turning any future attempt at removal from a task to a project. I can't even tell if they're torx, Philips, square, or what... I guess they're structural now.

 

[Shadow Black Ranger Rapto]

I had a similar experience. Had to hammer torx driver into spray in bedliner from the factory. Three bolts gave up grudgingly, but stripped the head of the fourth. Broke an easy out and resorted to using channel locks. Ugh, shouldn’t have to be that hard…

 

[greaserman]

Why did u remove it for anyway?

 

[UpInTheAir]

Ford doubled-down on mine by spraying bed liner over them, filling the heads with bed liner turning any future attempt at removal from a task to a project. I can't even tell if they're torx, Philips, square, or what... I guess they're structural now.

They're Torx Plus, which I didn't realize was a thing until I removed mine. I replaced all four (from the ARB air compressor install on passenger side) with black oxide stainless bolts that are regular Torx from BelMetric (https://belmetric.com/torx-button-flange-black-stainless-m8x1-25-coarse-iso-7380-2/) for less than the cost of a single OEM bolt from Ford. Tensile strength PSI is lower than a regular carbon steel bolt, but I don't think it should matter for me since I am not using the tie downs all that aggressively.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I did have to chase/clean out the threads before bolting the tie downs back up. They were completely full of loctite, and there was way too much resistance to try to comfortably screw in the new bolts otherwise

 

[telenerd]

What size of torx plus are they? I plan on getting bed molle and don’t wanna fug them up.

 

[UpInTheAir]

What size of torx plus are they? I plan on getting bed molle and don’t wanna fug them up.

Think my regular torx T40 was slightly small for them but mostly worked getting 3 of 4 of them out so probably a Torx Plus T40? Had to use big channel locks to get the last one the rest of the way out.

If you have a spray in bedliner and Ford sprayed over the tie downs like on mine, use a utility knife to score around the bolt heads and tie downs so you can peel the material off and out before trying to unscrew the bolts.

 

[Chugginalong]

I just purchased a 2024 Ranger and the bolts had red lock tight on them. You have to take them out to install the modular bed liner. I heated the bolt to 195 degrees and still couldn't get it out with channel locks. I'm going to try and cut the end of the bolt and then use an bolt extractor. Hope you get yours drilled out. There was no reason to use red lock tight on these. Blue would have been fine.

 

[Mgrmax]

I just purchased a 2024 Ranger and the bolts had red lock tight on them. You have to take them out to install the modular bed liner. I heated the bolt to 195 degrees and still couldn't get it out with channel locks. I'm going to try and cut the end of the bolt and then use an bolt extractor. Hope you get yours drilled out. There was no reason to use red lock tight on these. Blue would have been fine.

I tried the screw extractor like Roverhound suggested and it didn’t budge. Probably going to drill it out and retap. Nothing like drilling into a new truck. This is becoming annoying…

 

[Chugginalong]

mgrmax, Sorry to hear you're gonna have to retap it as there isn't much meat in the metal there. I finally dremaled a rectangle head on it and then used a 13mm wrench on it. With some patience I finally got it out.

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