HELP! Broke body bolt

[MSFTMatt]

Installing Rock Hard sliders and on first body bolt, front drivers side, it was going fine. Doing the back/forth technique and it snapped. Now what? I’ve never had great luck with those left hand taps. Any help is greatly appreciated

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[MSFTMatt]

Make that 2. The 2 front ones both sides. I quit.

 

[22EcoDs]

Did you heat them up with a coilgun or torch before trying ?

 

[MSFTMatt]

Torch for about a minute. Woukd stop, reheat, go again, take out a little then turn back in. All the trucks I read about. Both snapped in same place

 

[Wheelin98TJ]

Damn. Are you using an impact?

 

[MSFTMatt]

Nope, it was just a small breaker bar. Makes no sense to me. I wasn't trying to muscle through a sticky section. Every time I started to feel tension, I would tighten it a little and go again. Both times it was moving then...SNAP

 

[22EcoDs]

Gotta be cheap hardware jeeps using on these. There's so many that break.

 

[MSFTMatt]

Its gotta be. I messaged @JeepCares and hopefully they can help me out on this. Maybe even a warranty fix. The other bummer is I am now scared out of my wits to even try any more of the bolts.

 

[THE SANDALORIAN]

What year Gladiator? Wondering if this is an early year issue or later year issue. I've been looking at the same sliders and have been nervous about this exact issue as well.

 

[MSFTMatt]

It's a 2023 JTR. only 3300 miles and have not been off road at all. Live in coastal CA so no salted roads or anything like that.

 

[Idlethunder]

Can't help with the broken bolts but a mini ductor II induction heater helped a lot when I installed my sliders. It was expensive but I was able to sell it and only lost about $30 on the sale. It was well worth the cost not to break a bolt. I watched a few videos of people cutting through the floor or fender well to get to broken bolts and knew I didn't want to do that.

Good luck, hopefully someone will be along soon with a decent option

 

[MSFTMatt]

Thanks man. If dealer tells me to pound sand I'm gonna call some body shops to see if they can remove the broken bolts.

 

[Sweetums]

Well, now I'm terrified to install sliders...

 

[MSFTMatt]

Yeah me too!!!

 

[Camaroboi13]

I did both my wife’s 18 wrangler and her 24 wrangler with no issues. No heat, no sprays, nothing. I used an old school torque wrench with a dial on it. That thing would bend way past whatever the max foot lbs was, but the give in the wrench probably saved me from snapping bolts off. I thought for sure the wrench would snap too. It’s now zeroed in at about 29ft lbs on the dial

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