About 10 daysago, I finally got tired of the creaking and groaning every time I put the tailgate down. The final straw was when I had to force it to open. I watched a couple of You Tube videos that were kinda helpful but not enough. I went ahead and ordered via ebay (~$50) the correct rod, a BC3Z-99402A68-B which came in a couple days. Verify that number if you are thinking of doing yours as there were two part numbers.

Time to go to work. No, it WILL NOT pry out as one You Tube noted. Even heat would not budge it. The dang and hidden opposite end block wont let it go from 10 years of life in the rust belt. Even after popping tha screws (8mm heads) out and dropping that block in the hidden recesses of the tailgate only loosened the rod maybe by 1/3rd. I had to drill the pivot end, tap it and jack it out. Phew!!

The new rod was well lubed then slid in place with the flat facing the bottom of the tailgate. Then came reinstalling that retaining block top half. It cannot be done without drilling a 3/4" hole in the tailgate on a flat area immediately above the two retaining screws. The block needs a little bit of filing too to fit. I slid the block down a piece of wire, passed through one of the screw holes, stuck my finger in to hold the block and installed the two retaining screws. If you have bigger fingers, a 1" hole will work as well. That hole is covered by a conduit cover from Home Depot and sprayed with some bed liner.

After that, an easy job to align the rod - I marked mine with a silver Sharpie to show where bottom was - tightened everything up and reinstalled the tailgate on the truck. That tailgate probably takes less effort to operate then when new.

Easy job IF you have any clue as to what it takes to do it. Good luck if you decide it's time to do yours

 

Hey, thanks for posting. I'm struggling to get this old torsion bar out. Wont budge. Tried heat, prying, everything, can't get it to budge. Can you give me more detail on what size tap you used and how exactly you jacked it out?

 

Lots of water has flowed under that bridge in the 3 years since I did that project! Including wrecking that truck last winter, my favorite out of 10 SDs I've owned
This worked for me plus what I said above:
I used a 1/4-20 tap to drill that larger end. You have to be careful as the drill walks. Drill the depth of the cup but not through it (measure twice then drill), tap with a taper then a bottoming tap. Use a Gr 8 bolt and some good spray lube (NOT WD-40). As long as the two screws holding the opposite end retaining block it should come out. That torsion rod will probably be rusted in that block and probably 50% or more rusted through in the middle.

That finger hole I drilled was covered with a conduit box cover from Home Depot. I used J-B Weld to hold permanently in place

 

Thank you @Irelands child ! Brilliant, just had to order a bottoming tap, couldn't find one locally. I'll give this a go! This thing looks rusted in there pretty good, I think I'm going to drill and tap a hole on each side of the end of the torsion rod and crank down 2 bolts on there to try to force it loose. Thank you again for replying to such an old thread, MUCH appreciated.

 

Surprised that you couldn't find a bottoming tap though I generally order taps in a set of 3 - taper/plug/bottoming from McMaster-Carr and occasionally happy that I end up with US made pieces.

I'm guessing that the torsion rod is actually rusted in the retaining block but that block wont fit through the hole at the other end so you still need to break things loose regardless.

Let me know how you make out. I might just pull the one out of my current F150 and give it a paint job to stop the rust. Upstate NY uses lots of salt

 

Well, I failed. Drilled and tapped but the grade 8 hardware I had snapped.

Thought I was for sure going to have to get a new tailgate.

Took it to a local collision shop, assuming I'd need a new tailgate and linex, and 15 minutes later they had the tension rod swapped and tailgate back on the truck.

Tech said they get these all the time, he used an air hammer attachment and angled it at the base of the tension rod just as it comes through the cup on the end of the tailgate. Its the part most videos say you want to try to pry on. I didn't see him actually get it out, so the description he gave is the best I can give.

He charged me an hour labor and I was more than happy to pay the $60. Considering I've probably got like 3-4 hours into trying to remove that damn thing.

 

WOW!!!
I'm sorry that my way didn't work out for you. Mine was absolutely rusted solid but I was able to get that rod out "my way"
Guess I need to look at my current F150 and see if that too will be a problem in the not too distant future