What is the best way to remove the windsheild hinge bolts?

[Capt Eddie]

I am building a rack for my Jeep TJ and have read some terrible stories about how hard it is to remove the windsheild hinge bolts. I there a good ,better or best way. One person said to drill then out. Is there a nut behind them that you can access to bolt a rack back on? I thought there would be a fixed nut and I just remove the bolt. I'm I wrong?

 

[bob91yj]

There is a "captured" nut in the windshield frame. If it breaks loose you're pretty much sunk. Easiest way I know of to deal with a stripped Torx head on a windshield bolt is to weld a nut to the head and use a regular socket/wrench.

 

[wjeeper]

Drilling them out will only screw up the threads making it impossible to mount the windshield. BAD BAD idea in my book!:Wow1:

For what its worth I just mounted up a rack (like you are thinking) on my 1995 YJ and all of the bolts came out with any drama at all. They did appear to have lock-tite on them. If one doesn't want to come out try some penetrating oil (not sure if it would mess up the paint or not)

If one does break the welding a nut usually seems to work well. The heat from welding the nut on often breaks it free.

 

[JeepN95YJ]

I have rarely been successful here in Ohio removing torx bolts from the body on Jeeps. I always try to use an impact driver to remove them and have about a 70% success ratio.

The easiest way to remove the ones with stripped heads is as Bob suggested and weld a larger nut to the bolt and bring it on out. Takes longer to get out the welder than it does to get the bolt out.

I've drilled them out too and it is fairly easy. I've never ruined threads doing this. The secret is to use a 1/4" bit and drill into the stripped torx to make a nice centering hole. Next, switch to a 1/2" bit and drill off the "cap" of the bolt only. The shaft will still be completely untouched and in the threads. You can grab it with needle nose vise-grips and back it out easily.

 

[nano151]

Lots of penetrating for a few days prior to removal.

This was a roll bar bolt but it should work the same if you don't want to break out the welder. I just carefully drilled out the center using a bit thinner than the bolt diameter. I then grabbed an old allen key and gave it a few taps before using a vise grip to turn the allen key.

 

[Lawrence]

The key is to have a good set of Torx bit and to be perfectly square. If you do that, you will not have issues with your windshield hinges.

 

[computeruser]

2002 TJ, 110k of Michigan roads and salt, and the bolts came out no problem and threads were clean and rust-free. Some LockTite blue was on the upper two bolts on the side of the hinge, nothing on the lower one.

 

[WareAmI]

The key is to have a good set of Torx bit and to be perfectly square. If you do that, you will not have issues with your windshield hinges.

Agreed. I used a cheap torx bit and it stripped immediately. Waited till the next day and got one of my Snap-on bits from work and the rest went smooth. The one bolt I stripped though was the one with the captured nut, which ended up spinning the nut and I had to cut into the back of the windshield frame to get it out. Hated it.

 

[Jp90Talon]

I have used one of these numerous times on the PITA torx bolts including the ones on the windshield frame and they are worth their weight in gold! In fact I just removed 6 bolts on Sat to test fit my combo windsheild gaurd/light brackets/mirror reloc brackets and I got all 6 bolts out without snapping or stripping them.


If you are lucky and they arent already stripped this is the way to go.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00947641000P

On a side not I just want to add from experience that you do not want to try using an impact gun. The first time I attempted to remove some I thought I was set using a nice air impact gun and snap-on torx bits. I ended up snapping one bit and walked what was left in the gun up my paint and my next attempt I actually snapped the bolt itself.

 

[Mexican_Hippie]

The key is to have a good set of Torx bit and to be perfectly square. If you do that, you will not have issues with your windshield hinges.

Ditto, had no drama at all on mine.

 

[TCM]

I took mine out today. All but one needed nothing more than a good turn of the wrench. One bolt however, required a three step process when I could not get it out with the torx bit. First I drilled the center of the bolt for an appropriate sized extractor. Second, I used a 5/16 bit and drilled just enough to remove the head from the bolt. Third, I used the extractor to remove what remained of the bolt in the threaded insert. It took about 15 minutes all in and of course I have to source a replacement bolt now. The threads on the insert were not damaged in any way.