I am trying to remove the 60/40 seats from my 98 ext cab. Problem is the 2 front ones on the drivers side and 2 back ones on the passenger side are not coming loose. I tried spraying wd40 everyday for a week, then tried brake fluid...nothing, even the impact gun will not budge them.I am trying not to spoil the carpet with too much fluid and cannot see where the end is under the cab. Has anyone used a breaker bar, I'm afraid that I will snap the bolts if I use one? If they snap off how hard is it to remove and replace them??????????????

cheers,
John

 

if they are that tight to remove now, if they break they are going to be just that much more difficult. they should stick out the bottom of the truck. i would go back under and look. if you can find them, a torch would be your next best bet.

 

i used a small breaker bar on mine because they were tight and i used kroil oil. but all the bolts do stick out the bottom of the cab.

 

if nothing else, or they break, i would drill out the cores as much as possible and just run a tap through the hole to chase the threads. if you have a small machine shop near by im sure they may take care of that issue quick and simple, and they may be able to just give you some good advise to do it yourself. just head down to the bolt depot and pick up some new hardware

 

I'll try a different lub and a breaker bar...worst can happen is I break the bolt. I have looked under the cab and there is no sign of the front bolts coming out the bottom. I did notice that the rear once come thru but are in a cab channel...you can see the holes of the outer back one if you look in the end of the channel about 2 in.

John

 

use that with torch end on the top of the can and heat it up until the bolt head is red....it will come out smooth and you wont break it. i've done it multiple times on different things....heat FTW

 

Yes, but I have carpet under that bolt....will the heat burn the carpet???

John

 

you would want to heat them from the bottom.

 

try pb balster on the back side of the bolts. let it sit over night and try the next day. heat is usually needed when bolts are LOK TITE 'd down. i dont think the seat bolts are lok tite'd, none of the other torques bolts are

 

heat also helps rusted bolts if you can heat the part that it is stuck in. such as if you could heat the threads in the floor this causes the threads to expand losening its grip on the bolt making it easier to turn. but if you get the bolt to hot the bolt starts to expand and it could not losen at all or break.

 

X2, don’t use heat unless the mat/carpet has been removed or peeled back, just me.

PB Blaster is great stuff but give it a chance to work and as stated top and bottom when spraying the stuff.

Do you have Hex or Torx Head Bolts ?

tip...
Hex Head - use a six point socket and make sure to bear down in the head areas to keep the socket/wrench on the head.

Torx Heads - If you don’t have a new bit, get one. Again on the pressure, it is even more important to keep the bit all the way in the Head and as square as possible.

 

Personally I would just get a big breaker bar on it and snap those ****ers off. You are taking the seats ou anyways, what's another 30 minutes to drill and tap the holes and put in fresh hardware? I would replace everything with normal bolts and washers

 

And a little anti-seize on the threads would be a good idea too... Just make sure you go back and retighten the bolts in a few days

 

mine were tough to get off but i was luckily able to get it some leverage. good luck with it.

 

If all else fails and you have access to a impact hammer with a chisel point. Use the chisel to cut a notch in the head and try to spin them out with the impact from the air hammer.
Sometimes just the hammering will loosen up the rust and let you spin them out with the impact or breaker bar

 

mine were being stubborn, so I used pb blaster and a massive breaker bar lol. impact wouldnt budge them. but the breaker did the job.